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A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, using the crisp vision of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

ESA's Planetary Defence Office responded promptly to the discovery of the comet, and has been tracking it since the beginning of July.

Now, Hubble's observations from space are allowing astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet’s solid icy nucleus. The upper limit on the diameter of the nucleus is 5.6 km, but it could be as small as 320 m across, researchers report.

Though the Hubble images put tighter constraints on the nucleus size

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.

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ESA astronaut Raphaël Liégeois from Belgium, a member of the ESA Astronaut Class of 2022, was selected in November 2022 from over 22,500 candidates who applied to ESA’s 2021 call for new astronauts.

He began his year-long basic astronaut training at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, in April 2023. This training covered spacecraft systems, spacewalking, flight engineering, robotics, life support systems, survival, and medical training. Raphaël received his astronaut certification alongside fellow astronaut candidates Sophie Adenot, Rosemary Coogan, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, and Marco Sieber at EAC on 22 April 2024, officially marking his transition into

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 6, 2025
Astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore announced his retirement Wednesday after 25 years with NASA and serving as a U.S. Navy test pilot before becoming an astronaut. Wilmore, 62, and astronaut Suni Williams gained a lot of media attention when their 10-day Boeing Starliner test flight turned into a nine-month stay on the International Space Station after lifting off on June 5, 2024, and retur

Boston MA (SPX) Aug 05, 2025
In the push to shrink and enhance technologies that control light, MIT researchers have unveiled a new platform that pushes the limits of modern optics through nanophotonics, the manipulation of light on the nanoscale, or billionths of a meter. The result is a class of ultracompact optical devices that are not only smaller and more efficient than existing technologies, but also dynamically

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 6, 2025
The Perseid meteor shower is set to peak in mid August, allowing stargazers to see up to 100 shooting stars per hour. The shower takes place each year when the Earth barrels through the trail of ancient debris from the Comet Swift-Tuttle. As the Earth's atmosphere collides with the cometary fragments, the friction vaporizes the debris, creating the flashes of "shooting stars." Th

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 07, 2025
As graduation approaches, high school students are faced with numerous decisions that will shape their futures. Among those pivotal choices, selecting the right college can sometimes take a back seat to another crucial aspect: financing that college education. Understanding financial hurdles is imperative for students and their families as they embark on this journey. These hurdles can sometimes

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Aug 01, 2025
Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology have developed a novel type of microphone that captures sound using light, offering a low-cost solution for detecting audio in situations where traditional microphones fall short. Rather than detecting airborne soundwaves directly, this "visual microphone" reads minute surface vibrations triggered by sound, converting them into audible signals.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 06, 2025
Parsons Corporation and Globalstar have reached a key milestone in the development of a joint commercial satellite solution, announcing the successful completion of a proof of concept across three European ground stations. The demonstration integrated Globalstar's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network with Parsons' software-defined communication technology and confirmed operational readiness f

Paris, France (SPX) Aug 06, 2025
This summer, astronauts aboard the International Space Station directed a team of advanced robots through a simulated martian terrain in Germany, concluding the fourth and final session of ESA and DLR's Surface Avatar experiment. The collaborative initiative between the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center aims to develop robotic control techniques for future lunar and martian e