A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch two European navigation satellites tonight (Sept. 17). It will be the 22nd flight for this particular booster.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Could You Find What A Lunar Crater Is Made Of By Shooting It?
Americans are famously fond of their guns. So it should come as no surprise that a team of NASA scientists has devised a way to “shoot” a modified type of sensor into the soil of an otherworldly body and determine what it is made out of. That is precisely what Sang Choi and Robert Moses from NASA’s Langley Research Center did, though their bullets are miniaturized spectrometers rather than hollow metal casings.
There are Plenty of Uses for Powerful Lasers in Space. But Where Should We Put Them?
Is it time for space lasers yet? Almost.
A 'primordial' black hole may zoom through our solar system every decade
If microscopic black holes born a fraction of a second after the Big Bang exist, then at least one may fly through the solar system per decade, generating tiny gravitational distortions that scientists can detect.
Live coverage: SpaceX to launch European Commission’s Galileo satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
A rendering of a Galileo satellite in medium Earth orbit. Graphic: European Space Agency
SpaceX is preparing to launch the latest pair of Galileo spacecraft for the European Union’s navigation satellite constellation.
FAA plans to fine SpaceX $630,000 for alleged launch violations
The FAA has proposed fining SpaceX more than $630,000 for allegedly failing to comply with regulations on two launches in 2023.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS nears the sun this month. Will it be visible to the naked eye?
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will sweep around the sun on Sept. 27 to make a brief foray into the morning sky. Will it be a bright naked-eye object with a significant tail? Here's where and when you might be able to see it.
There Could be a Way to Fix Spacecraft at L2, Like Webb and Gaia
Billions of dollars of observatory spacecraft orbit around Earth or in the same orbit as our planet. When something wears out or goes wrong, it would be good to be able to fix those missions “in situ”. So far, only the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has enjoyed regular visits for servicing. What if we could work on other telescopes “on orbit”? Such “fixit” missions to other facilities are the subject of a new NASA paper investigating optimal orbits and trajectories for making service calls on telescopes far beyond Earth.
9 firsts in 5 days: Polaris Dawn crew lands from history-making SpaceX mission
Four private astronauts are back on Earth after a five-day mission that set firsts and broke records in an effort to advance human spaceflight.
Could We Find Primordial Black Holes in the Solar System?
Astronomers have observed three types of black holes in the Universe. Stellar-mass black holes formed from the collapse of a massive star, intermediate mass black holes found in some star clusters, and supermassive black holes that lurk in the centers of galaxies. But there is a fourth type that remains hypothetical an unobserved. Known as primordial black holes, they are thought to have formed from tiny fluctuations in the hot and dense early cosmos. Since they wouldn’t have formed from stars or mergers, they could have a much smaller mass. And with small masses, primordial black holes would be tiny. Their event horizons would be smaller than an apple, perhaps as small as a grain of sand. You can see why they would be hard to find.
Space missions are getting more complex − lessons from Amazon and FedEx can inform satellite and spacecraft management in orbit
Space mission designers plan their routes in order to deliver their payloads to the Moon or Mars, or orbit efficiently within a set of cost, timeline and capacity constraints. But when they need to coordinate multiple space vehicles working together, route planning can get complicated.
What time is the Harvest Moon Supermoon lunar eclipse tonight?
The full moon of September will put on a dramatic show tonight, the exact timing of which will depend on your location.
Sentinel-2C delivers stunning first images
Less than two weeks after being launched into orbit, Sentinel-2C has delivered its first images. These spectacular views of Earth offer a sneak peek at the data that this new satellite will provide for Copernicus – Europe’s world-leading Earth observation programme.
Hubble finds more black holes in the early Universe
With the help of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early Universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.
Earth will get another moon this month — but not for long!
Earth will grab itself another moon this month, but only briefly. The "mini-moon" in the form of asteroid 2024 PT5 will stick around for just two months.
Earth Might Have Had Rings Half a Billion Years Ago
Saturn is well known for its ring system and many recognise that the planets Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings. Did Earth ever have rings though? A team of researchers suggests that a worldwide collection of impact craters points to the existence of a ring around Earth millions of years ago. It’s possible that Earth captured and destroyed an asteroid that passed too close 466 million years ago. The asteroids torn up debris orbited the Earth as a ring and then the individual chunks entered the atmosphere, landed on the surface and produced the craters observed today.
Did a star escape cannibalism by its dead 'monster' white dwarf companion?
A distant star has a dead star companion lurking in its vicinity that could be a monster-massive white dwarf, raising the question: how has it avoided being devoured by this cosmic zombie?
Time to be inspired by planet Earth
Swatch has again teamed up with ESA to give space fans a new opportunity to design a custom watch featuring breathtaking images of Earth from space.
Two new satellites added to Galileo constellation for increased resilience
The European Galileo satellite navigation system keeps growing: a new pair of satellites has joined the constellation after a journey on a Falcon 9 rocket, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 18 September at 00:50 CEST (17 September 18:50 local time).
Scientists spot ancient 'smiley face' on Mars — and it could contain signs of life
Newly released images of Mars reveal a "smiley" salt deposit on the Red Planet's surface. A related study suggests that similar deposits, which were left behind from ancient lakes, may be a good place to look for signs of former life on Mars.
Earth Will Have a Tiny New Mini-Moon for a Few Months
The Moon has inspired poets and artists, musicians and playwrights. The sight of our one and only Moon is familiar to anyone that has ever glanced up at the night time (and sometimes day time sky!) Every so often though, our Moon (note the use of capital ‘M’)is joined by a small asteroid that wanders too close. Astronomers have detected an 11-metre wide asteroid that has the snappy name 2024 PT5 and it came within 567,000 kilometres of Earth and will become a temporary satellite from 29 September until 25 November when it will leave our system.
