Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 16, 2024
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, under the leadership of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is gearing up for a historic endeavor with the German-French rover IDEFIX poised to play a pivotal role. This ambitious mission aims to unravel the enigmatic origins of Mars' moons, Phobos and Deimos, marking a significant leap in our quest to understand the Martian system. T

Miama FL (UPI) Jan 15, 2024
Amid a thick column of red hot flame, SpaceX launched the second of two Falcon 9 rockets Sunday night on an unmanned mission to deliver more Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit. SpaceX pushed back the target liftoff time to 8:52 p.m. EST to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9 will deploy a batch of 23 Starlink i

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From the International Space Station to Earth, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen talks about what kind of person his fellow Scandinavian and ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt is. The Axiom-3 mission with Marcus onboard is planned to launch in mid-January 2024 to the International Space Station for a 14-day mission, where Marcus will join Andreas, marking the first time two Scandinavians are in space together. 

New Orleans LA (SPX) Jan 11, 2024
In 1995, Swiss astronomers Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, orbiting a distant Sun-like star known as 51 Pegasi. Since then, more than 5500 so-called exoplanets have been found orbiting other stars in our galaxy, and in 2019 the two scientists shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work. This week, an international

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 11, 2024
A team of astronomers analyzed this system using data from NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), which spots "transits," or instances where planets cross in front of their star as they orbit, blocking a tiny piece of the starlight. Two planets had already been previously discovered in this planetary system, so to see what else might be lurking in the star's orbit, the team took th

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
These four images represent a sample of galaxy clusters that are part of the largest and most complete study to learn what triggers stars to form in the universe's biggest galaxies. This research, made using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, showed that the conditions for stellar conception in these exceptionally massive galaxies have not changed over the last ten billion ye

Coventry UK (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion - shedding light on the formation of planets like Earth. The findings include a planet with radius and mass between that of the Earth and Neptune, with a potential orbit around its host star of 146 days. The star system also contains an outer, large companion, 100 times the mass of Jupiter.

Beijing (XNA) Jan 15, 2024
The Tianzhou 6 cargo spacecraft departed from the Tiangong space station on Friday afternoon and is set to return to Earth soon, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The agency said in a brief release that the robotic craft undocked from Tiangong at 4:12 pm and entered into the solo-flight mode. During the atmospheric reentry process guided by ground controllers, most of the s

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
In a significant move to expand its satellite service offerings, MEASAT Global Berhad, Malaysia's leading satellite solutions provider, has entered into a strategic partnership with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). As per the agreement finalized in December 2023, MEASAT has become the Official Authorised Reseller for SpaceX's Starlink Hardware and Services in the markets it serves.

Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 15, 2024
Scientists and engineers at the CU Boulder will soon take part in an effort to collect a bit of stardust-the tiny bits of matter that flow through the Milky Way Galaxy and were once the initial building blocks of our solar system. The pursuit is part of NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission to explore our solar neighborhood-decoding the messages in particles fro