The search for planets beyond our Solar System has grown immensely during the past few decades. To date, 4,521 extrasolar planets have been confirmed in 3,353 systems, with an additional 7,761 candidates awaiting confirmation. With so many distant worlds available for study (and improved instruments and methods), the process of exoplanet studies has been slowly transitioning away from discovery towards characterization.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Monday launch from California begins countdown to Atlas 5 retirement
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket awaits liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with the Landsat 9 satellite. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now
The launch of a Landsat environmental monitoring satellite Monday from California’s Central Coast will be the first liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket since the company confirmed there will be 29 more Atlas 5 flights before the Atlas family’s retirement.
Chang’e-5 Returned an Exotic Collection of Moon Rocks
Scientists have begun studying the samples returned from the Moon by China’s Chang’e-5 mission in December 2020, and a group of researchers presented their first findings at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) last week.
Solar eclipse looks otherworldly in 'Golden Ring' astrophotography shot
The winning photographs for the 13th annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards have been announced, and the sun is the star of the show.
Disney to reboot 'Flight of the Navigator' with Bryce Dallas Howard at the helm
Set to be a female-led reimagining of the 1986 kids sci-fi adventure movie.
Photos: Astrophotographers capture stunning views of the night sky for 2021 contest
Here's a look at stunning astronomy images from the Royal Observatory Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
Far Eastern star legends: the princess and the herdsman
The stars have provided inspiration for imaginative storytellers across the planet for millennia. This is the tale of two star-crossed lovers, Vega and Altair.
Brilliant dashcam fireball videos help scientists find 3 meteorites in Slovenia
By diligently tracing dashcam footage from a particularly spectacular fireball seen over central Europe in February 2020, a team of scientists hit pay dirt on three fragments of space rock.
Love and rockets: We need to figure out how to have sex in space for human survival and well-being
Love and sex need to happen in space if we hope to travel long distances and become an interplanetary species, but space organizations are not ready.
A Tiny, Inexpensive Satellite Will be Studying the Atmospheres of hot Jupiters
The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (aptly nicknamed CUTE) is a new, NASA-funded mission that aims to study the atmospheres of massive, superheated exoplanets – known as hot Jupiters – around distant stars. The miniaturized satellite, built by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, is set to launch this Monday, September 27th on an Atlas V rocket.
Landsat 9, NASA's most powerful Landsat satellite ever, is 'go' for launch on Monday
NASA has cleared its newest powerful Earth observation satellite for a launch into orbit on Monday (Sept. 27) from the California coast.
Astronomers Find a Giant Cavity in Space, Hollowed out by an Ancient Supernova
Star formation is a topic astronomers are still trying to fully understand. We know, for example, that stars don’t form individually, but rather are born within vast interstellar molecular clouds. These stellar nurseries contain gas dense enough for gravity to trigger the formation of stars. In spiral galaxies, these molecular clouds are most commonly found within spiral arms, which is why stars are most often born in spiral arms.
Cyberpunk guru William Gibson's rejected 'Alien 3' script scores a new novelization (exclusive excerpt)
Titan Books and award-winning sci-fi scribe Pat Cadigan bring Gibson’s discarded "Alien 3" draft to life
How many satellites are orbiting Earth?
It seems like every week, another rocket is launched into space carrying rovers to Mars, tourists or, most commonly, satellites.
SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellites could be used for GPS navigation
Starlink may have a new capability beyond broadband Internet.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch internet satellite to serve Alaska in 2022
Falcon Heavy is now scheduled to loft Astranis' first commercial communications satellite to orbit next spring, the San Francisco-based company announced Thursday (Sept. 23).
Distant galaxies appear to overlap in new Hubble telescope image
Of all of the features associated with our sun, sunspots are by far the most conspicuous.
A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city, possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom
Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the ground.
Galactic Panspermia. How far Could Life Spread Naturally in a Galaxy Like the Milky Way?
Can life spread throughout a galaxy like the Milky Way without technological intervention? That question is largely unanswered. A new study is taking a swing at that question by using a simulated galaxy that’s similar to the Milky Way. Then they investigated that model to see how organic compounds might move between its star systems.
Photos: Landsat 9 encapsulated inside Atlas payload shroud
The Landsat 9 satellite is set for launch Sept. 27 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. These photos show the encapsulation of the environmental monitoring spacecraft inside the payload fairing of its Atlas 5 launcher.
Moonshots, private space stations and more: NASA chief Bill Nelson on the future of human spaceflight
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is confident the agency's human spaceflight future is bright, despite the inherent difficulty of the endeavor and some challenging international issues.
