The James Webb Space Telescope is lifted on top of its Ariane 5 launcher inside the final assembly building in French Guiana. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut
The nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, suspended under a crane with four cables, was raised atop top an Ariane 5 launcher Saturday inside a vertical hangar in French Guiana, one of the final steps to prep the mission for liftoff this month after a quarter-century of design and development.
The largest parachute set to fly on Mars has completed its first successful high-altitude drop test, a critical milestone for ensuring the ExoMars mission is on track for launch in 2022. Both the first and second stage parachutes have now successfully flown this year.
ESA Highlights: images and achievements from 2021
Even though Texas-based Axiom Space hasn’t yet sent its first crew of customers to the International Space Station, NASA is giving the company an opportunity to send a second crew, potentially just months later.
For fans of astrophotography, Kevin M. Gill needs no introduction. Even if you’re not up on the latest astronomical news and developments, chances are you’ve still seen some of his images over the years. From beautiful artist renditions to breathtaking photographs of far-off planets, Gill has covered it all. Among the latest images available on his official Flickr page are pictures of a unique feature on Mars: the Chasma Boreale Megadunes!
A reported 'deficiency' in the upper stage forced a nearly week-long delay in the successful launch.
Can planets form around massive, hot stars? Some astronomers think they can’t. According to the evidence, planets around stars exceeding three solar masses should be rare, or maybe even non-existent. But now astronomers have found one.
You’re looking at a 300-megapixel photo of our Sun. Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy used a specially modified telescope, taking over 150,000 individual photos and combing them into this magnificent image.
Musk's rise to fame is symbolic of the impact of billionaire technologists in American society, Time says.
The documentary "explores the prospect of humans visiting and settling Mars" and how we'll get there.
Learn how Earth’s moon formed, how its orbit affects Earth’s tides, why solar and lunar eclipses happen and the history of lunar exploration.
Scientists tested seven different predictions, in one of the most ambitious and involved challenges to general relativity ever undertaken — and the theory passed with flying colors.
The Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak tonight (Dec. 13), and you can watch the annual starry night display live online via NASA's Meteor Watch Facebook page.
The solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists have developed three models of how it happened.
New data and analysis show that a long-standing discrepancy in the measurement of the current expansion rate of the universe is real — even as the reason for it remains a mystery.
Astronomers have identified the origin of a mysterious flash that occurred three years ago.
Patterns in nature often occur in more than one place. Spirals, symmetry, and chaos all impact natural phenomena, from the shape of a shell to the course of a river. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the most famous and fundamental shapes from biology also appears in astrophysics. Yes, scientists have found a double-helix structure in the magnetic field of M87. And it looks just like a super enlarged DNA strand.
On Nov. 15, 2021, Russia destroyed one of its own old satellites using a missile launched from the surface of Earth, creating a massive debris cloud that threatens many space assets, including the International Space Station.
A technology that keeps Norway's fjords ice-free in winter could help prevent devastating hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico in the future.
The stunning image was produced during a search for supermassive black holes.
There are two main reasons. First, crocodiles can live for a very long time without food. Second, they lived in places that were the least affected when the asteroid hit Earth.
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