space

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

How to Watch Today&#39;s Attempted Moon Landing
How to Watch
Today's Attempted
Lunar Landing
the rundown
Feb 22, 2024 1:30 AM CST

How to Watch Today's Attempted Lunar Landing

Odysseus is in orbit, will attempt to touch down at 5:30pm Eastern time

(Newser) - Odysseus, the robotic moon lander launched last week by a private Houston company, successfully entered the moon's orbit Wednesday, and is scheduled to land Thursday at 5:30pm Eastern time—which, if successful, would be the first time in more than five decades that a US spacecraft has touched...

Dead Satellite Spotted Falling Toward Earth

ERS-2 expected to mostly burn up in Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday

(Newser) - Sometime on Wednesday, a 5,000-pound satellite will come crashing down to Earth. The European Space Agency's European Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2) satellite, which orbited Earth from 1995 to 2011, is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, though exactly when is uncertain. As of Tuesday morning, the satellite...

Saturn&#39;s &#39;Death Star&#39; Moon May Hide an Ocean
Saturn's
'Death Star'
Moon May
Hide an Ocean
NEW STUDY
Feb 8, 2024 6:25 PM CST

Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon May Hide an Ocean

Relatively young ocean thought to fill half of Mimas' volume

(Newser) - Astronomers have found the best evidence yet of a vast, young ocean beneath the icy exterior of Saturn's Death Star lookalike mini moon. The French-led team analyzed changes in Mimas' orbit and rotation and reported that a hidden ocean 12 to 18 miles beneath the frozen crust was more...

Scientists Envision a Massive Space Umbrella

Idea is to protect us from the sun's solar radiation

(Newser) - Sometimes, proposals to keep the Earth cool are too complicated for non-scientists to understand. And sometimes, they're like this one: "the equivalent of a giant beach umbrella, floating in outer space." That's from the New York Times in its coverage of a proposal being floated by...

Gravitational Wave Detector Will Be a 'Game-Changer'

2035 LISA mission will hunt for ripples in space-time

(Newser) - As part of his theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein predicated a body accelerating in space would create radiating ripples in space-time. He was, of course, correct. But he was wrong about one thing. Einstein believed gravitational waves, even those caused by the collision of massive objects, would be too...

In Welcome Spot on Mars, Frozen Water Apparently Hides
Massive Reserve of Ice
Found Near Equator of Mars
NEW STUDY
Jan 23, 2024 2:40 PM CST

Massive Reserve of Ice Found Near Equator of Mars

Huge deposits detected near a likely landing spot of future astronauts

(Newser) - Deep beneath Mars' equator lies what is believed to be a supply of frozen water that, if melted, would cover the entire planet in an ocean of at least 5 feet deep. That's according to the European Space Agency , whose Mars Express spacecraft discovered the suspected reserve of water...

Moon Lander&mdash;and Its Human Remains&mdash;to Burn
Doomed Lunar
Lander Meets
Its End
UPDATED
Jan 19, 2024 12:30 AM CST

Doomed Lunar Lander Meets Its End

Astrobotic's Peregrine burns up reentering Earth's atmosphere, along with human remains

(Newser) - The doomed Peregrine moon lander burned up in Earth's atmosphere over a remote stretch of the South Pacific on Thursday, as planned after the spacecraft suffered a malfunction that left it unable to reach the moon. "We commend @Astrobotic for their perseverance," NASA said in a statement...

NASA Needs Your Help Unraveling Cosmic Mysteries

Agency calls for citizen scientists to catalog pulses of gamma rays as discoveries continue

(Newser) - NASA needs your help to identify massive explosions in space. The space agency is calling on citizen scientists to become "burst chasers" by joining a project to interpret gamma-ray bursts across the universe and "decode what the universe is saying," according to a release . Huge amounts of...

Of Human Remains Headed to Moon, Navajo Say No

Navajo Nation wants commercial mission to deposit remains of US presidents, others halted

(Newser) - A space mission that will deposit a whole lot of human remains on the moon appears to be moving forward despite the Navajo Nation's objections. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren sent a letter to NASA and the US Department of Transportation last month, requesting the mission be postponed from...

Prospects of Life on This Moon 'Are Getting Better and Better'

Scientists find evidence of hydrogen cyanide, needed to form amino acids, on Enceladus

(Newser) - Scientists previously discovered the six essential ingredients of life spewing from Enceladus , one of Saturn's 146 moons, which is considered to have one of the best chances of hosting life of any known planetary body in the solar system besides Earth. Now, they've discovered evidence of a poisonous...

