space exploration

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This Man Made History 60 Years Ago
This Man Made
History 60 Years Ago
Apr 12, 2021 10:05 AM CDT

This Man Made History 60 Years Ago

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made a pioneering spaceflight, became national hero

(Newser) - Crushed into the pilot's seat by heavy G-forces, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin saw flames outside his spacecraft and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence at ground control: "I’m burning. Goodbye, comrades." Gagarin didn’t know that the blazing inferno he observed through a...

Here Is the Crew of First Private Flight by SpaceX

Billionaire fills out his 4-person team

(Newser) - A billionaire’s private SpaceX flight filled its two remaining seats Tuesday with a scientist-teacher and a data engineer whose college friend actually won a spot but gave him the prize, per the AP . The new passengers: Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona, and Chris Sembroski,...

Touchdown! NASA Lands Another Rover on Mars
Touchdown! NASA Lands
Another Rover on Mars
UPDATED
Feb 18, 2021 3:00 PM CST

Touchdown! NASA Lands Another Rover on Mars

Perseverance arrives safely

(Newser) - NASA successfully landed another rover on Mars Thursday. The Perseverance rover touched down about 4pm Eastern after a typically nail-biting descent. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena cheered and exchanged fist bumps and high-fives in triumph—and relief—on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled...

World's Mars Club Grows by 2 This Week

UAE probe on track to arrive Tuesday, and China's the following day

(Newser) - February is a big month in terms of Mars exploration, and it gets started Tuesday with a crucial moment in what AFP calls the first Arab space mission. A probe launched by the United Arab Emirates from Japan in July is on track to reach the planet's orbit at...

Japan Thrilled About 'Treasure Box' From Space

Capsule with material from asteroid was successfully dropped to Earth

(Newser) - China's mission to retrieve moon rocks isn't the only successful space feat in the news these days. A small capsule containing asteroid soil samples that was dropped from 136,700 miles in space by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft landed as planned in the Australian Outback on Sunday, per...

We May Have Been Visited by Relic of Early Space Age

Mysterious space object zipped by Earth, and NASA experts think it hails from the 1960s

(Newser) - In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, an object in space zipped by Earth at a distance of about 27,000 miles. The object has been given the not-so-descriptive designation of "2020 SO," and while nobody knows with certainty what it is, NASA researchers have an intriguing guess....

China's Ambitious Moon Mission Off to Good Start

Probe lands, aims to bring back moon rocks

(Newser) - A Chinese robot probe launched to return lunar rocks to Earth landed on the moon Tuesday, the government announced. Assuming all goes well, the mission will be the first in 40 years to retrieve moon rocks. The Chang'e 5 probe "successfully landed on the moon in the preselected...

Asteroid's Odds of Hitting Earth Just Improved

Though they're still slim for the year 2068

(Newser) - In nine years, a big asteroid will come close enough to Earth that it will be visible with the naked eye. In 2036, Apophis will make a return trip, and Earthlings will again be safe. The year 2068, however, might be a different story. Scientists just made some new calculations...

Scientists Discover Surprise About Jupiter&#39;s Icy Moon
Moon of Jupiter
Reveals a Surprise
new study
Nov 9, 2020 2:32 PM CST

Moon of Jupiter Reveals a Surprise

Researchers say Europa glows in the dark

(Newser) - Scientists have just figured something out about the Jupiter moon Europa—it glows in the dark. Which, as a post at NASA points out, might not seem that weird to a layman. After all, we look up and see our own moon glowing in the night sky. But something entirely...

Source of Cosmic Radio Bursts Is Finally Discovered

They come from 'magnestars'

(Newser) - A flash of luck helped astronomers solve a cosmic mystery: What causes powerful but fleeting radio bursts that zip and zigzag through the universe? Scientists have known about these energetic pulses—called fast radio bursts—for about 13 years and have seen them coming from outside our galaxy, which makes...

