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Extreme Lunar conditions need an extreme test rig

When people eventually head to the moon for long-term exploration and habitation, they’ll need equipment and spacesuits made of well-tested materials. That’s where NASA’s Lunar Environment Test Rig (LESTR) comes in handy. It simulates extreme cold lunar night conditions right here on Earth in a NASA Glenn lab, testing lunar-bound materials in temperatures ranging from […]

Musk’s SpaceX bonus comes with unique condition: Colonize Mars

SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO filing included some out-of-this-world details, including a provision that founder Elon Musk’s massive bonus only kicks in if one million humans settle on Mars.

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Astronomers de-fog exoplanet atmospheres with new cloud-detecting method

Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), research published in the journal Science is among the first to detect cloud cycles on a Hot Jupiter […]

Resolving the Kardashev’s conundrum using a Bitcoin-inspired metric

In his 1964 paper, “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” famed astrophysicist and radio astronomer Nikolai Kardashev addressed the types of transmissions (and at what energies) astronomers should search for in their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). As part of his analysis, Kardashev proposed a universal scale for classifying the technological advancement of civilizations based […]

Extraterrestrial life may be slipping past space missions, astrobiologists warn

Suppose there are signs of extraterrestrial life and we have not yet been able to detect them. What does that mean? In Nature Astronomy, researchers discuss the consequences of these so-called false-negative results. “We are currently investing a great deal of money in missions that might need to be designed differently.”

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Saturn-sized exoplanet with Earth-like temperature reveals methane-rich atmosphere

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth’s, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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Hellish Venus-like planets may be more prevalent than true exoEarths

Preliminary results of a study presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna indicate that hellish Venus-type planets may be about twice as common as habitable planets that form with oceans.

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SpaceX, the sprawling company targeting the stars, Mars and an IPO

Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the lofty goal of ferrying humans to Mars and colonizing Earth’s neighboring planet.

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Astronomers may have discovered the tiniest odd radio circle

Astronomers have identified a possible new member of one of astronomy’s strangest classes of objects: Odd radio circles (ORCs), enormous ring-like structures visible only at radio wavelengths. The newly discovered source, J1248+4826, appears to be the most compact ORC candidate identified so far, with a ring only about 30,000 parsecs across. The paper was posted […]

New eruption discovered in the Bismarck Sea

It’s a truism among oceanographers that there is more accurate mapping of the surface of the moon and Mars than of the deep-ocean floor. That’s especially true for the Bismarck Sea, a relatively deep body of water north of Papua New Guinea. It’s an ocean basin with a geologically complex seafloor rife with faults, volcanic […]

Upgraded SpaceX Starship set for test launch ahead of IPO

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set for the debut launch of its latest Starship iteration on Thursday, testing the most powerful version yet of the megarocket as the company targets a blockbuster initial public offering.

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SpaceX is about to go public. Here’s how it works

Hundreds of companies raised a combined $70 billion by selling shares to the public in the United States last year.

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SpaceX reveals plans for what could be the biggest-ever initial public offering

Elon Musk announced plans Wednesday for one of the biggest stock sales ever by taking public a space company that is currently losing billions of dollars a year.

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Neptune’s mysterious moon Nereid may be original survivor of Triton’s chaotic arrival

Neptune’s far-flung moon Nereid may be the last of the planet’s original companions that managed to survive a cosmic crash, scientists reported Wednesday.

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Astronomers uncover why some solar eruptions die

A team of scientists has recorded one of the most detailed views ever of a failed solar eruption, a powerful blast from the sun that never broke free. Their work is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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