Space News & Blog Articles

How can artificial intelligence (AI) be used to locate lunar pits and skylights, which are surface depressions and openings, respectively, that serve as entrances to lava caves and lava tubes? This is what a recent study published in Icarus hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated using machine learning algorithms to more efficiently identify pits and skylights on lunar volcanic regions (lunar maria) of the Moon. This study has the potential to help researchers develop new methods in identifying key surface features on planetary bodies that could aid in both robotic and human exploration.

We’ve been talking about sending a radio telescope to the far side of the Moon for awhile now. Now that reality is one step closer with the completion of the design and construction phase of the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) radio telescope project. This milestone marks a major step in the development of the system, which is planned to launch on a lunar lander in 2026.

What can carbon dioxide (CO₂) on Saturn’s moons teach scientists about their formation and evolution? This is what a recent study submitted to The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the different types of CO₂ that exist on several of Saturn’s mid-sized moons. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the existence of CO₂ on planetary bodies and what this could mean for their formation and evolution, and potentially whether they could possess life as we know it.

Collaboration has always been a hallmark of space research. Experts in different disciplines come together to work towards a common goal, and many times achieve that. One of the current goals of space exploration is long-term settlement of the Moon, and in order to achieve that goal, engineers and astronauts will have to deal with one of the thorniest problems on that otherworldly body - dust. Lunar dust is much harder to deal with that Earth’s equivalent, as it is sharp, charged, and sticks to everything, including biological tissue such as lungs, and even relatively smooth surfaces like glass. Several research groups are working on mitigation techniques that can deal with lunar dust, but a new cross-collaborative group from the University of Central Florida is developing a coating, testing it, and simulating all in one project, with the hopes that someday their solution will make it easier for astronauts to explore our nearest neighbor.

In January of 2024, the company Astrobiotic was set to make history with the first privately-developed lander, named Peregrine, to reach the Lunar surface, sent aboard a United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The lander carried the usual sorts of scientific instruments, many of them developed by NASA and its research partners. But tucked away among all those instruments was a small payload, with spots in that cargo sold by the companies Celestis and Elysium Space.

Plenty of groups have been theorizing about Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) recently. That is in part because of their candidacy as a potential source of dark matter. But, if they existed, they also had other roles to play in the early universe. According to a recent draft paper released on arXiv by Jeremy Mould and Adam Batten of Swinburne University, one of those roles could be as the seeds that eventually form both quasars and radio galaxies.

What can brine (extra salty) water teach scientists about finding past, or even present, life on Mars? This is what a recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment hopes to address as a researcher from the University of Arkansas investigated the formation of brines using 50-year-old data. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand how past data can be used to gain greater insights on the formation and evolution of surface brines on the surface of Mars.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers announced the detection of 17 complex organic molecules (COMs) in a protoplanetary disk surrounding a distant star. This includes the first tentative detection of ethylene glycol (CH₂OH)₂ and glycolonitrile (HOCH₂CN), which are believed to be building blocks of amino acids and their precursors. While these molecules have been detected in space before, this is the first time scientists have observed them in a planet-forming disk around a protostar, which offers tantalizing clues about the origin of life in the Universe.

In October 2022, space telescopes detected the most powerful gamma ray burst ever recorded. Known as GRB 221009A and dubbed the "BOAT" (Brightest Of All Time), this explosion was so intense it overwhelmed multiple instruments designed to study such events. Now, new observations from this burst are helping us to understand one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena.

Space travel takes quite a toll on the human body. Astronauts experience muscle weakness, bone loss, vision changes, and cardiovascular shifts during their time in microgravity. While scientists understand many of the immediate effects of spaceflight, questions have long been asked about whether these changes cause lasting damage, particularly to the heart and blood vessels.

In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 and 2 missions landed on Mars and began conducting the first astrobiology studies on another planet. This involved the analysis of soil samples for possible indications of organic molecules and biological processes (aka. "biosignatures"). The results of these studies were inconclusive and led to a general sense of pessimism towards the idea that Mars ever hosted life. However, the presence of features that could only have formed in the presence of flowing water - flow channels, delta fans, hydrated minerals, etc. - led to renewed astrobiology efforts by the 1990s.