In Clouds of Venus, a Tantalizing Find
Something
Weird Is
Happening
on Venus
new study
Sep 14, 2020 11:23 AM CDT

Something Weird Is Happening on Venus

Chemical associated with biological life is detected in the clouds

(Newser) - Astronomers have found something unexpected in the clouds of Venus—a chemical usually associated with biological life. Does this mean there's life on Venus? Nope, far from it, explains the MIT Technology Review . But the gist from coverage is that the discovery is extremely intriguing. In their paper in...

NASA Patents Cheaper Way to Reach the Moon

New course is for small, unmanned missions

(Newser) - One of NASA's newest patents is about something laymen might not have thought was necessary—a map to the moon. But as the Observer reports, the newly patented route is designed for small, unmanned scientific missions. And it will not only save money, it will allow those missions to...

Rare Splashdown Nears
Rare Splashdown Nears
Jul 31, 2020 5:30 PM CDT

Rare Splashdown Nears

Crew expects to bob in the water off Florida for a while before being picked up

(Newser) - Two US astronauts about to make the first splashdown return in 45 years said Friday they'll have seasick bags ready if needed. SpaceX and NASA plan to bring Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken back Sunday afternoon in the company's Dragon capsule, aiming for the Gulf of Mexico just...

Rock From Mars Continues Its Strange Journey

NASA is bringing the small meteorite back to the red planet

(Newser) - Somewhere around 700,000 years ago, an asteroid or comet slammed into Mars and sent debris flying everywhere. And perhaps 1,000 years ago, one small piece of rock finally ended up on Earth. Now that same bit of basalt is going back to Mars, reports the BBC . As the...

China's Launch Was a Success. '7 Minutes of Terror' Is to Come

Nation just sent its first unmanned Tianwen-1 rover to Mars

(Newser) - It's a big first for China: the independent launch of an unmanned probe to Mars. Riding a Long March 5 rocket out of the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, the Tianwen-1 rover was sent into space at around 12:40pm local time on Thursday. "I now...

Scientists Have Surprisingly Specific Answer on Alien Life
Scientists Have Surprisingly
Specific Answer on Alien Life
in case you missed it
Jun 20, 2020 7:00 AM CDT

Scientists Have Surprisingly Specific Answer on Alien Life

Study estimates 36 alien civilizations exist in our galaxy capable of communicating with us

(Newser) - Asked the meaning of life, the supercomputer in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came up with a very specific answer: 42 . Tasked with a different Big Question—how many intelligent alien civilizations exist in our galaxy—real-life scientists have gotten just as specific: 36. That's the estimate...

Scientists Just Found Closest Black Hole to Earth

'Washington, DC, would quite easily fit into the black hole'

(Newser) - Meet your new but shy galactic neighbor: A black hole left over from the death of a fleeting young star, per the AP . European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye....

Mystery of Missing Exoplanet May Be Solved
Mystery of Missing
Exoplanet May Be Solved
in case you missed it
Apr 25, 2020 7:00 AM CDT

Mystery of Missing Exoplanet May Be Solved

Turns out, Fomalhaut b may not have been an exoplanet after all

(Newser) - Anyone seen Fomalhaut b? In 2008 we learned the exoplanet had been spotted in groundbreaking fashion by the Hubble Telescope, but nobody's caught a glimpse of it for quite a while. Now astronomers think they know why. Turns out, Fomalhaut b may not have been an exoplanet at all,...

Trump Order: US Should Mine Moon for Minerals

This 'order establishes US policy toward the recovery and use of space resources'

(Newser) - President Trump issued an executive order Monday urging the US to mine the moon, and possibly other celestial bodies, for minerals, the Guardian reports. "Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space," says the order, which notes that...

It&#39;s the Biggest Bang Since the Big Bang
It's the Biggest Bang
Since the Big Bang
new study
Feb 28, 2020 8:20 AM CST

It's the Biggest Bang Since the Big Bang

Astronomers discover explosion of mind-boggling proportions from a black hole

(Newser) - It was a quite a bang. In fact, it was the biggest one in the universe since the Big Bang itself, say astronomers in a news release . Using data from multiple telescopes—including NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory—astronomers reported Thursday that the long-ago blast came from a black hole...

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