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British astronaut Tim Peake ran the London Marathon on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station.
NASA released a new set of images of Ceres - and they're a sight to behold.f
A company called Aerojet Rocketdyne has won a $67 million contract from NASA to design and develop an advanced electric propulsion system that could power complex missions to asteroids and even to Mars.
NASA astronauts have discovered a lonely planetary-like mass floating on its own, without a solar system. Imagine a galaxy, riddled with countless solar systems. Then zoom in slowly on a solar system – how do you picture it? There’s probably a star at the center, and several planets around it. That’s generally where we feel […]
There's confidence that reproducing in space is indeed possible, based on previous research. The most recent experiment made by Chinese scientists, for instance, proved that mammalian embryos can develop in microgravity.
Beam is basically a huge inflatable structure which is easy to carry and provides ample living space for astronauts once it expands. Props to SpaceX for yet another successful Dragon mission, but also to Bigelow Aerospace -- a company which might become a household name in the coming decade if their plan works: build the first space hotel!
Every picture you're likely to see of it shows planets and moons too close together prevents you from getting a feel of the size of our solar system. A group of friends plans to change that, however.
Deep radio imaging from researchers working in South Africa have revealed that supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction. The results show, for the first time, an alignment of the jets of galaxies over a large volume of space. Astronomers believe this is due […]
A Russian billionaire wants to fund the first ever interstellar probe – and he wants to do it in the span of a generation. If this comes to fruition, it will be by far the most ambitious space endeavor ever attempted by mankind. Space is incredibly vast, we all know that, but sometimes it can […]
Scientists have completed the most precise measurement of the Universe's rate of expansion to date; but the result just isn't compatible with speed calculations from remanent Big Bang radiation. Should the former results be confirmed by independent techniques, we might very well have to rewrite the laws of cosmology as we know them.
We don’t give it a lot of through, but things in space are generally round. Not the Red Rectangle though – this nebula is… well, rectangular. According to NASA, this is actually a binary star system. The stars at its center are similar to the Sun, but they are reaching the end of its lifetime […]
Astrophysicists have discovered a new class of exoplanets whose atmospheres and volatile elements have been blown away by the star they're orbiting. Their findings help cover a previously uncharted gap in planetary populations, and offers valuable insight for locating new worlds to colonize.
A team of NASA researchers has developed the first ever method for identifying and studying underground forest fungi from outer space, providing information that will help us better understand how forests will develop. Mycorrhizal fungi (underground fungus) are more similar to a city network than to individual organisms. They are complex intertwined networks that can […]
Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole in a completely unexpected area of space, a sparse area where massive galaxies are few and far between.
It always baffles me how some publish completely misleading clickbait titles.
NASA's Opportunity rover beamed back this amazing photographed showing a dust devil swirling over the Martian surface. “This is one of the best dust devils that we have seen in Meridiani Planum,” said Ray Arvidson who's Opportunity’s deputy principal investigator.
A gas giant called KELT-4Ab revolves in a stable 3-day orbit around its parent star, flanked by another two.
SpaceX will launch as early as April 8 an inflatable habitat module destined for the International Space Station.
A few years ago, the Cassini spacecraft made a surprising discovery: there are geysers erupting on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, spewing water and ice to great heights. However, the process which causes these geysers remained unknown or controversial. Now, scientists at the University of Chicago and Princeton University have pinpointed a mechanism through which Saturn’s tidal forces […]
This is the geological map of Mars. That we have a geological map of another planet, as accurate as it may be, is simply amazing to me. More info after the scroll. Mars doesn’t have any tectonic plates, but that doesn’t stop it from having a very interesting geology. Most of our current knowledge about […]
Researchers studying the Moon’s ice have found evidence that Earth’s moon wandered off its original axis roughly 3 billion years ago. This would mean that our satellite is in a select group of wanderers, alongside only few other planetary bodies. Planetary scientist Matt Siegler at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and colleagues were examining NASA data regarding lunar […]
When researchers started raising 48 bacteria species aboard the International Space Station, they weren’t really sure what to expect. They wanted to see how the microorganisms would adapt to living in microgravity, but one species hasn’t only adapted – it’s doing better than on Earth. According to a recent study, Bacillus safensis JPL-MERTA-8-2 – a strain […]
Well, technically if you're not a space pirate, you'll be prosecuted by the laws governing your home country. On the International Space Station, that's another story.
A new gravity map of Mars is offering researchers the possibility to study the geology of Mars.
Some stars go out with a bang -- a supernova explosion! Using optical images recorded by the now defunct Kepler telescope, astronomers witnessed for the very time the shockwave that follows a star's implosion once it runs out of fuel.
