Today, ESA’s Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.

Every moment of every day, Europe’s constellation of Galileo navigation satellites that ring our planet transmits precisely shaped and timed signals, down through the atmosphere, reflecting back from Earth’s land, seas and ice and extending far out into space, as far as the Moon. 

An Astra launch of two NASA cubesats to monitor tropical storms failed June 12 when the rocket’s upper stage shut down prematurely.

The post Astra launch of NASA TROPICS cubesats fails appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Space Development Agency is looking to acquire as many as 10 satellites to host military payloads for experiments in low Earth orbit.

The post DoD space agency to acquire 10 satellites for experiments in low Earth orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.

Kaunas, Lithuania (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
A new study based on Mars Desert Research Station commanders' reports reveals differences in female and male leadership behaviour. Although both genders are task-focused, women tend to be more positive. The genders also differ in their approach toward their team - while men focus on accomplishments, women emphasise mutual support. According to the author of the study, Inga Popovaite, a sociologi

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 10, 2022
Perseverance has a number of moving parts, including the robotic arm, drill, mast, instrument covers, high gain antenna, and mobility system. An unintended collision with the rover body or Martian terrain during motion could cause irreparable damage. In addition, the SuperCam instrument shoots the LIBS laser at the surface to create a plasma and perform spectroscopy, and we also want to prevent

Beijing (XNA) Jun 10, 2022
China has released a new geologic map of the Moon on a scale of 1:2,500,000, the first one in the world, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Chinese scientists from the Institute of Geochemistry of the CAS and other research institutes and universities have created the map based on data from the country's Chang'e project and other data and research findings from internation

Chicago IL (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
After a six-year journey, a plucky spacecraft called Hayabusa2 zinged back into Earth's atmosphere in late 2020 and landed deep in the Australian outback. When researchers from the Japanese space agency JAXA opened it, they found its precious payload sealed and intact: a handful of dirt that Hayabusa2 managed to scoop off the surface of a speeding asteroid. Scientists have now begun to ann

Okayama, Japan (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
Asteroids and comets represent the material that was left over after the formation of the planets that orbit the Sun. Such bodies would have initially formed in a vast disk of gas and dust (protosolar nebular) around what would eventually become the Sun (protosun) and thus can preserve clues about the processes that operated during this period of the Solar system. The protosolar nebular would ha

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
Mars, Earth's neighbouring planet, is not particularly known for its colourful appearance. It is usually thought of as an orange-brown expanse, stretching as far as the eye - or at least the cameras on rovers and spacecraft - can see. But there are landscapes that are a veritable kaleidoscope of colour by Martian standards. One such area has been captured in the latest images from DLR's Mars cam