Why the Search for Life in Space Starts With Ancient Earth
[ad_1] Next, they’ll use the spectrograph to try to find key molecules like oxygen or methane. How much they find of each determines what they’ll look for next, like carbon…
Astronomers May Have Just Spotted the Universe’s First Galaxies
[ad_1] Scientists just announced that they’ve detected what might be some of the earliest galaxies to form in the universe, a tantalizing discovery made thanks to NASA’s new flagship James Webb…
How to Measure Ripples in Spacetime
[ad_1] When a gravitational wave passes through Earth, it causes space itself to stretch in one direction and compress in the other, so the two “arms” of the detector actually…
A New NASA Satellite Will Map Earth’s Rising Seas
[ad_1] SWOT could turn out to be a major improvement over measurements by previous satellites. “Instead of a ‘pencil beam’ moving along the Earth’s surface from a satellite, it’s a…
How Do You Prove There’s Ice on the Moon? With a Lunar Flashlight
[ad_1] “For me, this is a dream measurement,” says David Paige, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles who has been part of the mission since its…
Antihelium Offers Hope in the Search for Dark Matter
[ad_1] In 2010, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider began producing an exotic form of antimatter known as antihelium. Antimatter is that elusive substance that annihilates upon meeting regular matter, and antihelium…
NASA’s Orion Moon Capsule Is Back. What Happens Next?
[ad_1] After circling the moon for the past three weeks, NASA’s Orion capsule splashed down under parachute yesterday morning off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California near Guadalupe Island, marking…
The Enigma of Dragonfly 44, the Galaxy That’s Almost Invisible
[ad_1] In 2016, astronomers led by Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University published a bombshell paper claiming the discovery of a galaxy so dim, yet so broad and heavy, that…
Pop-Up Farming Pods to Help Colonizers Grow Crops on Mars
[ad_1] As a nerdy, nature-loving kid growing up in France, Barbara Belvisi daydreamed about life on other planets: giant domes filled with lush plants and exotic flowers like the ones…
NASA Will Not Change the James Webb Telescope’s Name
[ad_1] James Webb led NASA in the 1950s and 60s, during the Cold War–era “Lavender Scare,” when government agencies often enforced policies that discriminated against gay and lesbian federal workers.…
NASA’s Huge SLS Rocket Finally Launches the Artemis 1 Moon Mission
[ad_1] After years of delays and several false starts, the wait is finally over: NASA’s massive Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule lifted off at 1:48 am Eastern…
Columbia’s Ski-Jacket Tech Is Going to the Moon
[ad_1] Brands love sending logos up into the sky and beyond. Billboards, blimps, skywriting, ballpark jumbotrons, space suits. It’s for the eyeballs, sure, but perhaps there’s something else at play,…
The Problem With Spinning Spacecraft
[ad_1] While it would be awesome for people to be able to live in space, a “weightless” environment poses some serious challenges. Humans function best on Earth’s surface, where they…
The Tiangong Space Station Makes China a Major Space Power
[ad_1] The space program may also attach a robotic telescope to it in the future, although the station itself is not likely to grow much bigger, says Osburg. Tiangong’s T…
The ‘Brightest of All Time’ Gamma-Ray Burst Sparks a Supernova Hunt
[ad_1] On the morning of October 9, astronomers’ inboxes pinged with a relatively modest alert: NASA’s Swift Observatory had just detected a fresh burst of energy, assumed to be coming…
A Clever Way to Map the Moon’s Surface—Using Shadows
[ad_1] The team tested their approach on an area centered in the Mare Ingenii, a region on the far side of the moon. They fed the algorithm the angles of…
A New 3,200-Megapixel Camera Has Astronomers Salivating
[ad_1] The world’s biggest digital camera is finally coming into focus. While a very powerful personal camera might have megapixel resolution, astronomers have constructed a device that will image the…
What Drives Galaxies? The Milky Way’s Black Hole May Be the Key
[ad_1] On May 12, at nine simultaneous press conferences around the world, astrophysicists revealed the first image of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. At first,…
These Sci-Fi Visions for Interstellar Travel Just Might Work
[ad_1] For very long interstellar trips—things that are farther than the closest star—continuous fusion, antimatter, and sails are the only thing that will let you get there. But the better…
Success! NASA Says DART Really Clocked That Asteroid
[ad_1] Two weeks ago, the asteroid Dimorphos was minding its own business, quietly orbiting around its partner Didymos, when suddenly NASA’s DART spacecraft plowed into it at 14,000 miles per…
The Physics of Smashing a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid
[ad_1] There are a couple of things to notice. First, after the collision DART is moving backwards, because it bounced. Since velocity is a vector, that means that it will…
Sofia, the Historic Airplane-Borne Telescope, Lands for the Last Time
[ad_1] Over the past eight years, a modified Boeing 747 jetliner has flown hundreds of flights on a unique mission: carrying a 19-ton, 2.5-meter telescope known as Sofia, or the…
NASA’s DART Spacecraft Smashes Into an Asteroid—on Purpose
[ad_1] Dimorphos is on the small side, spanning 525 feet—which is about the size of the Great Pyramid. While it was never a threat to Earth, plenty more asteroids (and…
Hurricane Ian Blows Back NASA’s Artemis Launch
[ad_1] NASA’s team leading the Artemis program of lunar missions really wants to get on with their inaugural spaceflight—which was slated for tomorrow morning. But with a strengthening Hurricane Ian…
The UK Is Rejoining the Space Race
[ad_1] Virgin Orbit’s flight is expected to be just the start of the country’s launch prowess. Two more spaceports are currently under development, one at the northernmost tip of mainland…