NASA’s Kepler spacecraft ended its observations in October 2018 after nine and a half years, a solid six years beyond its planned duration. It discovered 2,711 confirmed exoplanets and another 2,056 exoplanet candidates as of August 2022.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Astronaut Profiles - Peggy Whitson
Peggy Whitson is an American astronaut and biochemist who has made significant contributions to space exploration. Here are some key details about her:
SpaceX's Dragon reentry and splashdown with Ax-2 astronauts looks amazing in these nighttime photos and videos
Ax-2's SpaceX Dragon capsule Freedom put on quite a show as it streaked through Earth's atmosphere late Tuesday night (May 30), as videos show.
Japan has a wild idea to launch a satellite made of wood in 2024
An international partnership has designed a wooden satellite scheduled to be jointly launched by the Japanese space agency (JAXA) and NASA sometime next year.
Monster black hole burps out hot gas in bright 'H' shape (photos)
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory spied a massive "H" structure half the size of our entire galaxy made of blazing hot gas spewing from a distant supermassive black hole.
How to photograph SpaceX Starlink satellites in the night sky
Discover the best methods and camera equipment to photograph Starlink satellites at night using this step-by-step method.
Infant stars burst out of their cosmic cribs in a violent stellar nursery (photo)
The two protesters burst from their cocoons of gas and dust in Lupus 3, a vast stellar nursery located about 500 light-years from Earth.
Does This Star Cluster Host a Black Hole in Its Core?
The well-known star cluster Messier 4 might have an elusive, midsize black hole hidden at its center, but the evidence isn’t conclusive yet.
There's a New Supernova in a Familiar Galaxy. You Can See it in a Small Telescope
The Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, is a spiral galaxy just 21 million light years away. It’s a popular galaxy for photographs because it’s oriented to us face-on. This means you can see the bright whorled spirals and dark cloud regions, even in amateur photographs. Since it’s relatively close and bright, you can get a good view of it, even with a small telescope. It also happens to have a supernova at the moment.
United Arab Emirates Announces New Mission to the Asteroid Belt
An ambitious new mission from the United Arab Emirates would fly closely and speedily by seven main-belt asteroids.
A cosmic magnifying glass: What is gravitational lensing?
Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope as it images some of the most distant and faint early galaxies.
North Korea says its rocket launch failed, 1st spy satellite lost
North Korean state media reported that the launch of the nation's first spy satellite on Wednesday (May 31) was unsuccessful due to a stage-separation issue.
UFOs will remain mysterious without better data, NASA study team says
During the opening remarks in today's meeting of NASA's UAP study team, members stressed that the biggest roadblock standing between us and understanding unidentified phenomena is a lack of data.
Metal fuel for carbon-free energy on Earth… and the Moon
Everything burns. Given the right environment, all matter can burn by adding oxygen, but finding the right mix and generating enough heat makes some materials combust more easily than others. Researchers interested in knowing more about a type of fire called discrete burning used ESA’s microgravity experiment facilities to investigate.
SpaceX delivers 52 more Starlink satellites into orbit
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:02 p.m. PDT Tuesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX
Another batch of 52 Starlink satellites launched late Tuesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on the way to join SpaceX’s fleet of more than 4,000 spacecraft beaming broadband signals around the world.
Robots in orbit are becoming even more popular. There are still many technical challenges ahead.
Robots will be one of the keys to the expanding in-space economy. As launch costs decrease, hopefully significantly when Starship and other massive lift systems come online, the most significant barrier to entry for the space economy will finally come down. So what happens then? Two acronyms have been popping up in the literature with increasing frequency – in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) and On-orbit servicing (OOS). Over a series of articles, we’ll look at some papers detailing what those acronyms mean and where they might be going shortly. First, we’ll examine how robots fit into the equation.
NASA's Mars Helicopter Went Silent for Six Agonizing Days
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars has exceeded everyone’s expectations, recently completing its 51st flight when it was supposed to fly just a few times as a demonstration mission. But flights 50 and 51 almost didn’t happen.
Boeing faces 'emerging issues' ahead of Starliner capsule's 1st crewed flight in July, NASA says
A recently completed 'checkpoint review' of Boeing's upcoming crewed flight test to the International Space Station identified several issues to address before the planned July 21 liftoff.
Tune in for first Mars livestream
For one hour on Friday 2 June, join ESA on YouTube for a space first as live images stream down direct from Mars – this will be the closest you can get to a live view from the Red Planet.
A Third of Planets Orbiting Red Dwarf Stars Could be in the Habitable Zone
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a pair of researchers from the University of Florida (UF) examine orbital eccentricities for exoplanets orbiting red dwarf (M dwarf) stars and determined that one-third of them—which encompass hundreds of millions throughout the Milky Way—could exist within their star’s habitable zone (HZ), which is that approximate distance from their star where liquid water can exist on the surface. The researchers determined the remaining two-thirds of exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs are too hot for liquid water to exist on their surfaces due to tidal extremes, resulting in a sterilization of the planetary surface.
'Futurama' fuels up for Season 8 as Hulu's reboot blasts off this summer
'Futurama' flies once again for an eighth season on Hulu this summer.
