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Here’s why we should put a gravitational wave observatory on the moon

Scientists detected the first long-predicted gravitational wave in 2015, and since then, researchers have been hungering for better detectors. But the Earth is warm and seismically noisy, and that will always limit the effectiveness of Earth-based detectors.

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The planetary orbit in Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ is random and chaotic, but could it exist?

I first encountered the three-body problem 60 years ago, in a short story called “Placet is a Crazy Place” by American science fiction writer Frederic Brown.

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Mapping the Milky Way’s magnetic field in 3D

We are all very familiar with the concept of the Earth’s magnetic field. It turns out that most objects in space have magnetic fields but it’s quite tricky to measure them. Astronomers have developed an ingenious way to measure the magnetic field of the Milky Way using polarized light from interstellar dust grains that align […]

NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet

NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense.

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Astronauts arrive at Kennedy Space Center as first crew for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft

It’s not just another ride for a pair of veteran NASA astronauts who arrived to the Space Coast ahead of their flight onboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

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Dark matter: A new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are reflected in its name: dark matter.

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Researchers advance detection of gravitational waves to study collisions of neutron stars and black holes

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Science and Engineering co-led a new study by an international team that will improve the detection of gravitational waves—ripples in space and time.

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Japan announces plans to launch upgraded observation satellites on new flagship rocket’s 3rd flight

Japan’s space agency announced Friday a plan to launch a major upgrade to its satellite imaging system, as a new flagship rocket is put to the test for a third time.

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Research investigates radio emission of the rotating radio transient RRAT J1854+0306

Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), Chinese astronomers have investigated radio emission from a rotating radio transient known as RRAT J1854+0306. Results of the study, published April 15 on the preprint server arXiv, shed more light on the properties of this transient.

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China’s Shenzhou-18 mission docks with space station

A spaceship carrying three astronauts from China’s Shenzhou-18 mission safely docked at Tiangong space station Friday, state-run media reported, the latest step in Beijing’s space program that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.

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NASA astronauts arrive for Boeing’s first human spaceflight

The two NASA astronauts assigned to Boeing’s first human spaceflight arrived at their launch site Thursday, just over a week before their scheduled liftoff.

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NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications demonstration transmits data over 140 million miles

Riding aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration continues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to send data, the new technology has proven that it’s up to the task. After interfacing with the Psyche’s radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy […]

TESS finds its first rogue planet

Well over 5,000 planets have been found orbiting other star systems. One of the satellites hunting for them is TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Astronomers using TESS think they are made a rather surprising discovery; their first free-floating—or rogue—planet. The planet was discovered using gravitational microlensing where the planet passed in front of a […]

Hera asteroid mission’s side-trip to Mars

ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defense will make a swingby of Mars next March, borrowing speed to help reach its target Didymos binary asteroid system.

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China launches 3-member crew to its space station as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon by 2030

China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030.

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