London, UK (SPX) Aug 06, 2025
New findings from the University of St Andrews suggest that giant free-floating planets, unbound to any star, could form their own miniature planetary systems. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers examined eight isolated planetary-mass objects between five and ten times the mass of Jupiter. Although similar in size to gas giants, these bodies drift alone in sp

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 09, 2025
Astronauts living and working on the Moon and Mars will rely on satellites to provide services like navigation, weather, and communications relays. While managing complex missions, automating satellite communications will allow explorers to focus on critical tasks instead of manually operating satellites. Long duration space missions will require teaming between systems on Earth and other

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 09, 2025
AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) has reached an agreement to purchase global S-Band spectrum priority rights under the International Telecommunication Union, enhancing its ability to deliver space-based cellular broadband directly to smartphones for commercial and government use. Chairman and CEO Abel Avellan said, "Our revolutionary satellites and proprietary ASICs were designed with S-Band

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 09, 2025
New research led by the SETI Institute has identified an unusual iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a previously unknown mineral, offering new insights into the planet's thermal and geochemical history. The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals the presence of ferric hydroxysulfate, a mineral that likely formed through heating and oxidation of more common hydrated sulfates.

Washington (AFP) Aug 9, 2025
An international crew of four astronauts is back home on Earth Saturday after nearly five months aboard the International Space Station, returning safely in a SpaceX capsule. The spacecraft carrying US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov splashed down off California's coast at 8:44 am local time (1534 GMT). Their return ma

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 7, 2025
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the solar system closest to Earth, the administration announced Thursday. The Alpha Centauri triple star system, four light-years from Earth, has long been at the center of scientists' search for life on other planets. This discovery was an important step forward in that search, they said.

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 8, 2025
Astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the Apollo 13 mission to the moon, died Thursday in Illinois, his family announced. He was 97. Lovell also flew on three other missions: Gemini 7, Gemini 12 and Apollo 8 in the 1960s, and was the first astronaut to go into space that many times. He died in Lake Forest, a northern Chicago suburb. "We are saddened to announce the passing of

Paris, France (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
In a new release from the European Space Agency, Mars Express has revisited the western end of Acheron Fossae, a striking system of deep fissures on Mars shaped by ancient geological upheaval and later sculpted by ice-rich flows. The orbiter's High Resolution Stereo Camera first captured this area in April 2004, just months into its mission. These latest images reveal the faulted terrain's

Washington (AFP) Aug 8, 2025
US astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 Moon mission which nearly ended in disaster in 1970 after a mid-flight explosion, has died at the age of 97, NASA announced Friday. The former Navy pilot, who was portrayed by actor Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," died in a Chicago suburb on Thursday, the US space agency said in a statement. The astronaut's "life and work