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NASA to cancel GeoCarb Mission, expands greenhouse gas portfolio

Southern hemisphere's biggest radio telescope begins search for ET signatures

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Webb Space Telescope, Keck team up to study Saturn's moon Titan

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Analyzing the rhythmically layered bedrock above the marker band: Sols 3669-3670

NASA's Orion capsule performs burn to leave distant retrograde orbit

Extraterrestrial signal search is underway using the southern hemisphere's biggest radio telescope

BlueWalker 3, an enormous and bright communications satellite, is genuinely alarming astronomers

The night sky is a shared wilderness. On a dark night, away from the city lights, you can see the stars in the same way as your ancestors did centuries ago. You can see the Milky Way and the constellations associated with stories of mythical hunters, sisters and journeys.
But like any wilderness, the night sky can be polluted. Since Sputnik 1 in 1957, thousands of satellites and pieces of space junk have been launched into orbit.
For now, satellites crossing the night sky are largely a curiosity. But with the advent of satellite constellations—containing hundreds or thousands of satellites—this could change.
The recent launch of BlueWalker 3, a prototype for a satellite constellation, raises the prospect of bright satellites contaminating our night skies. At 64 square meters, it's the largest commercial communications satellite in low Earth orbit—and very bright.
Pollution of the night sky