Washington (AFP) July 12, 2023
Jets of red gas bursting into the cosmos, and a glowing cave of dust: NASA marked a year of discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope Wednesday with a spectacular new image of Sun-like stars being born. The picture is of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, whose proximity at 390 light-years allows for a crisp close-up by the most powerful orbital observato

Santa Maria Madalena, Brazil (AFP) July 12, 2023
Awestruck by the oranges and blues of the Jewel Box star cluster, part of the Southern Cross constellation, Pedro Froes manages to get out a few words: "It's incredible." Froes is viewing the stars from a telescope in Desengano State Park, a rural patch of Brazil largely spared from light pollution, located some 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro. Desengano is Latin Ameri

Temperatures are sizzling across Europe this week amid an intense and prolonged period of heat. And it’s only just begun. Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heatwave with temperatures expected to climb to 48°C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.

Beijing (XNA) Jul 12, 2023
China on Sunday sent a new test satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The satellite was launched by a Long March-2C carrier rocket at 7:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) and entered the planned orbit. It will carry out test missions for satellite internet technologies. The launch was the 478th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket seri

Munich, Germany (SPX) Jul 12, 2023
The European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope (ESO's ELT) is a revolutionary ground-based telescope that will have a 39-metre main mirror and will be the largest telescope in the world for visible and infrared light: the world's biggest eye on the sky. Construction of this technically complex project is advancing at a good pace, with the ELT now surpassing the 50% complete milest

From our cosmic backyard in the Solar System to distant galaxies near the dawn of time, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of revealing the Universe like never before in its first year of science operations. To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, a new Webb image has been released of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. While the region is relatively quiet, its proximity at 390 light-years makes for a highly detailed close-up, with no foreground stars in the intervening space.

Video: 00:03:03

Webb is celebrating the completion of its first year of science operations. Let’s look back on the observatory’s first year in images!

Chinese private rocket firm Landspace achieved a global first late Tuesday by reaching orbit with a methane-fueled rocket.

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 12, 2023
This July, NASA is sending a team of four six-unit (6U)-sized CubeSats into orbit around Earth to see if they're able to cooperate on their own, without real-time updates from mission control. While that kind of autonomous cooperation may not sound too difficult for humans, this team will be robotic - composed of small satellites to test out key technologies for the future of deep space missions