NASA’s Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a small space telescope that launched to space on January 11th, 2026. Created by NASA and researchers from the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) at the University of Arizona, the mission is tasked with monitoring the flares and sunspot activity of low-mass stars (M-type red dwarfs and K-type orange dwarfs). The telescope is equipped with far- and near-ultraviolet instruments to assess the habitability of the space environment around planets orbiting these stars.
Space News & Blog Articles
'Starfield' is finally coming to PS5, alongside DLC that adds new quests and the ability to fly between planets
Rejoice, PlayStation gamers! "Starfield" is finally making the hyperspace journey to PS5 alongside some major game updates for everyone.
Chinese astronaut conducts record-tying 6th spacewalk outside Tiangong space station (video)
Zhang Lu matched Chen Dong's tally of six spacewalks as he and crewmate Wu Fei completed a seven-hour excursion outside China's space station.
'Firefly' is getting an animated series featuring the original cast, and we're all shiny with anticipation
Calling all Browncoats! The original cast of the cult space western will return to voice their cartoon counterparts.
One of the youngest visible moons of the year appears alongside Venus tonight — here's how to see it
Look west after sunset on March 19 to try spotting a razor-thin crescent moon less than 24 hours old with brilliant Venus lighting the way.
Latest News on the Kreutz Sungrazing Comet C/2026 A1 MAPS
As the comet prepares for its perilous perihelion passage, we look at what to expect.
Northern lights may be visible in 16 US states tonight as several CMEs race toward Earth
Auroras may be visible from Alaska to Illinois tonight as several coronal mass ejections are forecast to impact within the next couple of days.
Astronomers Search for "Exotrojans" Hiding in Extreme Pulsar Systems
Greek mythology has given a name to a great many objects in our solar system. But perhaps one of the least well understood are the Trojans, named after the people of Troy featured in The Iliad. When astronomers refer to them, they are normally talking about a group of over 10,000 confirmed asteroids orbiting at the Lagrange points both in front of and behind Jupiter on its orbit around the Sun. But, more generally, astronomers can now use the term to refer to any co-orbital setup - indeed almost every planet in our solar system has Trojans, though not as many as Jupiter. Which also leads to the belief that “exotrojans” must exist around other stars. Despite our best efforts with initiatives like the TROY project, so far we have yet to find one. But a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal by Jackson Taylor of West Virginia University and an abundance of co-authors took the hunt to one of the most extreme environments in the universe: pulsar binary systems.
X-59 gets ready for 2nd test flight | Space photo of the day for March 18, 2026
NASA's X-59 jet looks ready to fly into the sunset in this new image taken before its second test flight.
Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up
Comet K1, whose full name is Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), had just passed its closest approach to the Sun and was heading out of the Solar System. Though it had been intact just days before, K1 fragmented into at least four pieces while the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was watching. The odds of that happening while Hubble viewed the comet are extraordinarily miniscule.
New moon of March 2026 brings stunning views of Jupiter, Venus, zodiacal light and more
Winter constellations shine defiantly in the face of spring as galaxy season and zodiacal light beckon.
Rainfall, rivers and seas: How Earth can prepare us to explore Saturn's moon Titan
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, happens to share some truly remarkable geophysical and geological processes with our home planet.
Missed Star Trek: Starfleet Academy or just want to binge-watch again? Get this Ferengi-approved Paramount Plus streaming deal, 79% cheaper for two months
Have you been holding off on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy till you can binge-watch it? Stream every episode, plus every other Trek show and movie, for just $2.99-a-month ad-free on Paramount Plus.
Beyond Artemis 2: NASA pursuing a 'more achievable' path back to the moon
As NASA gears up for the launch of Artemis 2, the agency is revising its moon landing strategy, aiming to make future missions more achievable and sustainable.
ESA Impact: our story so far this year
ESA Impact: our story so far this year
OHB Sweden to build Sterna weather constellation
Thanks to the success of the Arctic Weather Satellite prototype and Eumetsat’s recent greenlight to develop a full constellation of similar satellites called Sterna, the European Space Agency has awarded OHB Sweden with the contract to build 20 satellites.
Watch live today: NASA astronauts conducting spacewalk delayed by ISS medical evacuation
Two NASA astronauts will conduct a spacewalk today (March 18) that was delayed by the first-ever medical evacuation of the ISS, and you can watch the action live.
Why Conventional SETI Needs A Major Refocus
Conventional SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) strategies have long been built on the idea that intelligent extraterrestrials (ETI) would aim to communicate with other intelligent civilizations along a very narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, preferably in the radio spectrum.
CERN Adds a New Particle to Large Hadron Collider's Subatomic Zoo
The Large Hadron Collider’s subatomic discoveries didn’t stop with the Higgs boson: This week, scientists at Europe’s CERN research center announced that the collider’s LHCb experiment has detected a doubly charmed particle that’s like a proton, but four times as weighty.
X-ray spacecraft watches monster black hole wake up and fire cosmic bullets at starburst galaxy
The research could shed light on how black holes vomit out matter and how this influences their home galaxies.
Dune: Part Three teaser: Five talking points from Denis Villeneuve's return to Arrakis
Paul Atreides' kids, a Duncan Idaho comeback (kinda), and Robert Pattinson's creepy new role.

