This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a beautiful cloud of dust and gas located in the constellation of Serpens. This cloud is a type of object called a dense core, with enough densely packed material that it could one day be the birt…
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft recently made a flyby of Earth, capturing some stunning images of our planet on its way to investigate the Trojan asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter. But Lucy has had some troubles in the form of a solar array that hasn’t fully de…
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered two of the earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe, and they are much brighter than expected, meaning astronomers are rethinking their beliefs about how the earliest stars formed.
“These observations ju…
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is heading through space and on its way to the moon and is set to make a close approach on Monday, November 21. If you want to follow along with Orion’s journey you’ll be able to tune into a live stream and see coverag…
With plans for the upcoming Mars Sample Return mission forming, NASA is getting ready to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth. But first, the Perseverance rover needs to collect and store samples from across the Jezero crater, ready for them to be colle…
Astronomers will soon have a new tool for hunting exoplanets, as the W. M. Keck Observatory’s Keck Planet Finder (KPF) instrument recently took its first observations. KPF’s “first light” observations captured data from Jupiter, demonstrating how the i…
When a massive star runs out of fuel and approaches the end of its life, it explodes in a huge outpouring of energy called a supernova. These events can be so bright that they outshine entire galaxies, but they don’t last for long — just the blink of a…
When a rover is exploring the surface of Mars, it doesn’t send data straight back to Earth. That’s for two reasons: Firstly, it would require a large, powerful antenna which would be cumbersome and expensive to add, and secondly, because of the rotatio…
This Thursday, November 10, NASA will launch a weather satellite called JPSS-2 into a polar Earth orbit. This environmental satellite will be accompanied by a test of a new inflatable heat shield, making this launch one well worth tuning in for.
La…
Far away in the depths of the Milky Way lie two small, dim stars that are in the final stage of their life. At over 10 billion years old, white dwarfs WDJ2147-4035 and WDJ1922+0233 are among the oldest stars in our galaxy, and recently, astronomers dis…
A Chinese rocket booster has made an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere for the second time this year. Pieces of the booster from a Long March 5B rocket were confirmed to be making a re-entry by the U.S. Space Command on Friday, November 4, and …
This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows two of a set of three interacting galaxies called Arp 248. This group, also known as Wild’s Triplet, consists of three small spiral galaxiesthat are linked together by bridges of stars.
Located 20…
Early tomorrow morning a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia carrying supplies and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch of the uncrewed cargo mission will be live-streame…
China continues to progress in building its own space station, named Tiangong. This week the third module of the new station arrived in orbit and was added to the station, and Chinese astronauts entered it for the first time.
This screen image capture…
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket has arrived back on the launch pad ahead of its launch later this month. The rocket, along with the Orion spacecraft, will be launched on the uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon to test out technology for future…