Rendering of VASIMR in flight around Mars. Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company Propulsion technologies are the key to exploring the outer solar system, and many organizations have been working on…
Category: Planetary Science
Astronomers discover more dark comets
This artist’s concept shows interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) after its discovery in 2017. While itself not a dark comet, ‘Oumuamua’s motion through the solar system has helped researchers better…
Study proposes a test for the Anthropic Principle
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Multiverse.png. Credit: Silver Spoon The Anthropic Principle—stating that the universe we live in is fine-tuned to host life—was first proposed by Brandon Carter in 1973. Since then, it has sparked…
Space station trajectory data now available
The long exposure photograph taken by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick shows star trails, streaks of city lights, and two Roscosmos crew ships, the Soyuz MS-26 docked to the Rassvet module…
The moon’s biggest and most ancient crater is more circular than previously thought
A topographic model of the moon using a color-scale from purple (low) to red (high) based on data collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Kaguya by the Japanese Space…
Citizen scientist data help uncover the mysteries of a blue low-latitude aurora
One of the two photographs that captured blue-dominant aurora and were analyzed in this study. Credit: Takuya Usami Colorful auroras appeared around Japan’s Honshu and Hokkaido islands on May 11,…
Dynamic tracking technique can reduce noise in gravitational-wave detectors to peer deeper into the cosmos
The proof-of-concept experiment demonstrates the potential of dynamic tracking in larger-scale systems, such as gravitational-wave observatories. Credit: Olivia Crowell, Louisiana State University Researchers have shown that optical spring tracking is…
Five space mysteries Proba-3 will help solve
+Proba-3 will provide new views of the Sun and space weather. Credit: European Space Agency ESA’s Proba-3 will be the first mission to create an artificial total solar eclipse by…
