An artist’s concept of the famous Wolf-Rayet 104 “pinwheel star,” previously nicknamed the “Death Star.” New research conducted from Maunakea, Hawaiʻi using three Keck Observatory instruments reveals the orbit of…
Category: Space
Why NASA’s Starliner astronauts spent 9 months in space on a 10-day mission: A timeline
NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams are finally headed back to Earth. The duo launched to the International Space Station (ISS) last June on the first-ever crewed…
How climate change could make Earth’s space junk problem even worse
Growing concentrations of greenhouse gases are making the upper atmosphere thinner, decreasing its ability to pull space junk out of orbit. As a result, far fewer satellites will be able…
NASA’s stuck astronauts welcome their newly arrived replacements to the space station
This image made from video by NASA shows astronauts Don Pettit, bottom center, hugging Kirill Peskov as astronauts greet each other after a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space…
Arctic ice is melting faster than expected — and the culprit could be dust
NASA’s most ambitious Arctic voyage to date has revealed surprisingly high concentrations of ice particles in clouds over Greenland, a clue that may help explain why Arctic ice is melting…
Crew launch to ISS paves way for ‘stranded’ astronauts’ return
This screengrab image from NASA’s live broadcast shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida bound for the…
Musk says Starship to depart for Mars at end of 2026
Starship (pictured during a test flight) — the world’s largest and most powerful rocket — is key to Elon Musk’s long-term vision of colonizing Mars. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said…
4 rocky exoplanets found around Barnard’s Star, one of the sun’s nearest neighbors
Scientists have confirmed the existence of four small, rocky planets orbiting Barnard’s Star — the second closest star system to Earth — using a specialized instrument on the mighty Gemini…
Atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits
This image shows AWE data combined from two of the instrument’s passes over the United States. The red and orange wave-structures show increases in brightness (or radiance) in infrared light…
