Scientists use drone to map Icelandic cave in preparation for Mars exploration
Researchers from the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and Astrobotic Technology have demonstrated a way that astronauts may be able to map Martian caves using a Lidar-equipped drone that can travel autonomously without GPS. The first field test was successful.
Bad news: Neutralizing doomsday asteroids is way harder than we thought
If reality ever follows Hollywood movies like Armageddon or Deep Impact and a chunk of space debris comes hurling toward our planet, then we're in trouble. New evidence from computing modeling shows that asteroids are even tougher and harder to destroy than we previously thought.
Ninja-like black hole discovered gobbling up a gas cloud 25,000 light-years away
How do you find something you can't see? Japanese astronomers have hunted a hidden black hole by observing the movement of a cloud of gas it is consuming, located 25,000 light-years away from Earth. This is the first intermediate-sized black hole ever found, giving clues to how black holes merge and grow.
See the beautiful first image captured by a new telescope in the Chilean desert
The SPECULOOS project, part of the European Southern Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile, is the site of four robotic telescopes named after Jupiter's moons which are used for planet hunting. Now the Ganymede telescope has obtained its first light image, showing the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6902.
Space tourism company Virgin Galactic sends passenger into space for first time
Though SpaceX is the big name in the field, it's not the only company planning to make tourists trips into space a reality. Virgin Galactic has also been working on a project to take private passengers outside of Earth's atmosphere, and this week it sent its first passenger into sub-space.
Virgin Galactic completes another test flight, this time with a passenger
Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses rode the company's spacecraft as a passenger on Friday, a key milestone towards commercial availability of the flights later this year. Moses rode along to test "cabin design elements," the company says.
NASA’s space observatory will map the sky with unprecedented detail
NASA is preparing to launch a cutting-edge space observatory to create the most detailed map ever produced of the sky. Doing so will involve surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies -- some of which are so far away that their light takes 10 billion years to reach Earth.
NASA to launch SPHEREx mission to investigate the origins of our universe
NASA is launching an ambitious mission to map the entire sky in order to understand the origins of the universe. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission will launch in 2023 and is planned to last for two years.
Virgin Galactic donates record-breaking SpaceShipTwo rocket to the Smithsonian
Private space company Virgin Galactic recently donated the record-breaking rocket motor of SpaceShipTwo — aka VSS Unity — to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The rocket powered Unity to the edge of space at almost three times the speed of sound in a test mission on December 13, 2018.
Ultima Thule’s peculiar shape is a puzzle for scientists
Ultima Thule, the farthest object ever explored, has yet more mysteries to reveal. Forget the debates about whether it is looks most like a snowman or more like Star Wars' BB-8 -- NASA scientists have revealed that it is even more oddly shaped than previously thought, with two uneven non-spherical lobes.
New technique could allow astronomers to send messages through the void of space
What do you do when you really want to send a message, but your smartphone just isn’t up to the job? Simple: You vibrate space itself so as to harness it as a communication method. At least, that's one method of future space communication put forward by researchers in a new paper.
Boeing’s astronaut taxi is a go, will launch a test flight next month
Boeing had problems with the development of their spacecraft, the Starliner, when a propellant leak occurred during testing last year. But now the craft is ready for its first test flight, according to Boeing. Eventually the craft will ferry astronauts from Earth to the International Space Station.
See our galactic neighbor, the orderly Triangulum galaxy, in high definition
Take some time out of your day to ooh and ahh at the beauty of the universe - Hubble has shared another stunning image of a nearby galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope has produced a gorgeous high resolution image of the Triangulum galaxy (M33), made up of 25 million viewable stars.
Where did Titan’s thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere come from?
There's a mystery about Titan, Saturn's largest moon, that has been puzzling astronomers - where did its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere come from? Titan is the only moon in our Solar System to have such a thick atmosphere. A new study posits it is generated by the cooking of organic materials in the moon's core.
Could satellites be 3D-printed in order to reduce space junk?
Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about space junk -- the detritus orbiting around our planet left over from artificially created space objects. Now a researcher at MIT's Media Lab has spoken out about how satellite design could be improved to reduce space junk and make construction cheaper.
Blue Origin’s latest mission shows how space tourism might look
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket company is aiming to launch a space tourism service, and on Wednesday its latest successful test mission gave us a look at how the thrilling 10-minute ride might look. The mission also carried with it eight NASA-sponsored R&D experiments that activated during the flight.
Saturn didn’t always have rings, according to new analysis of Cassini data
Saturn's rings are younger than previously believed, according to new data gathered from the Cassini mission. Cassini took a loop between the planet and its rings acting as a gravity probe and found that the rings are certainly less than 100 million years old and perhaps as young as 10 million years old.
