The H3 Launch Vehicle No. 5, carrying the Quasi-Zenith Satellite “Michibiki No. 6,” lifts off at a launch pad in Tanegashima Space Center in Tanegashima, southern Japan, Sunday Feb. 2,…
Category: Planetary Science
What we know so far
On 27 December last year, astronomers using the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile discovered a small asteroid moving away from Earth. Follow-up observations have revealed that the asteroid, 2024 YR4,…
Are we all aliens? NASA’s returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world
This image provided by NASA shows a top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample inside. Credit: NASA via…
Surprising signatures in WASP-121b’s dynamic atmosphere challenge understanding of how ‘roasting marshmallows’ form
Artist impression of a hot Jupiter Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. Zamani Nearly one third of known exoplanets are enormous gas giants, similar to Jupiter or Saturn. But whereas…
Testing tech in lava tubes for future space exploration
DLR’s SCOUT Rover is designed to explore the complex terrain of lava tubes. Credit: Roy Lichtenheldt, DLR What does an ancient lava tube in the Canary Islands have in common…
How well could Earth life survive on exoplanets?
This table from the research shows the planetary and stellar characteristics used in the GCM simulations. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2501.05297 Next, they considered whether Earth microbes could survive in…
SpaceX mission to return US astronauts to happen ‘soon’: Trump
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Elon Musk’s company SpaceX will “soon” begin a…
SpaceX checks off launch No. 9 from Florida’s Space Coast
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain After a week of nasty weather across Florida, the business of launching rockets got back on track Monday afternoon. A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at…
Microgravity in space may cause cancer, but mimicking weightlessness could help researchers develop treatments
Credit: Pixabay from Pexels As space travel gains traction and astronauts spend increasing amounts of time in space, studying its effects on health has become increasingly critical. Is space travel…
A recent fast radio burst calls into question what astronomers believed they knew
The location of the fast radio burst, indicated by the oval outlines, is on the outskirts of a massive elliptical galaxy, the yellow oval at right. Credit: Gemini Observatory Astronomer…
