NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission, seen in this visualization, contributed to NASA’s understanding of the region that borders between Earth’s atmosphere and space. Credit: NASA After…
Category: Planetary Science
First US moon lander in half a century stops working a week after tipping over at touchdown
This image provided by Intuitive Machines shows a view from the Odysseus lunar lander made with a fisheye lens on Feb. 22, 2024. Before its power was depleted, Odysseus sent…
Astronomers reveal a new link between water and planet formation
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Researchers have found water vapor in the disk around a young star exactly where planets may be forming. Water is a key ingredient for life on…
Webb finds dwarf galaxies reionized the universe
Astronomers estimate 50,000 sources of near-infrared light are represented in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Their light has traveled through various distances to reach the telescope’s…
China names its capsule and lander for its upcoming human lunar missions
Credit: CC0 Public Domain In a recent announcement, the Chinese Space Agency (CSA) unveiled the names for its forthcoming lunar mission components. The CSA have been working toward sending humans…
ERS-2 buckles and bends during final farewell
Credit: Fraunhofer FHR Following a hugely successful mission and almost 30 years in orbit, ESA’s ERS-2 reentered Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC) on 21 February 2024. Predicting…
Private US spacecraft is on its side on the moon with some antennas covered up, the company says
On Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 the Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander captures a wide field of view image of Schomberger crater on the Moon approximately 125 miles (200 km) uprange…
How we could snoop on extraterrestrial communications networks
A 3-pulsar navigation system for an ET civilization. Credit: Ross Davis (2022) The conditions for life throughout the universe are so plentiful that it seems reasonable to presume there must…