Cambridge, MA (SPX) Nov 21, 2025
Some 200 light years from Earth, the core of a dead star is circling a larger star in a macabre cosmic dance. The dead star is a type of white dwarf that exerts a powerful magnetic field as it pulls material from the larger star into a swirling, accreting disk. The spiraling pair is what's known as an "intermediate polar" - a type of star system that gives off a complex pattern of intense radiat

Dubendorf, Switzerland (SPX) Nov 25 2025
Empa specialists carried out a comprehensive study of the EURECA European satellite, employing non-destructive X-ray imaging to investigate its internal features after the spacecraft's return from orbit. EURECA, launched in 1992 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis by Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, completed eleven months in orbit before its recovery by Space Shuttle Endeavour and return to Earth in

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 21, 2025
Two orbiters and a rover captured images of the interstellar object - from the closest location any of the agency's spacecraft may get - that could reveal new details. At the start of October, three of NASA's Mars spacecraft had front row seats to view 3I/ATLAS, only the third interstellar object so far discovered in our solar system. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped a close-u

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
In the 1930s, astronomer Fritz Zwicky noted that galaxies moved faster than expected for their visible mass, suggesting an unseen matter now known as dark matter. Since then, dark matter remained unobserved except through its gravitational effect on visible matter. Researchers have targeted areas dense in dark matter to find signals predicted by theoretical models. A leading hypothesis hol

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy analyzed the vibrations of a distant red giant star now orbiting a quiet black hole in the Gaia BH2 system. Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the team observed patterns of faint starquakes, providing a detailed look at the star's core via its oscillations. Lead author Daniel Hey explained, "Just like s

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
NASA's OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft flew within 2,136 miles of Earth on Tuesday, Sept. 23, as part of its mission to study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis. During its close approach, the spacecraft recorded images and data of Earth. These observations are being used to calibrate its science instruments. Approximately nine hours after passing by, OSIRIS-APEX was 142,000 miles from Earth and trave

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
NASA's second CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) mission is underway with four volunteers - Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer - beginning a 378-day simulated Mars stay inside a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The mission started October 19, 2025, and will conclude on October 31, 2026. The crew will re

Pasadena, Calif. (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
Results from an enhanced radar technique have demonstrated improvement to subsurface observations of Mars. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revisited and raised new questions about a mysterious feature buried beneath thousands of feet of ice at the Red Planet's south pole. In a recent study, researchers conclude from data obtained using an innovative radar technique that an are

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
About a week after liftoff, the twin spacecraft of NASA's ESCAPADE mission returned their first images as they journey away from Earth. On November 21, one of the two spacecraft used its Visible and Infrared Observation System - developed at Northern Arizona University - to photograph the edge of a solar panel. The pair of self-portraits includes a visible-light photo and an infrared image

Houston TX (SPX) Nov 26, 2025
The Soyuz MS-28 rocket was set upright at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 24 for the crewed mission scheduled for November 27. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev will launch aboard Soyuz MS-28 at 4:27 a.m. EDT and dock to the space station's Rassvet module after two Earth orbits to begin an eight-month research mission.