Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.
Lasers could one day steer solar sails and adjust a satellite’s position in outer space, thanks to graphene. An experiment on a gravity rollercoaster ride showed how this innovative material has the potential to revolutionize propulsion beyond Earth.
Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are one of the most active fields of research in astronomy. In order to accumulate their enormous masses, they must merge with each other. A research team led by Silke Britzen from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn has found direct evidence of two supermassive black holes in the galaxy Markarian 501, which orbit each other very closely. This could be the first time that a pair has been detected that is about to merge. This provides a unique opportunity to better understand a central process in galaxy evolution.
The two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, also have the largest satellite systems, or the most moons. At present, Jupiter’s reported moon count stands at more than 100 moons, and along with its many rings, Saturn has more than 280 reported moons. Not all these moons are equal, however. Jupiter’s moon family has four large members, including the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede, while Saturn’s family is dominated by one large moon, Titan, the solar system’s second largest.
NASA on Tuesday released a historic image of Earth dipping below the lunar horizon, more than 57 years after an iconic “Earthrise” image was captured by an Apollo 8 astronaut.
By analyzing the data from the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PandAS), European astronomers have discovered a new satellite of the Andromeda galaxy. The newfound object, which received the designation Andromeda XXXVI, appears to be an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. The finding is reported in a paper published March 30 on the arXiv preprint server .
As the four Artemis astronauts approached a high point of their lunar mission—getting slung around the far side of the moon—NASA staffers crowded into Houston’s famed mission control room Monday for a team photo.
Water likely accumulated on the moon slowly over billions of years, rather than during one big event, according to a new study by an international team of scientists. The researchers, including Paul Hayne, a planetary scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, have published their findings in Nature Astronomy.
The four astronauts carrying out NASA’s first lunar flyby in more than half-a-century were sending back detailed observations of the moon after traveling farther from Earth than any human before.
The Artemis II astronauts wrapped up their lunar flyby as they continue their journey back to Earth on Tuesday, bringing with them rich celestial observations including little-known lunar craters, a solar eclipse and meteor strikes that scientists hope will open doors.
The four Artemis astronauts on a lunar flyby are now unreachable by NASA scientists on Earth, an expected communications blackout anticipated to last some 40 minutes as their spacecraft passes behind the moon.
Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons was at the heart of NASA’s control room in Houston on Monday, supporting her Artemis II crewmates remotely during their flight around the moon.
The theory of panspermia holds that life is spread through the cosmos via asteroids, comets, and other objects. When the building blocks of life emerge on one planet, impacts can eject surface material into space, which then carries these seeds to other worlds. For decades, scientists have debated whether this could have occurred between Earth and Mars (in both directions). However, the recent controversy over the possible existence of microbial life in Venus’s dense clouds has sparked discussions of interplanetary transfers between Venus, Earth, and Mars.
The four astronauts embarking on NASA’s lunar flyby became on Monday the humans to travel farthest from our planet, as they get set to view areas of the moon never before seen by the naked eye.
The Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) has discovered tens of thousands of gigantic hydrogen gas halos, called “Lyman-alpha nebulae,” surrounding galaxies 10 billion to 12 billion years ago. Known as Cosmic Noon, this is an epoch in the early universe when galaxies were growing their fastest. To spur this growth, they would have needed access to vast reservoirs of hydrogen gas, a key building block for stars. However, until recently, astronomers had only found a handful of these essential structures.
Four Artemis II astronauts are taking a giant step for humankind Monday when they shoot deeper into space than anyone before and glimpse parts of the moon never seen by the naked eye.
Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new “hot Jupiter” exoplanet. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-7169 b, orbits a metal-poor star, which is rare among exoplanets. The finding was detailed in a paper published March 26 on the arXiv pre-print server.
Eyes are on the sky this week as four astronauts get the closest humans have been to the moon for more than 50 years on NASA’s Artemis II mission. Join the millions of people looking up while it’s on its way and we’ll show you how to get the best photo of the moon using your phone.
For the first time in more than half a century, astronauts will fly around the moon on Monday, marking the high point of the Artemis 2’s lunar mission.
The Artemis astronauts entered the final phase of their run-up to a lunar loop on Monday, a tipping point of sorts that means the moon’s gravity is now having a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.