It's a 'Pivotal Milestone' Courtesy of Webb Telescope

In a first, chemical composition of an exoplanet's clouds definitively identified

(Newser) - The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed details of an "absolutely hostile" planet where it rains, not water, but particles of silicate sand, which whip around at speeds of a couple of miles per second. The gas giant Wasp-107b, some 200 light years away in the Virgo constellation, is...

Physics Says They Shouldn&#39;t Exist. Yet Here They Are
Webb Telescope Makes
'Baffling' Discovery
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 7, 2023 12:10 PM CDT

Webb Telescope Makes 'Baffling' Discovery

Scientists announce discovery of planet-sized objects unexplained by existing theories

(Newser) - The James Webb Space Telescope has shown us the most distant black holes known to exist , new exoplanets , possible planets in the making —and now, planet-sized objects previously unknown and unaccounted for by existing theories. Nearly 150 planet-like "Jupiter Mass Binary Objects," or JuMBOs—far too small...

Chunk of Asteroid That Could Take Chunk Out of Earth Nears

OSIRIS-REx's sample from near-Earth asteroid Bennu to arrive in Utah on Sunday

(Newser) - There's a 1 in 2,700 chance that an asteroid known for its close flybys of Earth could smack into the planet in the next 160 years or so, which isn't very reassuring. NASA hopes, however, that the upcoming conclusion of a seven-year mission to retrieve samples from...

Probe Survives Massive Solar Eruption, Proves a Theory

Parker Solar Probe observes a coronal mass ejection clear dust 'like a vacuum cleaner'

(Newser) - A solar probe has survived flying through a huge solar eruption, or what NASA is calling "one of the most powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs) ever recorded." The Parker Solar Probe , which has flown closer to the sun's surface than any other spacecraft, encountered and filmed the...

One of Saturn's Moons Is Spraying Epic Water Plumes

Tiny, bright satellite of Enceladus dazzles astronomers with its geysers

(Newser) - Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon—and the solar system's most reflective object—has been putting on a show, spraying massive volumes of water into space. Aided by the James Webb Space Telescope, Mashable reports that collaborating NASA, European, and Canadian space agency researchers have been thrilled by the moon'...

Largest Explosion Ever Seen Is an 8B-Year-Old Mystery

Outrageously bright light from distant space suggests black hole ate a big, gassy meal

(Newser) - In 2020, a bright light appeared in the night sky. That light, still visible with advanced telescopes today, represents the largest explosion ever seen. You're forgiven for not noticing as this is all happening some 8 billion light years away, though that wasn't clear initially. The light was...

There&#39;s Water All Over the Moon
There's Water
All Over the Moon
NEW STUDY
Mar 28, 2023 12:03 PM CDT

There's Water All Over the Moon

Researchers in China find H2O can be pulled from heated impact beads

(Newser) - New research suggests trillions of gallons of water are spread across the moon—which should be great news for those planning a lunar colony. Though NASA plans to search for water ice at the lunar south pole, there are signs that water isn't restricted to the poles but is...

Scientists: Trash Mess in Space Mirrors Problem in Oceans

Cleanup effort must start with a binding global treaty, experts say

(Newser) - There have been calls to action to clean up the trash in the world's oceans, and now researchers are warning of the urgency to do the same thing in space. The efforts are more similar than they might sound, Time reports. "As a marine biologist I never imagined...

3D-Printed Rocket Doesn't Make Orbit but Is 'a Major Step'

Terran 1 is on track to prove its viability, Relativity Space says

(Newser) - Everything looked good for the first three minutes of the Terran 1 launch Wednesday night from Cape Canaveral. The 3D-printed rocket's first and second stages separated successfully, Space.com reports, before it failed to reach orbit. Still, the test flight was "a major step," Relativity Space officials...

Scientists Do 180 Away From 'Weird' Theories on 'Oumuamua

They're going back to positing that interstellar visitor was a comet, albeit with gas, dust trapped

(Newser) - Was it an asteroid , a comet , a chunk of a distant planet , or an alien artifact ? All of these possibilities have been floated since the mysterious 'Oumuamua, our first known interstellar visitor, sped through our solar system in 2017. A 2021 study suggested what was previously thought to...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser