The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations. The sunshield – about the size of a tennis court at full size – was folded to fit inside the payload area of an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket’sContinue Reading
Humanity is heading back to the Moon, and this time, we’re planning to stay. But for long-term space missions, astronauts would need infrastructure to live and work, to move around, to communicate with Earth, and to produce oxygen and water vital for survival. Taking all this infrastructure from Earth wouldContinue Reading
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun’s nearest neighbor stars. TESS has so far discovered 172 confirmed exoplanets and compiled a list of 4703 candidate exoplanets. Its sensitive camera takes images that span a huge field ofContinue Reading
The magnetic ropes may surround our planet. Our planet, along with the rest of the solar system and some nearby stars, may be trapped inside a giant magnetic tunnel — and astronomers don’t know why. A tube of vast magnetized tendrils, 1,000 light-years long and invisible to the naked eye,Continue Reading
This bizarre world appears to be the second-hottest known exoplanet as well. Astronomers have broken yet another record, spotting a new gas giant with the shortest known orbit. The world takes just 16 hours to circle its star — but someday, the dance may come to an abrupt end. TheContinue Reading
The reactor will help sustain future missions on the moon, Mars and beyond, according to NASA. Do you or a friend know how to build a uranium-powered nuclear reactor that can fit inside a 12-foot-long by 18-foot-wide (4 by 6 meters) rocket? Can you get the job done by theContinue Reading
A big space rock would have thrown the Earthlike planets of the Trappist-1 system out of sync, a new study says. TRAPPIST-1 would be an unremarkable star if not for the scientific interest generated by its seven planets. Astronomers first spotted the new worlds, at least three of whichContinue Reading
The risk of invading alien organisms is low, but we’re increasing the chances. The growing demand for space exploration is increasing the chances of alien organisms invading Earth and of Earth-based organisms invading other planets, scientists have argued in a new paper. The researchers point to humanity’s record of movingContinue Reading
Black holes are notoriously hard to detect, since they are as black as the space surrounding them. We can only pinpoint them in special circumstances, like when they pull down gas from a neighboring star or merge together, releasing a flood of gravitational waves. So how many black holes areContinue Reading
The DART mission is scheduled to launch at 1:20 a.m. EST on Nov. 24. If you’re on the East Coast of the U.S., you may have to set your alarm; the rocket bearing the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is scheduled to blast off at 1:20 a.m. EST (6:20Continue Reading
