Observations from ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite indicate the ozone hole above Antarctica is one of the largest seasonal holes ever observed.
Space News & Blog Articles
Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.
Atlas V rocket launching Amazon's 1st internet satellites today: Watch it live
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch two prototype satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper constellation today (Oct. 6), and you can watch it live.
Hypergravity odyssey of Earth’s tiniest plant
The smallest flowering plant on Earth might become a nutritious foodstuff for astronauts in the future, as well as a highly efficient source of oxygen. To help test its suitability for space, floating clumps of watermeal – individually the size of pinheads – were subjected to 20 times normal Earth gravity aboard ESA’s Large Diameter Centrifuge by a team from Mahidol University in Thailand.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, October 6 – 15
A partial/annular eclipse of the Sun washes across the Americas on Wednesday the 14th. Four days before, the waning Moon and Venus pair up in early dawn with Regulus glimmering between them.
The night sky twinkles inside new book, 'Diamonds Everywhere,' by astronomer Tom Kerss
Gaze into the cosmos with this new must-have for your astrophotography bookshelf.
Open doors for the ESA-ESRIN Open Day
Video: 00:05:59
On Friday 29 September, the European Space Agency opened the doors of the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, ESRIN, to host the ESA Open Day in the framework of the European Researchers' Night. With a full program of presentations, interviews, interactive games, hands-on workshops and various activities, more than 1400 people, among adults and children, had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the activities and programs in which ESA is involved every day.
Earth from Space: Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines
Image: The heart of the Nueva Vizcaya Province on Luzon, the largest and most populated island of the Philippines, shows up brightly in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 false-colour image.
Parker Makes its Closest and Fastest Solar Flyby
The Parker Solar Probe is the little engine that just keeps going and going by the Sun. On September 27th, it made its 17th close approach and skimmed just 7.26 million kilometers (4.51 million miles) above the sun’s “surface” layer (called the photosphere).
Those Impossibly Massive Early Galaxies Might Just Be Surprisingly Bright
On July 12th, 2022, in an event live-streamed from the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images were released! Among them was the most detailed image of SMACS 0723, showing galaxy clusters and the gravitational lenses they produced. These lenses allowed astronomers to see deeper into the cosmos and spot galaxies as they appeared less than one billion years after the Big Bang (ca. 13 billion years ago). Upon further examination, however, they noticed something rather surprising about these early galaxies: they were much larger than expected!
Watch the trailer for surreal space exploration survival game 'The Alters' (video)
Polish gaming studio 11 Bit shared a new character reveal trailer for their upcoming space exploration survival game "The Alters."
Can JWST Tell the Difference Between an Exo-Earth and an Exo-Venus?
As of this month, astronomers have discovered 5,506 exoplanets orbiting other stars. That number is growing daily, and astronomers are hoping, among other things, to find Earth-like worlds. But will we know one when we see it? How might we be able to tell an Earth-like garden from a Venus-like pressure cooker from upwards of 40 light years away? Is JWST up to the challenge?
Europa and Enceladus are the Perfect Targets for a Lightsail Mission
There’s always a need for new technologies or for novel uses of existing technologies to lower the cost of space exploration and extend our reach. Lightsails are a novel type of spacecraft that could eventually be our first visitors to nearby stars like the Alpha Centauri system. But they could be put to productive use right here in our Solar System.
Hubble Telescope reveals a rare galaxy with a luminous heart (photo)
A stunning new Hubble Telescope image showcases NGC 612's orange-hued star-forming disk.
"Ring of Fire" Solar Eclipse Comes to the Americas on October 14th
A solar eclipse will soon grace the skies over the Americas. On Saturday, October 14, 2023, the Moon will cross in front of the Sun, spending up to 5 minutes 17 seconds centered on the brilliant solar disk, but it will cover at most 90% of it. The remaining 10% will appear as a blazing “ring of fire” around the Moon’s black silhouette.
Disney debuts NASA Perseverance Mars rover tracks at EPCOT's Mission: SPACE
NASA's Perseverance rover may have taken a brief detour to Walt Disney World in Florida. Guests visiting EPCOT can now come across a tread like that left by the six-wheeled rover.
Atlas 5 to deliver first Amazon internet satellites to orbit on Friday
Satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation are hoisted up to integrate onto ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket. Image: ULA
Amazon is getting its own delivery fulfilled this Friday, adding to an extensive portfolio that includes its online marketplace, streaming video, grocery and cloud services, with the launch of two prototype relay stations for a space-based internet service it calls Project Kuiper.
Earth will experience 2 eclipses this month. Here's what you need to know
October sees both a partial lunar eclipse and a 'ring of fire' annular solar eclipse, although seeing them both in person will require a good deal of travel.
SpaceX's Starship has 'decent chance' of success on upcoming flight, Elon Musk says
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said his company is ready for the next flight of Starship. In a new keynote address, he talked about what comes next, and how the system will ready SpaceX for future Mars exploration.
A Star Threw Off a Sun’s Worth of Material. And Then it Exploded!
What happens just before a massive star explodes as a supernova? To figure that out, astronomers need to look at very “young” supernovae across multiple wavelengths of light. That’s what happened when SN 2023ixf occurred in May 2023. It turns out its aging progenitor star blew off a solar mass worth of material just before it died. Now, the big question is: why?
This Hubble Space Telescope galaxy image could help reveal how stars are born (photo)
If we can understand how stars form, perhaps we can understand how planets do, too.