Five new studies describe Pluto and its atmosphere, showing that Pluto is much more active and complex than previously thought, and still has more surprises to be discovered. Pluto’s surface exhibits a wide variety of landscapes, some significantly different from its largest moon Charon. Whether or not we agree on Pluto’s planet status, we all have […]
Astronomers have discovered a new species of galaxies in the cosmic wilderness.
Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt – too big to really be an asteroid, but too small to be a planet, it’s trapped in the “minor planet” classification. But Ceres might be much more interesting than other similar bodies, with its mysterious bright spots being a constant source of amazement. We’ve written […]
Close to the dwarf planet's equator liies a roughly 4,000 square miles plateau called Piri Planitia, which particularly stands out. Unlike the rest of Pluto, the plateau is pretty smooth, unmarked by the characteristic craters and jagged. Aided by New Horizons' sensitive imaging instruments, scientists now think they know what's been eating Pluto so long: sublimation at the hand of methane-rich deposits.
Swiss physicists have developed a new model to chart the early development of the Universe in better detail than ever before.
A spectacular image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) gives us a glimpse into how the Sun will look at its death.
If we want to have a permanent or long-term mission to Mars, then growing crops locally would be very useful.
When the MESSENGER spacecraft found carbon rich material on Mercury, researchers were surprised and couldn't quite explain the source. Now, they believe that the material may be the remnants of a primordial graphite crust, which would also explain why Mercury looks darker than expected.
It was a bittersweet moment for SpaceX, as the space flight company successfully launched a communications satellite to a distant orbit but failed to land the remnants safely. This wasn’t completely unexpected though, as this was more a way to test the waters for the next launch. After a bunch of frustrating delays, SpaceX successfully launched […]
Seals from colonies on the North Atlantic island of North Rona that had higher levels of the hormone oxytocin in their blood stay closer to pups. This suggests that the hormone, often called the love hormone because of its role in love and in female reproductive biological functions, is paramount to forming mother-child bond.
Researchers have documented a more familiar curiosity: what dust particles on a comet look like.
NASA and ESA astronomers have pushed the Hubble telescope more than ever before.
Astronaut Scott Kelly returned to planet Earth on Thursday, after a landing in which everything went smoothly, as expected.
Learn more about how they formed billions of year ago.
Dammit, people!
Astronaut Scott Kelly is returning home after a year in space, aboard the International Space Station. While there, Capt Scott Kelly shared spectacular images of our planet via Twitter, as well as documenting everyday life in outer space. Here are just a few of them, with the accompanying tweets:
Today is homecoming day for a record-setting crew. Three Expedition 46 crew members from the International Space Station are finishing packing the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft for the ride home today, ending their record-setting mission. In November 2012, NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and their international partners selected two veteran spacefarers for a one-year mission […]
“My intention is to build up a permanent base station on the Moon,” Jan Wörner, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), says without hesitation.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) unveiled a new bedazzling image of the Milky Way, snapped by the APEX telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Research narrowed down Planet Nine's orbit and confirmed there indeed seems to be a massive planet in the far reaches of our Solar System, "but not just anywhere".
Depending on the alignment of Mars and Earth, as well as the speed of propulsion, a spacecraft could reach the Red Planet as soon as 150 days. So far, NASA spacecraft have made 13 trips to Mars, with seven landings. The most recent -- that of the Curiosity rover -- took 253 days from launch on Earth to touchdown on Mars. There's now reason to believe, however, that this journey could be significantly made faster to the point it only takes 3 days, according to a NASA researcher.
As NASA’s New Horizons shuttle zoomed past Pluto, it snapped awesome photos not only of the “ex-planet”, but also of its moons. Now researchers are analyzing those pictures and reporting surprising finds – such as an ancient ocean on Charon, Pluto’s moon. Too big for its skin? The side of Pluto’s largest moon viewed by […]
Astronaut Scott Kelly (seen in pic) and his colleagues stationed on the International Space Station now have a new Sidekick. The project is a collaboration between NASA and Microsoft aimed to help with astronaut duties, like repairs, experiments or space walks, using an out of this world augment reality device called the HoloLens.
In what has to be one of the strangest declassifications, three Apollo astronauts on 1969’s Apollo 10 mission heard strange “music” while passing over the far side of the moon, where communication with Earth is cut off. The three astronauts onboard the mission — John Young, Eugence Cernan, and Thomas Stafford — were practicing the separation and […]
The Sun is easily the most recognizable and important star that humanity has ever known. And yet, those who want to study it come face to face with a tiny weensy problem -- it tends to burn your retinas if you look at it.
