The countdown has started for the first human-rated launch to the Moon in over half a century. ESA’s European Service Module will be powering the Orion spacecraft to our natural satellite and back.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has found definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away. The result provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet, and is indicative of Webb’s ability to also detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.

Keele UK (SPX) Aug 25, 2022
Stunning new images created by Keele researchers highlight the turbulent flow of energy inside distant stars. They were created using the 3D simulation software "PROMPI", which scientists have been using to investigate stellar interiors with the aim of understanding the science of stellar evolution and black holes. For years scientists have used one-dimensional models to explain and

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 24, 2021
A team of researchers have discovered an exoplanet about 100 light years away from Earth in the Draco constellation, and they say the world appears to be covered in a deep ocean. The exoplanet - called TOI-1452b - is slightly larger than the Earth and is located in a "Goldilocks zone," where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist. Therefore, astronomer

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 15, 2022
We are making slow but steady progress through the "Paraitepuy pass," having passed the approximate halfway point over the weekend. Today's one sol plan found us staring around the corner at the neck of the pass and considering our drive path forward. Sometimes, our drive forward is smooth and flat ... neither word can be used here! Our drive forward has abundant sand and sharp rocks, so f

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 16, 2022
We filled much of today's plan imaging the wonders around and ahead of us as we pick our way through "Paraitepuy Pass" - the towering buttes, geologic relationships, and layers that have drawn our attention for a literal decade. But it is also fun to look back on how we got to where we are. The image above traces a small segment of our path traversing the obstacles that guard the pass - ov

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 18, 2022
The "road" through Paraitepuy pass continues to challenge our intrepid Curiosity rover. We attempted to cross another large sand ripple (formally called a transverse aeolian ridge, or TAR) in Tuesday's plan. However, we found out this morning that Curiosity had automatically stopped the drive when the rover's wheels slipped more than expected right before they reached the crest of the TAR.

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 24, 2021
As part of a cosmic phenomenon called retrograde motion, Uranus - the second-to-last planet in our solar system - will reverse its eastward course on Wednesday and begin moving west in the sky for a few months. Retrograde motion occurs as the Earth moves around the sun and the stellar views at night change little by little. The orbit, in turn, makes objects like planets in our solar s

Wuhan, China (SPX) Aug 24, 2022
Solar flares are solar storm events driven by the magnetic field in the solar activity area. When the flare radiation comes to the Earth's vicinity, the photo-ionization increases the electron density in the D-layer of the ionosphere, causing absorption of high-frequency radio communication, scintillation of satellite communication, and enhanced background noise interference with radar. Statisti

Stony Brook NY (SPX) Aug 25, 2022
Much of the matter in the universe remains unknown and undefined, yet theoretical physicists continue to gain clues to the properties of dark matter and black holes. A study by a team of scientists including three from Stony Brook University proposes a novel method to search for new particles not currently contained in the standard model of particle physics. Their method, published in Nature Com