The Ominous Chamaeleon I dark cloud. Credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA; Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage / NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani &…
Category: Planetary Science
Space storm capture advances coronal mass ejection research
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Local weather alerts are familiar warnings for potentially dangerous conditions, but an alert that puts all of Earth on warning is rare. On May 31, the…
Core components for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope pass major shake test
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center The core portion of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully completed vibration testing, ensuring it will withstand the extreme shaking experienced during…
Astronomers thought the Milky Way was doomed to crash into Andromeda. Now they’re not so sure
For years, astronomers have predicted a dramatic fate for our galaxy: a head-on collision with Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor. This merger—expected in about 5 billion years—has become a…
Milky Way’s chance of colliding with galaxy billions of years from now? New study puts odds at 50-50
In this combination of images from NASA/ESA shows three future scenarios for Milky Way & Andromeda encounter. Top left: Galaxies bypass at 1 million light-year separation. Top right: At 500,000…
Mars Odyssey orbiter captures volcano peeking above morning cloud tops
Arsia Mons, an ancient Martian volcano, was captured before dawn on May 2, 2025, by NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter while the spacecraft was studying the Red Planet’s atmosphere, which…
Private lunar lander from Japan falls silent while attempting a moon touchdown
This image taken from video shows flight controllers at ispace Mission Control in Tokyo awaiting confirmation of their private lunar lander touching down on the moon Friday, June 6, 2025.…
Private Japanese lunar lander heads toward a touchdown in the moon’s far north
This image provided by ispace, inc. shows the Resilience lander circling the moon, Wednesday June 4, 2025. Credit: ispace, inc. via AP A private lunar lander from Japan is closing…
‘Crazy idea’ about cooling effects of Pluto’s haze confirmed by new Webb data
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this image of Pluto’s surface shrouded in atmospheric haze. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI The first observations of Pluto by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal dramatic…
