A star nearing the end of its life swelled up and absorbed a Jupiter-size planet. In about 5 billion years, our Sun will go through a similar end-of-life transition. A new study published online Wednesday, May 3, in the journal Nature documents the first observation of an aging star swallowing a planet. After running out …
Caught in the Act: Astronomers Detect a Star Devouring a Planet Read More »
The interest in space phenomena and the hours of reading the book, The Whole Universe, was what prompted Malick Ndiaye to design a telescope with the few resources he had. The boy born in Senegal, just 12 years old, used some old high-magnification glasses that his father used, a camera lens, wire, paper, cans and …
Since SpaceX’s inaugural test flight of the most powerful rocket ever constructed, the company’s engineers, federal regulators and environmentalists have been trying to assess the aftermath of the spacecraft’s explosion and what happens next. “The outcome was roughly in (line) with what I expected and, maybe slightly exceeded my expectations,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said …
Starship could be ready to launch again in ‘six to eight weeks,’ Elon Musk says Read More »
A new image shows at least 17 dust rings created by a rare type of star and its companion locked in a celestial dance. A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. Located just over 5,000 light-years …
Star Duo Forms ‘Fingerprint’ in Space, NASA’s Webb Finds Read More »
The asteroid Phaethon’s tail is not made of dust after all, scientists have discovered. Astronomers observing the strange “rock comet” hybrid Phaethon as it passed the sun have found a surprise that could upend 14 years of thinking about the weird asteroid. The asteroid Phaethon, which gives us the Geminid meteor shower every year and …
The strange mystery of asteroid Phaethon’s comet-like tail may have just been solved Read More »
Technology in development today could radically change the future of air and space exploration. Nearly silent electric aircraft could ferry people and packages around cities, a sprawling radio telescope array on the far side of the Moon could reveal new secrets about the universe, and astronauts on long-duration missions could grow their own medicines to …
NASA Awards Innovative Concept Studies for Science, Exploration Read More »
One of six instruments aboard the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, CRISM produced global maps of minerals on the Red Planet’s surface. NASA switched off one of its oldest instruments studying Mars on April 3, a step that’s been planned since last year. Riding aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, CRISM, or the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer …
NASA Retires Mineral Mapping Instrument on Mars Orbiter Read More »
Humans have always looked up into the night sky and dreamed about space. In the latter half of the 20th century, rockets were developed that were powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity to reach orbital velocities, paving the way for space exploration to become a reality. In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi Germany …
A new NASA study offers an explanation of how quakes could be the source of the mysteriously smooth terrain on moons circling Jupiter and Saturn. Many of the ice-encrusted moons orbiting the giant planets in the far reaches of our solar system are known to be geologically active. Jupiter and Saturn have such strong gravity …
Icy Moonquakes: Surface Shaking Could Trigger Landslides Read More »
JPL’s Abigail Fraeman will help study the composition of Phobos and Deimos using instruments on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s spacecraft. NASA has selected 10 researchers from institutions across the U.S. to join the Science Working Team of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission as NASA-supported participating scientists. JAXA’s MMX mission, …
NASA Selects 10 Scientists for International Mission to Martian Moons Read More »
