On Mars, some 120 million miles away in space right now, anything that isn’t another version of dusty red stands out like a sore thumb. That’s how the Perseverance rover, a lab on wheels about the size of a Mini Cooper, spotted an unusual rock with black and white zebra …
Read More »Earth only has one moon. Next week that won't be true.
Astronomers have discovered that Earth’s large, ever-looming moon is about to get company. Beginning on Sunday, the planet will capture an asteroid sailing nearby, drawing it in for one loop around Earth before making its exit on Nov. 25. When it leaves, it will continue its trajectory around the sun. …
Read More »Webb telescope is about to home in on these 2 exoplanets. Here's why.
The James Webb Space Telescope will soon begin a massive study of rocky worlds outside the solar system, specifically to discover if planets orbiting closely to small cool stars could have air. Scientists plan to start with LTT 1445 Ac and GJ 3929 b, and though those exoplanets might not …
Read More »NASA ventured into the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, a forbidding land
Imposing bears teem in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. But few dare enter its Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. In 1912, a volcano was born here. It erupted for nearly three days. Its ominous ash clouds left the town of Kodiak, 100 miles away, in profound darkness, nearly obscuring …
Read More »NASA's flying to an ocean world. Its spacecraft is giant.
A NASA probe, the length of a basketball court, is headed to the tantalizing world Europa. Planetary scientists are confident this moon of Jupiter harbors a deep ocean. A looming question is whether it hosts the ingredients and conditions to support life. With around 50 close flybys of the planet, …
Read More »NASA's Mars rovers had a gangbusters summer of rocks
This summer NASA‘s two car-sized labs exploring Mars each discovered rocks that neither mission had seen before, revealing a more diverse history for the planet than previously thought. Three major findings happened within the span of seven weeks. The Curiosity rover, which has been climbing a mountain of layered rock, …
Read More »Scientists find powerful window into the extreme reaches of space
There are funhouse mirrors in space. Objects in the universe can be so massive — often clusters of galaxies — that they warp the cosmos, like a bowling ball sitting on a mattress. This creates a curved cosmic lens, bending and distorting light, while also magnifying and brightening the light. …
Read More »Webb telescope reveals a bridge between 2 galaxies after big collision
Two galaxies are merging in the deep cosmos. And the James Webb Space Telescope just captured a vivid view of the scene. The interacting galaxies, called Arp 107, collided hundreds of millions of years ago, and a bridge of stars has formed between them as they undergo the long, gradual …
Read More »NASA rover peers up at space, sees strange Mars moon and distant Earth
Robotic Martians can see blue Earth in Mars‘ sky. The Curiosity rover, a car-sized NASA robot looking to find evidence of past habitability on the Red Planet, recently snapped an image of Mars’ misshapen moon, Phobos, and Earth next to each other. “It’s the first time an image of the …
Read More »We've reached a record number of humans in space, NASA announces
Crew onboard the Russian Soyuz capsule, a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) that took place on Sept. 11, became record-breaking space residents this week, as humanity waves up to the now 19 humans living and working in space. It’s the largest group living in space concurrently in history. …
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