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Samples reveal how Earth slows solar wind striking moon’s near side

The moon has been bathed in solar wind for billions of years, but the two hemispheres are struck by solar wind of different speeds and energies.

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A century-old stellar mystery may finally have an explanation

For more than a century, astronomers have puzzled over a strange discrepancy in the historical record. Theta Eridani, a modest star in the constellation Eridanus, is the third-brightest star in its constellation, with a magnitude of 2.9. But ancient astronomers described it very differently. A new study, posted to the arXiv preprint server on June […]

Observations investigate the nature of a peculiar supernova

An international team of astronomers has performed follow-up observations of a peculiar Type Ia supernova designated SN 2023vjh. Results of the observational campaign, published July 9 on the preprint server arXiv, deliver important insights into the nature of this explosion.

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Image: The growing crescent of Mars as NASA’s psyche mission approaches

This composite of images taken by NASA’s Psyche mission shows the crescent of Mars grow as the spacecraft approached the planet for a gravity assist from May 2 to May 15, 2026.

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NASA’s Psyche mission delivers Mars flyby data, time-lapse video

The spacecraft aced its encounter with Mars. Now, mission scientists are studying a trove of data from the flyby in preparation for its arrival at asteroid Psyche in 2029.

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India successfully launches first private orbital rocket

India’s first privately built orbital rocket took its maiden flight Saturday, its company said, marking a significant step for the South Asian giant as it eyes a bigger slice of the global space economy.

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Far above the Earth, NASA’s Apollo lunar lander put astronauts on the moon

America’s most daring, extraordinary feat—landing astronauts on the moon—remains the pinnacle of achievement by anyone anywhere. Ever.

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FCC approves first launch for space reflector constellation

Reflect Orbital moves ahead with the company’s first Eärendil launch amid concerns from the astronomical community.

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A source of extremely high-energy particles in the Milky Way identified

Cosmic rays are made primarily of protons with a few electrons sprinkled in, and they can reach energies even higher than what human-made accelerators can produce. Considering human-made accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider on the border of Switzerland and France, can move protons to near the speed of light, it’s no wonder that […]

Sun holds 55% more silver than estimated, new model reveals

Researchers at Uppsala University have calculated that the sun contains 55% more silver than previously estimated. The results are based on more realistic modeling of the sun’s atmosphere and resolve a long-standing problem of missing silver in the solar system.

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Giant planets could act as dark matter detectors

Researchers in the U.S. have carried out the most stringent tests to date of the idea that an ultraviolet glow in the atmospheres of giant planets could partly arise through the indirect interaction between dark matter and ordinary matter. Led by Carlos Blanco at Princeton University, the team’s results place some of the tightest constraints […]

India’s private space industry shoots for the stars

Private companies are reshaping India’s space ambitions, building rockets and satellites as the country pushes to capture a bigger share of the global space economy.

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SpaceX Starship launch aborted on the pad at the last moment

SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket came within a second or so from blasting off on a test flight Thursday, but some of the engines failed to ignite, triggering a launch abort amid billowing clouds of smoke and vapor.

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The starry night redux: Dark energy camera captures stars, nebulae, clusters, and more in a rich, van Gogh-esque scene

The 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) captures a vibrant scene filled with swirls and stars reminiscent of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. This new cosmic masterpiece features the glowing nebula NGC 6729 on the left and the globular star cluster NGC 6723 on the right. DECam is mounted on the U.S. National […]

In search of life beyond our solar system: Atmosphere detected on a habitable-zone rocky world

In a major milestone in the search for life on other planets, astronomers have detected, for the first time, an atmosphere surrounding an Earth-like, rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of another star. The finding provides the strongest evidence yet that worlds with conditions similar to Earth in composition and temperature, with the potential […]