Scientists have used data from a long-retired NASA Dawn spacecraft to solve the mystery surrounding the origins of the strange dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres currently resides in the main asteroid…
Category: Astronomy
NASA’s New Horizons probe gives us best estimate of deep space’s darkness
Space looks black, but just how dark is it? It’s a deceptively simple question that has puzzled astronomers since the 1960s. Now, thanks to data from NASA’s New Horizons probe,…
The biggest galaxies live in our universe’s supercluster ‘cities’
If we took a scenic drive through every era of astronomy, we’d start somewhere among ancient humans wondering why there are stationary fireflies stuck in the sky. We’d travel through…
SpaceX will start launching Starships to Mars in 2026, Elon Musk says
SpaceX’s Starship megarocket will start flying Mars missions just two years from now, if all goes according to plan. “These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact…
See Saturn at its biggest and brightest tonight before its rings ‘disappear’ in 2025
Saturn will reach opposition this weekend when the ringed planet and the sun are directly opposite of each other in the sky. Just after midnight tonight, Saturn will appear at…
BepiColombo probe captures stunning Mercury images in closest flyby yet
The BepiColombo Mercury probe made a flyby of its ultimate destination on Wednesday, capturing superb images of the planet’s crater-covered crust. The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft, which launched in 2018,…
Lucky alignment of 2 spacecraft reveals how solar wind gets a magnetic push
Our sun is far from the smooth, unvarying ball of light we see in the sky. Up close, its “surface” rumbles with powerful eddies that routinely burp superheated material into…
How we could warm Mars
Ever since learning the surface of the planet Mars is cold and dead, scientists have wondered if there was a way to make it friendlier to life. A team including…
Work Is Under Way on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter
NASA’s new asteroid-hunting spacecraft is taking shape at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor) is a cutting-edge infrared space telescope that seeks out…
Watching Salsa’s reentry live from the sky
The team needs a fixed time and a location to prepare the airborne observation experiment. A controlled reentry would make that a breeze, but Cluster was not designed with this…
