Space News & Blog Articles

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Northern lights may be visible in these 18 US states Sept. 1-2

Auroras may be visible from Alaska to Illinois as an incoming solar storm could spark geomagnetic storm conditions this Labor Day.

NASA wants to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 – choosing where is tricky

NASA plans to prioritize the fission reactor as power necessary to extract and refine lunar resources.

SpaceX deploys 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit after launch from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink broadband internet satellites was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025.

3I/ATLAS's Coma Is Largely Carbon Dioxide

All (or at least most) astronomical eyes are on 3I/ATLAS, our most recent interstellar visitor that was discovered in early July. Given its relatively short observational window in our solar system, and especially its impending perihelion in October, a lot of observational power has been directed towards it. That includes the most powerful space telescope of them all - and a recent paper pre-printed on arXiv describes what the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) discovered in the comet’s coma. It wasn’t like any other it had seen before.

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What Technosignatures Would Interstellar Objects Have?

The recent discovery of the third known interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS, has brought about another round of debate on whether these objects could potentially be technological in origin. Everything from random YouTube channels to tenured Harvard professors have thoughts about whether ISOs might actually be spaceships, but the general consensus of the scientific community is that they aren’t. Overturning that consensus would require a lot of “extraordinary evidence”, and a new paper led by James Davenport at the DiRAC Institute at the University of Washington lays out some of the ways that astronomers could collect that evidence for either the current ISO or any new ones we might find.

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Try to spot a rare Aurigid meteor as the shower peaks overnight on Aug. 31

The Aurigid meteor shower hails from debris of the comet C/1911 N1 Kiess, which last visited the inner solar system 2,000 years ago.

ESA's JUICE spacecraft flies by Venus on its way to Jupiter's icy moons

Europe's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer probe completed its Venus flyby on Aug. 31, keeping it on track to reach the Jovian system in July 2031.

One week until the blood moon total lunar eclipse lights up September's sky

A total lunar eclipse will take place on Sept. 7-8, creating a spectacular blood moon effect.

Aurora alert! Incoming cannibal solar storm could spark Labor Day northern lights show

A pair of solar eruptions may combine into a powerful "cannibal CME," boosting chances for dazzling auroras over Labor Day.

New Insights into Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration

What processes are responsible for our Sun’s solar wind, heat, and energy? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review X hopes to address as a team of researchers presented evidence for a newly discovered type of barrier that the Sun exhibits that could help explain the transfer of energy to heat within the Sun’s outer atmosphere. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the underlying mechanisms for what drives our Sun and what this could mean for learning about other suns throughout the cosmos.

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Binary Star Evolution as a Driver of Planet Formation

What can binary star systems teach astronomers about the formation and evolution of planets orbiting them? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated past studies that claimed a specific binary star system could host a planet demonstrating a retrograde orbit, meaning it orbits in the opposite direction of the star’s rotation. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand binary and multiple star systems, specifically the formation and evolution of their planets and what this could mean for finding life beyond Earth.

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Scientists Discover Unusual Plasma Waves in Jupiter's Aurora

Scientists from the University of Minnesota have discovered something extraordinary in Jupiter's polar regions that has never been seen before, a completely new type of plasma wave that creates aurora unlike anything we observe on Earth.

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Scientists Crack the Code of the Galaxy's Most Mysterious Steam Worlds

For astrobiologists, the search for life beyond our Solar System could be likened to where one would look in a vast desert where there's water. The most intriguing targets are planets called sub-Neptunes, which get their name because they're larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. What makes them fascinating is that their size and mass suggest they're packed with water but not the kind of water we know.

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World's Most Powerful Solar Telescope Captures Breathtaking Image of Solar Flare

On August 8, 2024, the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii achieved a historic milestone by capturing the sharpest images ever taken of a solar flare. The unprecedented observations revealed coronal loops in stunning detail. The arches of superheated plasma following the Sun's magnetic field lines were captured at such resolution that it’s possible to see individual structures as narrow as 21 kilometres across.

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The ESA Restores Communications with JUICE at Venus

The ESA's JUpiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is on its way to conduct detailed studies of Jupiter and its three icy moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. To pick up speed and reach Jupiter by July 2031, the probe will conduct a gravity-assist maneuver with Venus on Sunday, August 31st. According to the ESA, the mission suffered an anomaly with its communications system, which temporarily severed its connection with Earth. Fortunately, a coordinated response by teams at the ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and Airbus (JUICE's manufacturer) restored communications in time for the probe's flyby.

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Live coverage: SpaceX’s Sunday morning Falcon 9 launch will send 1,900th Starlink to orbit in 2025

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands in the launch position at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of the planned liftoff of the Starlink 6-61 mission on Oct. 22, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is capping off the month of August with a Sunday morning sunrise Starlink mission. This will be the company’s ninth time launching its broadband internet satellites this month alone.

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New 'Jump Space' trailer blasts off with intense interstellar action ahead of September launch (video)

Leap into the killer cosmic combat for Keepsake Games' retitled first-person PvE shooter

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 175 — More AI in Space

On Episode 175 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and and Tariq Malik are joined by Daniel Selva to talk about crew interactions and trust with AI using computers.

Neptune Know-It-All: A Neptune trivia quiz

In this quiz, you’ll test your knowledge of Neptune's features, moons, and the science that keeps astronomers fascinated.

Inside the search for sustainable aviation fuels, which are on the federal chopping block

The Trump administration's "One Big, Beautiful Bill" slashes federal funding for efforts to create renewable or sustainable types of fuel for aircraft.

NASA employees fear worsening conditions as new Trump executive order eliminates their right to unionize

A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump removes NASA employees from federal labor-management protections, under the justification of national security.


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