Next time you're drinking a frosty iced beverage, think about the structure of the frozen chunks chilling it down. Here on Earth, we generally see ice in many forms: cubes, sleet, snow, icicles, slabs covering lakes and rivers, and glaciers. Water ice does this thanks to its hexagonal crystal lattice. That makes it less dense than nonfrozen water, which allows it to float in a drink, in a lake, and on the ocean.

Are astronomers on the precipice of discovering the first, elusive, intermediate mass black hole (IMBH)? That's been the case for a while, as different researchers present evidence of them. There's a candidate IMBH in the globular cluster Omega Centauri, and there's evidence that they're near supermassive black holes in galactic centers. Now researchers have found evidence of an IMBH devouring a star.

Imagine you're watching a balloon inflate, but instead of slowing down as it gets bigger, it keeps expanding faster and faster. That's essentially what scientists discovered about our universe in 1998 using exploding stars called supernovae. They found that some unknown force, which was subsequently named "dark energy” was pushing space itself apart at an accelerating rate. Now, after analyzing over 2,000 of these stellar explosions, researchers have found hints that dark energy might not be as constant as we thought. It may actually be changing, and possibly weakening over time.

Recreating the environment that most spacecraft experience on their missions is difficult on Earth. Many times it involves large vacuum chambers or wind tunnels that are specially designed for certain kinds of tests. But sometimes, engineers get to just do larger scale versions of the things they got to do in high school. That is the case for a recent test of ExoMars’s parachute system. A team of ESA engineers and their contractors performed a scaled up egg-drop test common in physics classes across the world. Except this one involved a stratospheric balloon the size of a football field and a helicopter.

When rocket engines fire during lunar landings, they don't just kick up a little dust. They unleash massive clouds of high speed particles that behave like natural sandblasting jets, capable of damaging expensive equipment, solar panels, and even entire habitats. As space agencies prepare for permanent lunar settlements through programs like NASA's Artemis mission, understanding this phenomenon has become a matter of survival.

The frontrunner in this new space race is, of course, NASA. They’re the only organization to have even done it before in the first place, but that was 50 years ago. And while all the technology of the Apollo program still exists in the form of blueprints and designs, all the human expertise that went into crafting those rockets and spaceships is now either retired or passed away. Besides, we’re not spending nearly as much money on the modern space program than we were in the 1950’s and 60’s, and to be quite frank, the Apollo missions were outright dangerous – they had a level of risk that is completely unacceptable to modern standards. When the Apollo 1 disaster happened, killing three astronauts during a launch dress rehearsal in 1967, NASA paused human spaceflight…for less than two years. An event like that today would likely shut down programs for at least a decade.

Finding an exoplanet in a star's habitable zone always generates interest. Each of these planets has a chance, even if it's an infinitesimal one, of hosting simple life. While the possibility of detecting life on these distant planets is remote, finding them still teaches us about exoplanet populations and solar system architectures.

From an engineering perspective, space is surprisingly hot. Or, more specifically, solar energy can make systems that need to be kept at a very cold temperature heat up much more quickly than expected, given the reputation that space has of being cold. In some cases, this heating causes issues with long-term missions, which is why NASA is actively testing a two-stage active cryogenic system to keep one important consumable as cold as possible - fuel.

A Team of astronomers have made a fascinating discovery that forces us to rethink our understanding of how dead stars behave. Using the powerful Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands, the team have found a white dwarf star that's doing something completely unexpected, sending out bright radio pulses in a strange, rhythmic pattern.

Juno's mission to Jupiter faced a host of challenges and obstacles. The gas giant is a long way from the Sun, limiting the available solar energy. The distance also makes communication with the spacecraft problematic. Add to that the complex environment, with Jupiter's massive gravitational pull and the orbital complexity of its four Galilean moons creating a constantly shifting field of gravitational interactions.