Launched in December 2014, the asteroid explorer Hayabusa 2 is now cruising in outer space as scheduled. It will arrive at the asteroid 1999 JU3 in 2018, the same year that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is due to arrive at the asteroid Bennu. Both the Japanese and American explorers are attempting to unlock the mystery of the […]
Artist’s impression of LISA Pathfinder, which will look for gravitational waves in space.Credit: ESA–D. DUCROS The fabric of spacetime is continually being stretched and squeezed due to the motion of all the bodies of the universe. These fluctuations are called gravitational waves and an upgraded, ground-based set of stations called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) […]
Artist’s concept of NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft in orbit.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech One of the two science instruments aboard a NASA Earth-observing satellite that launched earlier this year has failed, agency officials say. The radar instrument on NASA’s $916 million Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft stopped returning data on July 7, a few […]
An artist’s illustration shows the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) laser beaming data to Earth from its perch on the International Space Station.Credit: NASA NASA spacecraft may soon be able to beam their data home to Earth blazingly fast — with lasers! In space, a slow data connection means more than just annoyingly long […]
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Follow the entire 10-day mission of ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen to the International Space Station with behind-the-scenes info on the iriss blog To source
Technology created to remove plant-killing ethylene from International Space Station crop growing experiments has been applied to an air purification system on Earth. The system has the ability to remove mold as well, which is revolutionizing wine cellars and other food storage and delivery systems. Credit: NASA To source
NEW YORK – A few hours ago, at a toy store not so far away, Space.com sent one of its reporters to eat Wookie cookies, attend “Light Saber Academy,” and meet the owner of the world’s largest “Star Wars” memorabilia collection, in a daylong countdown to “Force Friday.” Tomorrow (Sept. 3), is “Force Friday”: […]
Is that really a floating spoon on Mars? No, but this photo from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity this week does show a weird rock that looks like a floating spoon. It was likely sculpted by Martian winds, NASA says.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS A so-called “floating spoon” on Mars spotted by NASA’s Curiosity rover is cooking up a […]
Come and see how images of Earth from space show how science meets art at a new exhibition at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria To source
This rocky panoramic scene is the second picture of the Martian surface that was taken by Viking Lander 2 shortly after touchdown on Sept. 3, 1976 at 3:58 p.m. PDT (Earth received time). To source
A SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 return-to-flight mission will be the first of an upgraded version with increased performance.Credit: SpaceX PASADENA, Calif. — The return to flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, still a “couple of months” away, will also be the first launch of an upgraded […]
An Apollo moon rock sample in the Lunar Sample Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.Credit: Science/AAAS Some of the moon soil collected by Apollo astronauts has deteriorated significantly during its four-plus decades on Earth, a new study reports. Scientists found that the median particle size in a set of 20 different Apollo soil […]