The ESA launched Gaia in 2013 with one overarching goal: to map more than one billion stars in the Milky Way. Its vast collection of data is frequently used in published research. Gaia is an ambitious mission, though it seldom makes headlines on its own.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Why Build Megastructures? Just Move Planets Around to Make Habitable Worlds
In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed how advanced civilizations could create megastructures that enclosed their system, allowing them to harness all of their star’s energy and multiplying the habitable space they could occupy. In 2015, the astronomical community was intrigued when the star KIC 8462852 (aka. Tabby’s Star) began to dim inexplicably. While an analysis of the star’s light curve in 2018 revealed that the dimming pattern was more characteristic of dust than a solid structure, Tabby’s Star focused attention on the concept of megastructures and their associated technosignatures.
James Webb Space Telescope sees early galaxies defying 'cosmic rulebook' of star formation
The James Webb Space Telescope has observed galaxies defying the "cosmic rulebook" in the early universe, to the surprise of astronomers who hope to learn more about the evolution of the universe.
'I literally broke into tears': The scientist leading NASA's epic OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission just had the greatest day ever
As his spacecraft was hurtling toward Earth carrying irreplaceable asteroid samples from deep space, Dante Lauretta was just trying to avoid having a breakdown in front of an international audience.
Possible hints of life found on distant planet – how excited should we be?
Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown that an exoplanet around a star in the constellation Leo has some of the chemical markers that, on Earth, are associated with living organisms.
The first steps of the Huginn mission
Video: 00:05:46
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen has begun his Huginn mission, turning the International Space Station into his home and workplace. After piloting on Crew Dragon Endurance as the first non-US pilot, Andreas has started performing European experiments and technology demonstrations with many more to come throughout the mission.
Sky Tonight Star Gazer Guide stargazing app review
With beautiful AR functionality and a host of fascinating information, Sky Tonight Star Gazer Guide has a lot to offer stargazing enthusiasts.
The Darkest Parts of the Moon are Revealed with NASA’s New Camera
While the surface of the Moon has been mapped in incredible detail over the last several decades, one region has eluded orbital cameras due to the lack of sunlight, which are aptly called the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon. However, two cameras operating on two different lunar orbiters have recently worked in tandem to produce a stunning mosaic image of the lunar south pole’s Shackleton Crater, a portion of which resides directly on the lunar south pole and whose depths have been shrouded in complete darkness for possibly the last few billion years. As a result, scientists hypothesize that water ice could have accumulated within its dark depths that future astronauts could use for fuel and life support.
Last supermoon of 2023 rises this week. Don't miss the Harvest Moon shine with 3 bright planets
This year’s final supermoon, September’s Harvest Full Moon, rises on Friday, Sept. 29, bringing a summer of supermoons to a close and joined by a planetary parade of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury.
Heating and cooling space habitats isn’t easy – one engineering team is developing a lighter, more efficient solution
It’s hard to keep a spacecraft cool, but ongoing research on the International Space Station might yield a solution.
Stellafane Star Party Celebrates Their Centennial
As hundreds of astronomers made their annual pilgrimage to the “shrine to the stars” this year, the Springfield Telescope Makers were preparing to celebrate Stellafane's 100th anniversary.
Nuclear 'pasta' cooked up by dead stars could unravel the secrets of stellar afterlife
In the extreme hearts of neutron stars, fundamental particles are twisted into strange 'pasta' shapes that could reveal untold secrets about how dead stars evolve.
After NASA's epic OSIRIS-REx capsule landing success, spacecraft heads to asteroid Apophis on new mission
NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe, which delivered samples of the space rock Bennu to Earth, is now on an extended voyage to study the infamous near-Earth asteroid Apophis.
Our entire galaxy is warping, and a gigantic blob of dark matter could be to blame
An invisible halo of misaligned dark matter could explain the warps at the Milky Way's edges.
Turning up gravity for space fungi study
Fungi in space have been a plot point in Star Trek: Discovery, but they are also a very real problem for astronauts and space stations. United Nations co-sponsored testing by a team from Macau in China subjected fungi to hypergravity with ESA’s fast-spinning centrifuge.
Andreas Mogensen: Commander of the International Space Station
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will become the commander of the International Space Station, the sixth European to take the role. Tune in to ESA WebTV channel 2 tomorrow, 26 September at 15:40 CEST (14:40 BST) to watch the ceremony when Andreas becomes the commander.
Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch Starlink satellites from California
SpaceX is planning its 42nd Starlink delivery mission of the year with a Falcon 9 scheduled to launch from the West Coast carrying a batch of 21 satellites at 1:48 a.m. PDT (4:48 a.m. EDT / 0848 UTC) Monday morning.
Did the Moon’s Water Come from Earth?
A recent study published in Nature Astronomy examines how processes within the Earth’s magnetic field could be contributing to the formation of water on the surface of the Moon. This study was led by the University of Hawai’i (UH) and comes during an increased interest in finding water ice across the lunar surface, which has previously been confirmed to exist within the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the lunar north and south poles due to the Moon’s small axial tilt of only 1.5 degrees compared to the Earth’s 23.5 degrees. Additionally, better understanding the lunar surface water content could also help scientists gain better insights into the Moon’s formation and evolution, which is currently hypothesized to have formed from a Mars-sized object colliding with the Earth approximately 4.5 billion years ago, or approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed.
The OSIRIS-REx Capsule Has Landed! Asteroid Samples Returned!
The OSIRIS-REx mission has just completed NASA’s first sample-return mission from a near-Earth asteroid (NEA). The samples arrived at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) near Salt Lake City, where a team of engineers arrived by helicopter to retrieve the sample capsule. The samples will be curated by NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate (ARES) and Japan’s Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center (ESCuC). Analysis of the rocks and dust obtained from Bennu is expected to provide new insight into the formation and evolution of the Solar System.
Osiris-REX Capsule Returns Samples of Asteroid Bennu to Earth
Samples taken from the asteroid Bennu are now safely on Earth.
OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule safely lands in Utah
From left to right, NASA Sample Return Capsule Science Lead Scott Sandford, NASA Astromaterials Curator Francis McCubbin, and University of Arizona OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, examined the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule after it landed at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber.
A saucer-shaped capsule carrying asteroid fragments that may hold clues about the birth of the solar system slammed into Earth’s atmosphere Sunday and descended to an on-target parachute-assisted touchdown in Utah in the final chapter of a dramatic seven-year, four-billion-mile voyage.
