Obi-Wan finally swings his lightsaber around and makes whooshing sounds as Darth Vader makes his return.
Space News & Blog Articles
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With Voyager 1 data mystery, NASA relies on slow, long-distance conversation
NASA's Voyager 1 team is trying to work out why the spacecraft appears to be confused about its location in space, but the mission's distance from Earth makes solving the issue challenging.
Giant galaxy cluster collision triggers vast shock wave stretching over a million light-years long
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted enormous shock waves racing away from a collision of two galaxy clusters.
Jupiter's icy moon Europa will block out a star for lucky skywatchers
Jupiter's moon Europa is set to obscure a star while being shadowed by its own host planet.
Gaia spacecraft: Mapping the Milky Way like never before
Europe's Gaia space telescope creates the most comprehensive map of the Milky Way, allowing astronomers to study our galaxy's distant past, as well as its future.
Gaia data release 3: exploring our multi-dimensional Milky Way
Video: 00:05:00
Since its launch in 2013 ESA’s Gaia observatory has been mapping our galaxy from Lagrange point 2, creating the most accurate and complete multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way. By now two full sets of data have been released, the first set in 2016 and a second one in 2018. These data releases contained stellar positions, distances, motions across the sky, and colour information, among others. Now on 13 June 2022 a third and new full data set will be released. This data release will contain even more and improved information about almost 2 billion stars, Solar System objects and extragalactic sources. It also includes radial velocities for 33 million stars, a five-time increase compared to data release 2. Another novelty in this data set is the largest catalogue yet of binary stars in the Milky Way, which is crucial to understand stellar evolution.
Gaia sees strange stars in most detailed Milky Way survey to date
Today, ESA’s Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.
The World's Largest Liquid-Mirror Telescope Comes Online
Ask any astronomer, astrophysicist, or cosmologist, and they’ll probably tell you that a new age of astronomy is upon us! Between breakthroughs in gravitational-wave astronomy, the explosion in exoplanet studies, and the next-generation ground-based and space-based telescopes coming online, it’s pretty evident that we are on the verge of an era of near-continuous discovery! As always, major discoveries, innovations, and the things they enable inspire scientists and researchers to look ahead and take the next big step.
Two hurricane research satellites lost in Astra launch failure
Astra’s Rocket 3.3 vehicle lifted off at 1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral with the first two NASA TROPICS hurricane research satellites. Credit: Astra / NASASpaceflight
Two small NASA hurricane research satellites were destroyed after launch from Cape Canaveral Sunday when their commercial rocket, provided by Astra, prematurely shut down its upper stage engine before reaching the mission’s target orbit.
Photos: Artemis 1 rocket hauled to launch pad for another countdown rehearsal
NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket rolls to pad 39B at sunrise on June 6. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket rolled out to pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on June 6, preparing for another countdown rehearsal later this month to try loading cryogenic propellants into the massive launcher.
Astra rocket suffers major failure during launch, 2 NASA satellites lost
An Astra rocket carrying two small hurricane-tracking satellites for NASA failed to reach orbit Sunday (June 12) after a major malfunction.
Marvel Comics reveals new 'Star Wars: Yoda' series
Marvel Comics unveiled its upcoming "Star Wars: Yoda" series at Star Wars Celebration 2022.
The moon will block a bright double star tonight. Here's how to see it.
The nearly full moon will block a bright double star in the night sky tonight (June 12). Here's how to see it.
How to watch NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket on the launch pad live online
NASA's new SLS megarocket for Artemis 1 is back on the launch pad and you can see live views right now for free.
Live coverage: Astra counting down to launch today at Cape Canaveral
Astra is counting down to the first of three launches this summer to deploy a fleet of six small NASA hurricane research satellites. Liftoff of Astra’s small launcher from Cape Canaveral with the first two TROPICS nanosatellites is scheduled during a two-hour window opening at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), weather permitting.
Curious Kids: Why does it matter if Pluto is a planet or a dwarf planet?
"Comet," "star" and "planet" are category names that immediately tell you something important about what they describe.
Behold the coiled beauty of this snake-like galaxy 80 million light-years from Earth
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array snapped a stunning image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1087.
Milky Way mapper Gaia to release new data on Monday. Here's how to watch it live.
The European Space Agency will release new data from its Milky Way-mapping Gaia mission on June 13. Here’s how you can get the latest updates from the telescope live.
Newest Starlink Satellites Have Gotten Brighter Again
Changes to the design of Starlink satellite spacecraft have made them brighter again, though still dimmer than the original design.
Hubble Pins Down the Mass of a Potential Free-Floating Black Hole That’s 5,000 Light-Years Away
Earlier this year, astronomers used microlensing and the Hubble Space Telescope to detect, for the first time, a rogue black hole that is about 5,000 lightyears away from Earth. Now, with more precise measurements, they have been able to determine an approximate mass of this hard-to-detect object. However, the surprisingly low mass means there’s a chance this object may not actually be a black hole.