How long is a day on Saturn? Scientists finally have an answer
How long is a day on Saturn? This figure was hard to calculate because the gas giant does not have a solid surface and a magnetic field makes the rate of rotation hard to see. But now scientists have used data from Cassini to pin down a final answer: a day is ten hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds long.
Glowing space billboards could show ads in the night sky
Look up at the night sky in 2020 and you might see an ad for McDonald's floating among the stars. A startup is planning to use a constellation of tiny satellites to create glowing ads. The satellites would light up different messages for up to six minutes at a time at about 250 miles above Earth.
Scientists debate mysterious flash of light in space, known as ‘The Cow’
On June 16, 2018 there was an unusual flash in the sky which puzzled astronomers around the world. NASA researchers have collected data on the event and have shared two competing theories for what could have caused it: a black hole shredding a white dwarf, or a supernova giving birth to a neutron star.
Dark matter heats up and moves around in dwarf galaxies during star formation
The exact nature of dark matter is one of the enduring questions of physics, as it is difficult to identify and has many mysterious manifestations. Now a team from the University of Surrey, UK, have discovered that dark matter can be heated up and moved around due to star formation within galaxies.
Nearby dwarf galaxy will collide with Milky Way, awaken black hole at its heart
In two billion years' time our galaxy will collide with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the brightest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way which currently sits around 163,000 light-years from us, waking the dormant black hole at the heart of our galaxy and causing it to devour nearby gases and grow.
Artificial soil made from lava rock allows growing of food in space
New research has succeeded in growing plants in high-tech planters which use artificial soil made from lava rock. The planters regulate the water, nutrients, gas, and air that plants require and record the ways that plants adapt to conditions similar to those in space such as low levels of nitrogen.
Why are there no hot Neptunes? Atmospheric escape could be the culprit
For unknown reasons, there is an notable absence of planets the size of Neptune which lie close to their respective stars. New research suggests that this may be due to atmospheric escape: the loss of atmospheric gases like hydrogen into space because of the energy of nearby stars.
Ancient ‘fossil cloud’ could shed light on formation of the early universe
A fossilized cloud of gas that may be left over from the Big Bang has been discovered by researchers using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory. The distant cloud is one of only three known fossil clouds in the universe, and could provide valuable information about the formation of the earliest galaxies.
Researchers find a way to ‘see’ dark matter
Two astronomers have come up with a method to "see" dark matter by looking at the distribution of starlight in galaxy clusters. They used data from the Hubble telescope to look at a faint source of light called intracluster light, which is believed to be distributed in the same locations as dark matter.
Research into how plants respond to microgravity could help grow food in space
One challenge to making long-distance space travel viable is how to feed astronauts. A difficulty with growing plants during spaceflight is that they behave strangely in space, and we are not sure why. Now researchers have made a breakthrough in understanding this process.
InSight lander successfully places its seismometer onto the surface of Mars
Another update from the surface of Mars, as NASA's InSight lander has successfully deployed its first instrument onto the planet's surface. This week the lander placed its copper-colored seismometer onto the ground in front of it from where it can gather data about vibrations deep within the planet.
‘Hippo-shaped’ asteroid to fly close to Earth this Christmas
This Christmas, an unusual visitor will be swinging through our Solar System: an asteroid shaped like a hippo. The 2003 SD220 asteroid will pass close to Earth this weekend, coming as close as 1.8 million miles from our planet. This events marks the asteroid's closest approach in more than 400 years.
Beautiful image of young planets sheds new light on planet formation
Researchers have been examining data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile on protoplanetary disks -- the belts of dust that eventually form planets. And they have shared fascinating images of the planets from their survey, showing the various stages of planet formation.
Say cheese: InSight lander posts a selfie from the surface of Mars
NASA's InSight mission to Mars has commemorated its arrival by posting a selfie. The selfie is a composite of 11 different images which were taken by one of its instruments, the Instrument Deployment Camera. The individual images were stitched together to show the lander in its full glory.
Parker Solar Probe captures first image from within the atmosphere of the sun
NASA has shared the first image from inside the atmosphere of the sun taken by the Parker Solar Probe. The probe made the closest ever approach to a star, gathering data which scientists have been interpreting and released this week. The probe reached a record-breaking speed of 213,200 miles per hour.
Virgin Galactic’s latest test flight takes it to the edge of space
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has successfully carried out its fourth powered flight in Mojave, California. The flight took the company’s VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane to the edge of space. It was the company's most ambitious test flight yet -- and bodes well for the future.
China to launch the first mission to the far side of the moon
China plans to launch a spacecraft to the far side of the moon this month. The Chang’e-4 spacecraft is scheduled to take off from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan on December 8 carrying a lander and rover, which will touch down on the lunar surface.