NASA’s Perseverance Rover Digs Up Organic Molecules on Mars
[ad_1] After trundling around the Jezero crater for 550 Martian days, NASA’s Perseverance rover has amassed nearly half its planned rock collection—including some containing organic molecules, a possible sign that…
The UN Wants to Curb Anti-Satellite Missile Tests
[ad_1] Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also created challenges for space diplomacy. At the UN meeting, several diplomats expressed support for Ukrainians in their statements. Each time, the Russian delegate…
The Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of an Exoplanet
[ad_1] The JWST’s size and sensitivity enabled it to collect more light from this planet than any previous observatory has obtained. (Its photo looks grainier than SPHERE’s only because the…
Voyager 1 and 2, Humanity’s Interstellar Envoys, Soldier On at 45
[ad_1] Today is the 45th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1, one of humanity’s iconic twin emissaries to the cosmos. (Its sibling, Voyager 2, launched a couple of weeks…
NASA Orders a Second Delay for the Artemis Moon-bound Rocket
[ad_1] NASA engineers held the countdown at T-40 minutes while troubleshooting for more than an hour. Finally, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson called the attempt a scrub. At a press conference…
Swarms of Satellites Are Tracking Illegal Fishing and Logging
[ad_1] Fishing boats kept washing up in Japan with dead North Koreans on board. Dozens were documented every year, but they spiked in 2017, with more than 100 boats found…
NASA Delays the Launch of Its Giant Moon-Bound Rocket
[ad_1] NASA has pushed back the launch of its Artemis 1 mission to the moon due to an issue with one of the engines of the giant SLS rocket. With…
Where Do High-Energy Cosmic Rays Come From? A Star’s Last Gasp
[ad_1] Gamma rays from this supernova remnant have been seen by telescopes since 2007, but exceptionally energetic light wasn’t detected until 2020, when it was picked up by the HAWC…
Humans Are Revisiting the Moon—and the Rules of Spacefaring
[ad_1] If astronauts need to grab some lunar ice on a future Artemis mission, that won’t be a problem from a legal perspective, says Rossana Deplano, a researcher at the…
At Long Last, Mathematical Proof That Black Holes Are Stable
[ad_1] In 1963, the mathematician Roy Kerr found a solution to Einstein’s equations that precisely described the spacetime outside what we now call a rotating black hole. (The term wouldn’t…
The Mini Missions Aboard the Artemis Rocket Pack a Big Punch
[ad_1] All eyes will be on the moon as the Artemis mission’s inaugural launch blasts toward our lunar neighbor in a couple of weeks, but the rocket won’t be the…
New Evidence Points to the Moon Once Being Part of Earth
[ad_1] Roughly 4.5 billion years ago, a primordial version of Earth covered in molten lava orbited the sun. Barely into its newfound existence, it was struck by a smaller object…
As Wildfires Get More Extreme, Observatories Are at Greater Risk
[ad_1] It was 4 am on June 17 when Michelle Edwards, associate director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, got the news: A wildfire had breached the road up to the…
The Hacking of Starlink Terminals Has Begun
[ad_1] “From a high-level view, there are two obvious things that you could try to attack: the signature verification or the hash verification,” Wouters says. The glitch works against the…
Russia’s War in Ukraine Reveals More Problems in Space
[ad_1] There’s not much going for Roscosmos at this point other than the ISS—or a replacement to be called the Russian Orbital Service Station, which Borosiv claimed could be developed…
NASA is Crowdsourcing Cloud Research—on Mars
[ad_1] At the end of 2020, planetary scientist Marek Slipski found himself glued to his computer, spending countless hours—more than he’d like to admit, he says—poring over image after image…
How to Simulate Walking on the Moon—Without Leaving the Planet
[ad_1] Even if the magnitude of the gravitational force and the buoyancy force were equal, having a different location for the center of mass and buoyancy will mean the object…
NASA Delayed the Psyche Launch. Here’s Why That’s a Big Deal
[ad_1] NASA and the Psyche team declined interview requests until an independent review of the mission delay has been completed. Agency officials will make a decision about next steps based…
A New Film Challenges the James Webb Telescope’s Controversial Name
[ad_1] The documentary features at least 10 space experts who endorse a name change. Updating the telescope’s name “would help send the message that NASA in its current era does…