China's Mars rover finds signs of recent water in sand dunes

Water may be more widespread and recent on Mars than previously thought, based on observations of Martian sand dunes by China's rover.

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What is the Fluidic Telescope?

The Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) project team, jointly led by NASA and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, envisions a way to make huge circular self-healing mirrors in-orbit to further the field of astronomy. Larger telescopes collect more light, and they allow astronomers to peer farther into space and see distant objects in greater detail.

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Out of gas in orbit? This US space company is here to help

The US company Orbit Fab is aiming to produce the go-to "gas stations" in space, its CEO tells AFP, hoping its refueling technology will make the surging satellite industry more sustainable—and profitable.

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Could quantum fluctuations in the early universe enhance the creation of massive galaxy clusters?

Astrophysicists have been trying to understand the formation of cosmological objects and phenomena in the universe for decades. Past theoretical studies suggest that quantum fluctuations in the early universe, known as primordial quantum diffusion, could have given rise to so-called primordial black holes.

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Hakuto-R spacecraft just captured its own stunning version of 'Earthrise'

The Hakuto-R lunar lander, currently in orbit around the moon, just captured a beautiful "Earthrise"-like image, and one with an interesting side note. The Mission 1 lander, from the Tokyo-based commercial company ispace, took the image during the time of the April 20 solar eclipse, where totality was visible in Australia; and so the photo includes a perfect view of the shadow of the moon passing above the Land Down Under.

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Severe solar storm creates dazzling auroras farther south

An intense solar storm has the northern lights gracing the skies farther south than usual.

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Webb reveals early-universe prequel to huge galaxy cluster

Every giant was once a baby, though you may never have seen them at that stage of their development. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has begun to shed light on formative years in the history of the universe that have thus far been beyond reach: the formation and assembly of galaxies.

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Astronomers explore multiple stellar populations in Messier 92

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers from the University of Padua, Italy, and elsewhere have observed a metal-poor globular cluster known as Messier 92. The observations deliver crucial information regarding multiple stellar populations in this cluster. Results were published April 12 on the arXiv pre-print server.

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Giant SpaceX rocket leaves crater, serious damage at Texas base

Flying chunks of concrete, twisted metal sheets, craters blasted deep into the ground: the thunderous power of SpaceX's first test flight of Starship—the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built—inflicted serious damage on its Texas launch site.

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New look at 'Einstein rings' around distant galaxies just got us closer to solving the dark matter debate

Physicists believe most of the matter in the universe is made up of an invisible substance that we only know about by its indirect effects on the stars and galaxies we can see.

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'Awesome' solar eclipse wows viewers in Australia, Indonesia

Under a cloudless sky, 20,000 eclipse chasers crowded a tiny outpost to watch a rare solar eclipse plunge part of Australia's northwest coast into brief midday darkness Thursday while temporarily cooling the tropical heat.

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Clouds for your eclipse? NASA experiment will fly kite to rise above

Imagine you traveled thousands of miles to see a total solar eclipse, but as the Moon began moving in front of the Sun, the sky grows cloudy, blocking your view of the unique celestial spectacle.

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Looking for potential radio technosignatures from extragalactic sources

It has been more than sixty years since Dr. Frank Drake (father of the Drake Equation) and his colleagues mounted the first Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) survey. This was known as Project Ozma, which relied on the "Big Ear" radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Greenbank, West Virginia, to look for signs of radio transmissions in Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. Despite the many surveys conducted since then, no definitive evidence of technological activity (i.e., "technosignatures") has been found.

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Humans have been predicting eclipses for thousands of years, but it's harder than you might think

The coastal town of Exmouth in Western Australia is due to experience one of the most spectacular astronomical phenomena on April 20 2023—a total solar eclipse.

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Tiny magnetic episodes may have large consequences on the sun

ESA's Solar Orbiter may have taken another step towards solving the eighty-year-old mystery of why the sun's outer atmosphere is so hot.

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SpaceX Starship, world's biggest rocket, set for first test flight

SpaceX is counting down to the first test flight on Monday of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars and beyond.

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What to know about 1st test flight of SpaceX's big Starship

Elon Musk's SpaceX is about to take its most daring leap yet with a round-the-world test flight of its mammoth Starship.

