Space News & Blog Articles

Mars, often called the Red Planet due to its distinctive rusty color from iron oxide on its surface, is Earth's neighboring planet and humanity's most likely next destination for exploration. It’s about half the size of Earth and takes nearly two years to complete one orbit around the Sun. Mars is home to the largest volcano in our solar system, Olympus Mons, as well as a massive canyon system called Valles Marineris. It continues to fascinate scientists who are searching for signs of past or present life while planning for the day humans pay a visit.

Advanced telescopes take a lot of advanced technologies to build, and many times those technologies come from companies rather than the space agencies that sponsor the project. The most recent example of this is the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, whose project sponsor recently signed a contract to begin construction of this mission that will eventually expand our search for gravitational waves.

They are known as "Hot Jupiters," massive gas giants that orbit very close to their stars. As a result, they have very short orbital periods (less than a day in some cases) and experience extreme temperatures of up to 1,650 °C (3,000 °F). In fact, these planets are superheated to the point that minerals become vaporized and form clouds in their atmospheres. While this class of planet is rare, accounting for about 500 of the more than 5,900 exoplanets confirmed to date, the existence of these planets has raised questions about our planetary formation models.

Within Earth's interior, the molten material that makes up the outer core flows around the inner core in the opposite direction of the Earth's rotation. This "dynamo" is believed to be responsible for generating Earth's magnetosphere, the intrinsic magnetic field that shields life on the surface from harmful radiation. But since the flow of molten material in Earth's core isn't perfectly stable, the magnetosphere ebbs and flows over time. Scientists also theorize that this field prevents Earth's atmosphere from being slowly stripped away by charged solar particles (solar wind), which is believed to have been the case with Mars.

In what seemed to be a development that came from nowhere, there’s a new entrant into the reusable launch systems competition - Honda. The giant Japanese industrial conglomerate recently launched a prototype reusable rocket up to 300m and landed it safely back on Earth. So what does that mean for the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) industry and the future of inexpensive flights to orbit?

The early Universe was a busy place some 13 billion years ago. That's when countless young galaxies began to evolve and birthed stars at a prodigious rate. The hearts of those very distant galaxies show turbulent, lumpy disks studded with even thicker clumps of dust and gas that spawned their huge batches of stars. Astronomers want to understand what's driving the clumping, so they've turned to recent surveys of closer galaxies in the "local Universe" that contain similar lumpy regions.

Last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Proba-3 mission to space. Comprised of two spacecraft, the Coronograph and the Occulter, it is a technology demonstrator designed to test techniques for highly-precise satellite formation flying that will pave the way for future multi-satellite missions. This past March, the two spacecraft performed a first-ever feat by flying in tandem for hours without help from mission controllers. They created an artificial solar eclipse in orbit and obtained their first images of the Sun's outer atmosphere (aka corona) in the process.

For years, astronomers have been searching for a mysterious ninth planet lurking in the dark outer reaches of our Solar System. Now, a team of researchers have taken a completely different approach to this cosmic detective story, instead of looking for reflected sunlight, they're hunting for the planet's own heat signature.

A team of astronomers has recently completed a long-range observation of a comet far from the Sun. This analysis proves that there’s lots going on, even in the icy depths of the solar system.

Regular matter is properly called baryonic matter. It's made of baryons, which are mostly protons and neutrons (but not electrons). Baryons make up the matter we interact with in everyday life, including our own bodies. Baryonic matter makes up about 5% of the Universe, while dark matter (27%) and dark energy (68%) make up the rest, according to the standard cosmological model, Lambda CDM.

As different nations begin conducting operations on the lunar surface, humanity's penchant for geopolitical struggles will likely be along for the ride. Tension between nations and/or corporations could grow. There are few rules and treaties that can calm this potential rising tension. What kinds of conflict might erupt and how can it be prevented?

From ancient Chinese fire arrows that once repelled Mongolian invasions to today's sophisticated spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to the lunar surface, China's rocket journey has been a key part in the development of rocket technology. On June 17, 2025, that journey reached a crucial milestone when China successfully tested its next generation Mengzhou spacecraft, literally meaning "Dream Vessel” marking a key step toward putting Chinese astronauts on the Moon before 2030.

Imagine scanning the night sky for signs of alien technology using the same systems that hunt for exploding stars. This is exactly what researchers are now doing, transforming astronomical alert systems originally designed to catch supernovae into powerful tools for detecting potential technosignatures, the evidence of advanced civilisations beyond Earth.

Star formation peaked during the Cosmic Noon, which spanned from 10 to 12 billion years ago. During Cosmic Noon, star formation was 10 to 100 times greater than it is now. New research shows that a particular class of galaxy was experiencing its first intense burst of star formation during this time. Were these galaxies the progenitors of galaxies like the Milky Way?

If super massive black holes (SMBH) were given a job description, it would tell them to park themselves in the middle of a massive galaxy and consume as much gas, dust, and even stars as they could. Like teenage boys in front of a well-stocked fridge, they're happy to oblige. However, even voracious SMBHs have limits, and astronomers have watched as one of them reached its limit.

In the 1960s, scientists became acutely aware of a problem with the Universe's "mass budget." Based on the observed rotational curves of galaxies, they determined that about 85% of the Universe's mass was invisible, leading to the theory of Dark Matter. Scientists have also been aware for some time that much of the "normal" or baryonic matter (that which we can see) in the Universe was also unaccounted for. This has prompted multiple efforts to probe the Universe for this "missing" mass, using everything from X-ray emissions and ultraviolet observations of distant quasars to find hints of where it might be hiding.

As NASA prepares for a return to the Moon through the Artemis program, one of the biggest health concerns for astronauts has been lunar dust. The fine, abrasive particles known as the regolith that coat the Moon's surface have long worried scientists, especially after Apollo astronauts experienced respiratory problems after their missions. However, groundbreaking research from the University of Technology Sydney has delivered surprisingly reassuring news: lunar dust is less harmful to human lung cells than previously feared, and significantly less toxic than common Earth based air pollution.

A recent study addresses possible effects from increased rocket launches on the ozone layer.

More and more satellites are being added to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every month. As that number continues to increase, so do the risks of that critical area surrounding the Earth becoming impassable, trapping us on the planet for the foreseeable future. Ideas from different labs have presented potential solutions to this problem, but one of the most promising, electrodynamic tethers (EDTs), have only now begun to be tested in space. A new CubeSat called the Spacecraft for Advanced Research and Cooperative Studies (SPARCS) mission from researchers at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran hopes to contribute to that effort by testing an EDT and intersatellite communication system as well as collecting real-time data on the radiation environment of its orbital path.

We might not currently have any technology that would make a space elevator viable on Earth. But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t work on other bodies around the solar system. One of the most interesting places that one could work is around Ceres, the Queen of the Asteroid Belt, and potentially one of the biggest sources of resources for humanity’s expansion into space. A new paper from researchers at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Industrial CNT, a manufacturer of Carbon Nanotube (one potential material for the space elevator), details just how useful such an elevator could be.