Paris (ESA) Dec 21, 2023
Despite our many years spent observing the cosmos with ever-more powerful telescopes, there remains much to learn about the Milky Way. We cannot leave our galaxy to get a full outside view of its shape and properties, as we do when we study other galaxies. We are embedded within it, and so are limited to mapping the Milky Way from the inside out - and from a single vantage point. At the st

Austin TX (SPX) Dec 21, 2023
Like a celestial beacon, distant quasars make the brightest light in the universe. They emit more light than our entire Milky Way galaxy. The light comes from matter ripped apart as it is swallowed by a supermassive black hole. Cosmological parameters are important numerical constraints astronomers use to trace the evolution of the entire universe billions of years after the Big Bang. Quas

Notre Dame IN (SPX) Dec 21, 2023
A team of astrophysicists led by Lauren Weiss, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, created the first-ever catalog of small, Earth-like planets with Jupiter-like siblings (planets that share the same star) - a critical component in the search for life elsewhere in our universe. Forthcoming in the Astrophysical Journal, the Kepler G

Boulder CO (SPX) Dec 21, 2023
New Horizons is healthy and speeding across the Kuiper Belt at a distance of over 5.5 billion miles from Earth! The spacecraft is collecting round-the-clock data on our Sun's cocoon in the galaxy called the heliosphere, and transmitting that data as well as the final datasets from our flyby of Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Arrokoth, back to Earth. The big news for New Horizons since I wro

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 20, 2023
The White House said Wednesday that the United States plans to land an international astronaut on the surface of the moon by 2030. Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the mission at Wednesday's Space Council meeting. "The meeting will highlight the United States' extraordinary progress in broadening and deepening international space partnerships across a range of areas, including

Brighton UK (SPX) Dec 21, 2023
Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered the transformative potential of Martian nanomaterials, potentially opening the door to sustainable habitation on the red planet. Using resources and techniques currently applied on the International Space Station and by NASA, Dr Conor Boland, a Lecturer in Materials Physics at the University of Sussex, led a research group that invest

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 21, 2023
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW), in a recent announcement made in coordination with SpaceX, has set a new launch window for its much-anticipated IM-1 lunar mission. The mission, now targeting a multi-day window opening in mid-February 2024, has been rescheduled due to shifts in the SpaceX launch manifest, primarily caused by unfavorable weather conditions. The IM-1 mission i

Tucson AZ (SPX) Dec 21, 2023
A vast, flat, "featureless" plain on Mars surprised researchers by revealing a much more tumultuous geologic past than expected, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Arizona. Enormous amounts of lava have erupted from numerous fissures as recently as one million years ago, blanketing an area almost as large as Alaska and interacting with water in and under the surface, re

Paris (ESA) Dec 22, 2023
The solar wings that will power ESA's Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence as it ventures out to meet the Dimorphos asteroid have been cleared for flight. As part of its current test campaign at ESA's ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands, the spacecraft commanded the deployment of the wings one at a time, as it will do in space directly after launch - known as a 'hot deployment'. Th

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 22, 2023
Earth planning date: Monday, December 18, 2023: On the 4040 sol of Marsmas my downlink gave to me, a faulted drive and a wheelie! That's right, folks, we're popping Christmas-sized wheelies this year, bigger than we've ever seen before! It's a little hard to tell from the Navcam perspective, but the cover photo above shows our right-middle wheel (bottom in image) completely off the ground in sus