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Kenya deploys first earth observation satellite into space

Kenya's first earth observation satellite was launched into space Saturday after two aborted attempts earlier in the week.

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Europe's Jupiter probe set for new launch attempt

The European Space Agency's JUICE mission to explore Jupiter's icy, ocean-bearing moons will again try to blast off on Friday, a day after the first launch attempt was called off due to the threat of lightning.

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Weather delays launch of Europe's Jupiter mission by 24 hours (Update)

The launch of the European Space Agency's JUICE mission, which aims to discover whether Jupiter's icy moons are capable of hosting extraterrestrial life, was postponed on Thursday for 24 hours due to bad weather.

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How the world's oldest known meteorite impact structure changed the chemistry of Earth's crust

Meteorite impacts can be cataclysmic events in the history of a planet, melting rock, changing atmospheric chemistry, and wreaking general havoc.

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How different were galaxies in the early universe?

An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting the "cosmic dawn"—the era after the Big Bang when stars first ignited and galaxies began to bloom.

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S Korea to conduct 1st launch of commercial-grade satellite

South Korea plans to conduct its first launch of a commercial-grade satellite aboard a domestically built rocket next month as part of its space development program, officials said Tuesday.

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Heart experiments to help astronauts live better in space

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are hard at work on research guided by students and researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Historic nebula seen like never before with Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer

On Feb. 22, 1971, a sounding rocket lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with specialized sensors aimed at the Crab Nebula, a bright cosmic object 6,500 light-years away. In those days, before recovering physical tapes from the experiment, scientists first received scientific data on a strip chart recorder, a device that printed signals on paper. Astronomer Martin Weisskopf and his colleagues began their analysis on launch day by measuring the distance between signals using a ruler and pencil.

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Astronomers investigate X-ray spectral variability of active galaxy NGC 7582

Using ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR space telescopes, astronomers have observed a nearby active galaxy known as NGC 7582. Results of the observational campaign, published March 30 on the arXiv pre-print server, shed more light on the X-ray spectral variability of NGC 7582's active galactic nucleus (AGN).

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A strange streak of young stars is evidence of a runaway supermassive black hole, study finds

Astronomers have spotted a candidate supermassive black hole running away from its home galaxy, hurtling through space at a velocity of about 4 million miles per hour for the past 39 million years.

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Researchers confirm a new forming planet

A study led by Monash University astronomers published new near-infrared images of the system HD 169142, which enabled the confirmation of a protoplanet forming in the system.

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Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy, seeks buyer

Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company founded by Richard Branson, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will sell the business, the firm said in a statement Tuesday.

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1st moon crew in 50 years includes woman, Black astronaut

NASA on Monday named the four astronauts who will fly around the moon late next year, including the first woman and the first African American assigned to a lunar mission.

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SN 2019odp is a massive oxygen-rich Type Ib supernova, study finds

An international team of astronomers has conducted follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations of a supernova designated SN 2019odp. Results of the observational campaign, published March 24 on the arXiv pre-print server, indicate that SN 2019odp is a massive and oxygen-rich supernova of Type Ib.

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NASA to reveal crew for 2024 flight around the Moon

NASA is to reveal the names on Monday of the astronauts—three Americans and a Canadian—who will fly around the Moon next year, a prelude to returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time in a half century.

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New source of water found in moon samples from China mission

Scientists have discovered a new and renewable source of water on the moon for future explorers in lunar samples from a Chinese mission.

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Perseverance rover collects first Mars sample of new science campaign

NASA's Perseverance rover cored and stored the first sample of the mission's newest science campaign on Thursday, March 30. With each campaign, the team explores and studies a new area. On this one, the rover is exploring the top of Jezero Crater's delta. Perseverance has collected a total of 19 samples and three witness tubes, and it recently deposited 10 tubes as a backup cache on the Martian surface as part of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign.

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NOAA's GOES-U satellite completes pre-launch acoustics tests

GOES-U, the fourth and final satellite in NOAA's GOES-R Series, recently completed acoustics testing as part of a rigorous testing program to ensure it can withstand the harsh conditions of launch and orbiting in space 22,236 miles above Earth.

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