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Networks are keeping NASA’s Artemis II mission connected

NASA’s Artemis II mission will transport four astronauts around the moon, bringing the agency one step closer to sending the first astronauts to Mars. Throughout Artemis II, astronaut voices, images, video, and vital mission data must traverse thousands of miles, carried on signals from NASA’s communications systems.

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SpaceX eyes IPO timed to planet alignment and Musk birthday: Report

SpaceX is targeting a mid-June initial public offering that would coincide with a rare planetary alignment and founder Elon Musk’s birthday, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, as the billionaire entrepreneur seeks to raise a record $50 billion.

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Massive runaway stars in the Milky Way: Observational study explores origins and ejection process

Researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), in collaboration with the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), have led the most extensive observational study to date of runaway massive stars, which includes an analysis of the rotation and […]

After switch from ULA, SpaceX knocks out speedy national security launch

SpaceX has launched its latest national security mission, yet another GPS satellite that was originally to have been launched by United Launch Alliance. A Falcon 9 that was delayed from Monday because of weather lifted off Tuesday night on the GPS III-9 mission to bring the satellite to medium-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force […]

Webb pushes boundaries of observable universe closer to Big Bang

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has topped itself once again, delivering on its promise to push the boundaries of the observable universe closer to cosmic dawn with the confirmation of a bright galaxy that existed 280 million years after the Big Bang.

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From lunar nights to Martian dust storms: Why batteries struggle in space

Space agencies are no longer talking about visiting the moon, they’re planning on living on it.

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Halley’s Comet wrongly named: 11th-century English monk predates British astronomer

The British astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley was not, after all, the first to understand the cycle of the comet that now bears his name. This is shown by research conducted by, among others, Professor Simon Portegies Zwart. It was the monk Eilmer of Malmesbury who, as early as the 11th century, linked two observations […]

Multiwavelength variability reveals dust structure in quasars

A research team has investigated quasar variability by tracking optical to mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths of variability information. This multiband joint analysis provides an opportunity to probe the dust structure in the quasar’s central region and holds promise for revealing key properties such as its scale and distribution. It offers crucial observational evidence for refining the […]

Astrophysicists discover largest sulfur-containing molecular compound in space

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), in collaboration with astrophysicists from the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, have identified the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever found in space: 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C₆H₆S). They made this breakthrough by combining laboratory experiments with astronomical observations. The molecule resides in the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027, about 27,000 light-years […]

NASA head Isaacman tempers Artemis praise with ideas on the program’s future

Even as NASA celebrated the rollout of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II over the weekend, NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, made sure to put an asterisk on the program’s future.

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Hubble uncovers the secret of blue straggler stars that defy aging

Some stars appear to defy time itself. Nestled within ancient star clusters, they shine bluer and brighter than their neighbors, looking far younger than their true age. Known as blue straggler stars, these stellar oddities have puzzled astronomers for more than 70 years. Now, new results using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are finally revealing […]

NASA and families of fallen astronauts mark 40th anniversary of space shuttle Challenger accident

Families of the astronauts lost in the space shuttle Challenger accident gathered back at the launch site Thursday to mark that tragic day 40 years ago.

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Accessing water on Mars: Examining the best technologies for future missions

A new study has examined how future human missions to Mars could access one of the planet’s most vital resources—water. The “Martian aqua: occurrence of water and appraisal of acquisition technologies” paper, published in the Advances in Space Research journal, presents a comparative analysis of potential water acquisition technologies for use on the red planet. […]

Seismometer networks could track space junk as it falls to Earth

Space debris—the thousands of pieces of human-made objects abandoned in Earth’s orbit—pose a risk to humans when they fall to the ground. To locate possible crash sites, a Johns Hopkins University scientist has helped to devise a way to track falling debris using existing networks of earthquake-detecting seismometers.

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Radio telescopes on the moon could let us observe dozens of black hole shadows

We now have direct images of two supermassive black holes: M87* and Sag A*. The fact that we can capture such images is remarkable, but they might be the only black holes we can observe. That is, unless we take radio astronomy to a whole new level.

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