Space News & Blog Articles

Around the sun, there are countless small bodies whose orbits occasionally bring them in close proximity to Earth, known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). There are currently 37,000 known Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and 120 known short-period near-Earth comets (NECs), though astronomers estimate that these objects number in the millions. Of particular concern are asteroids and comets that pose a potential impact risk to Earth, known as Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs). While scientists are confident that none of the known PHOs will pose a risk to Earth within the next century, planetary defense measures will be needed sooner or later.

When the Hubble Space Telescope began operations 35 years ago, it was motivated by some ambitious science goals. From its position in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), the Hubble was poised to address fundamental questions in astronomy. It was tasked with determining the size and the age of the Universe, studying the formation and evolution of galaxies, and investigating quasars and black holes, among other things.

Chemistry on other worlds varies widely from that on Earth. Much of Earth’s chemistry is driven by well-understood processes, which typically involve water and heat in some form. Mars lacks both of those features, which makes how some of its chemicals formed a point of ongoing debate in the scientific community. A new paper led by Alian Wang and Neil Sturchio of Washington University of St. Louis and the University of Delaware, respectively, and published recently in Earth and Planetary Science Letters offers a new framework for understanding chemical reaction processes on Mars. Despite the differences, Earthlings will still be familiar with the driving force behind Martian chemistry - electricity.

Young stars need time to grow into their final masses before they begin fusing lighter elements into heavier elements as main-sequence stars. They can spend hundreds of thousands of years as protostars, when they're still accreting mass from the molecular clouds they form in. But even though they haven't begun fusion, they still inject energy into their surroundings.

Additive Manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, will be an absolutely critical technology for any long-term settlement on another world. Its ability to take a generic input, such as plastic strips or metal powder, and turn it into any shape of tool an astronaut will need is an absolute game changer. But the chemistry behind these technologies is complicated, and their applications are extremely varied, ranging from creating bricks for settlements to plastics for everything from cups to toothbrush holders. A new paper available in pre-print on arXiv from Zane Mebruer and Wan Shou of the University of Arkansas, explores one specific aspect of a particularly important type of 3D printing, and realized that they could save millions of dollars on Mars missions by simply using the planet’s atmosphere to help print metal parts.