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Latest moon mission carries a new reflection on history

In July 1969, four faculty members traveled from College Park to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to provide last-minute instruction to a noteworthy pupil: an Apollo 11 astronaut about to become one of the first humans to set foot beyond Earth.

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UK approves first vertical rocket launch

The first vertical launch of a rocket into orbit from European soil could take place from the UK’s most northerly point this year after a German company won approval for spaceflight, regulators announced Thursday.

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Gravitational waves could give us insights into fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious pulses of energy that can last from a fraction of a millisecond to about three seconds. Most of them come from outside the galaxy, although one has been detected coming from a source inside the Milky Way. Some of them also repeat, which only adds to their mystery.

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Astronomers discover a new dense sub-Saturn exoplanet

An international team of astronomers has reported the detection of a new exoplanet orbiting a bright late F-type star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-6038 A b, is about six times larger and nearly 80 times more massive than Earth. The finding is detailed in a paper published Jan. 4 on the arXiv preprint server […]

NASA and Italian Space Agency test future lunar navigation technology

As the Artemis campaign leads humanity to the moon and eventually Mars, NASA is refining its state-of-the-art navigation and positioning technologies to guide a new era of lunar exploration.

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Neutron star cooling simulations set new constraints on light QCD axions

Neutron stars, the remnants of massive stars after a supernova explosion, have often been the focus of studies aimed at testing and unveiling exotic physics. This is because these stars are among the densest objects in the universe, so they host extremely high temperatures and pressures.

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SpaceX sends up 5th Space Coast launch of the year

SpaceX knocked out another launch on Monday sending up the fifth Space Coast mission of the year.

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Blue Origin scrubs key test launch again, eyes Thursday

Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, called off the inaugural launch of its huge new rocket again on Monday evening after facing weather issues.

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Neutron star ‘mountains’ would cause ripples in space-time

Collapsed dead stars, known as neutron stars, are a trillion times denser than lead, and their surface features are largely unknown. Nuclear theorists have explored mountain building mechanisms active on the moons and planets in our solar system. Some of these mechanisms suggest that neutron stars are likely to have mountains.

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Astronomers catch unprecedented features at brink of active black hole

International teams of astronomers monitoring a supermassive black hole in the heart of a distant galaxy have detected features never seen before using data from NASA missions and other facilities. The features include the launch of a plasma jet moving at nearly one-third the speed of light and unusual, rapid X-ray fluctuations likely arising from […]

Exploring an alternate solar system: Research maps impact of ‘super-Earth’

Emily Simpson has loved space since she was a 10-year-old kid celebrating her birthday at a planetarium. Now a recent Florida Tech graduate, she leaves with not only a dual degree in planetary science and astronomy and astrophysics but with published research, too. She mapped our solar system’s “alternate fate” had it housed an extra […]

Webb watches carbon-rich dust shells form and expand in star system

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140, a system of two massive stars that follow […]

Planets can form in even the harshest conditions

According to the most widely held astronomical model (the nebular hypothesis), new stars are born from massive clouds of dust and gas (aka a nebula) that experience gravitational collapse. The remaining dust and gas form a protoplanetary disk that encircles the new star, which slowly accretes to form systems of planets.

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Blue Origin pushes back first launch of giant New Glenn rocket

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will have to wait a little longer for the long-anticipated maiden orbital flight of its brand-new rocket after a launch attempt dragged on for hours before being canceled due to unspecified technical issues.

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Blue Origin set for first launch of giant New Glenn rocket

A quarter of a century after its founding, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is finally ready for its maiden orbital voyage on Sunday with a brand new rocket the company hopes will shake up the commercial space race.

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