Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 14, 2025
Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025: Our drive from Monday's plan was mostly successful, putting us ~22 meters down the "road" out of an expected 30 meters. A steering command halted the drive a little short when we tried to turn-in-place but instead turned into a rock, which also had the effect of making our position too unstable for arm activities. Oh well! APXS data has been showing

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
Astronomers at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai'i, have traced the origin of 2024 YR4, an Earth-crossing asteroid discovered in December 2024, to a surprising location. Contrary to expectations, the solid, stony asteroid appears to have emerged from a central Main Belt asteroid family between Mars and Jupiter-a region not previously associated with Earth-crossing bodies. "YR4 spin

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
The asteroid 2024 YR4 made headlines in February with the news that it had a chance of hitting Earth on Dec. 22, 2032, as determined by an analysis from NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The probability of collision peaked at over 3% on Feb. 18 - the highest ever recorded for an object of its size. This sparked c

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 14, 2025
Scientists with NASA's Perseverance rover are exploring what they consider a veritable Martian cornucopia full of intriguing rocky outcrops on the rim of Jezero Crater. Studying rocks, boulders, and outcrops helps scientists understand the planet's history, evolution, and potential for past or present habitability. Since January, the rover has cored five rocks on the rim, sealing samples from th

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
The Chang'e 6 mission has unveiled that the Moon's far side mantle holds significantly less water than its near side, offering crucial insight into the Moon's geological history. Analysis of rock samples from the mission indicates water content in the far side's mantle is as low as 1 to 1.5 micrograms per gram-less than 2 parts per million-marking the driest values ever recorded in lunar geology

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 12, 2025
SpaceX on Saturday launched Starshield satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office from California then 12 hours later 21 Starlink satellites from Florida. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:25 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base's pad 4E. The number of spy satellites wasn't revealed. At 8:53 p.m. EDT, another Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
Surviving re-entry into Earth's atmosphere is among the most technically demanding tasks in spaceflight. During low-Earth orbit returns, spacecraft experience searing temperatures up to 1,600oC. This figure skyrockets to over 16,000oC in extreme cases, such as the Galileo probe's plunge into Jupiter. Heat shields are indispensable for protecting both payloads and human passengers from this inten

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
Flying beneath a waxing Moon in March 2025, NASA's ER-2 aircraft transformed into a unique lunar observatory, soaring above the clouds from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. These nighttime sorties supported a critical Earth science mission known as Airborne Lunar Spectral Irradiance, or air-LUSI. Equipped with a precision spectroradiometer, the air-LUSI instr

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
Are we alone in the cosmos? The search for extraterrestrial life has long captivated scientists, but a new theoretical approach suggests we might be looking in the wrong place. Mikhail Tikhonov, assistant professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis, argues that instead of focusing solely on specific biological molecules, we should search for distinctive patterns of energy usage as

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 14, 2025
Chinese researchers analyzing rock samples from the Chang'e-6 lunar mission have determined that the Moon's farside mantle holds significantly less water than the nearside. The study, led by Prof. HU Sen of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sheds new light on the internal structure and evolution of the Moon. Published in Nature, the team's findings