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China recovers rocket stage on land for first time, after earlier recovery at sea

China has successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, state media reported Wednesday, as the country seeks to advance its space program.

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Dying radio galaxies suggest a shorter, more dynamic afterlife for black hole jets

Astronomers have uncovered a previously underexplored population of faint, rapidly fading remnant radio galaxies, offering new insights into what happens after supermassive black holes stop powering their enormous radio jets.

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Mars attacks: How much dust from the red planet is safe to breathe?

NASA has released a report recommending an initial health standard for the Martian dust that astronauts could inhale during future missions. Although sending people to Mars is still years away, NASA needs to establish safety limits now. Spacecraft, spacesuits and crew habitats take years to design and test, and engineers need a measurable target for […]

A single asteroid impact may explain the appearance of Mars’ moon Deimos

Deimos, the smaller and outermost of Mars’ two moons, is roughly oval in shape and has a deep depression at its south pole. Unlike its heavily scarred sister moon, Phobos, Deimos is covered by a loose layer of dust and rubble—a so-called regolith layer—which gives it a smoother, dustier appearance. Although numerous space probes have […]

NASA’s LRO images Falcon 9 crater on moon, learns new details

Between Aug. 11–12, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured a series of images of a new crater on the moon. The crater formed Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage impacted the surface following its Jan. 2025 launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission.

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‘Hidden stars’ suggest that distant galaxies are much more massive than they appear

Astronomers have discovered that the most massive galaxies in the early universe contain far more small stars than expected. As a result, these early galaxies were likely much more massive than initial measurements suggested. This discovery challenges current understanding about how the first galaxies formed. The results are published today in Nature Astronomy.

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NASA’s SkyFall Mars helicopters will feature a revolutionary antenna design

From 2021 to 2024, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter became the first vehicle of its kind to explore the Martian atmosphere and surface. With that proof of concept complete, NASA is preparing to send a trio of helicopters to search for the most precious resource for future astronaut missions: water. Known as the SkyFall trio, these helicopters […]

ISS hosts first spacewalk by a Frenchwoman

Sophie Adenot became the first French woman astronaut to venture outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk Tuesday, accompanied by American astronaut Anil Menon.

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Webb captures clearest image yet of the Lion Nebula

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged NGC 2392 (also known as the Lion Nebula), named for its distinctive appearance, which resembles a lion’s face seen head-on.

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Ruby-forming mineral found by Mars rover hints at violent impacts

So far, most of the minerals found on Mars tell a story of lava poured out by ancient volcanoes, followed by long stretches in which water trickled through and slowly reshaped the rock. However, some rocks scattered across the Martian surface seem to hint at a different geological history—carrying the same material that forms rubies […]

Nuking an asteroid on short notice could save us

Readers of a certain age will remember a golden era of asteroid films, capped by two with very different endings. “Deep Impact” drove home the devastating consequences of letting a large piece of rock hit our planet, whereas “Armageddon,” though arguably the kitschier of the two films, was an uplifting story about technical ingenuity and […]

Hubble solves merger mystery from Milky Way’s early years

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way in the earliest phases of its evolution. This finding extends our knowledge of our galaxy’s history 1.8 […]

How ancient trees are warning us about the next enormous solar storm

Our sun is capable of storms far bigger than we’ve ever recorded. Studying the world’s oldest trees suggests we could soon be due one of these gargantuan events.

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Mega-Earth GJ 523b is 23 times as massive as our planet—but only 2.5 times as wide

It’s nearly 170 million years old. It’s more than 2.5 times the size of Earth. And it’s the first exoplanet discovered and cataloged by researchers with the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).

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Stellar explosions come into focus with new nuclear reaction measurements

In two separate papers published in Physical Review Letters, researchers investigated the nuclear reactions that take place inside supernovae and X-ray bursts—two of the universe’s most powerful explosions. Together, the findings will help scientists build more accurate models of how stars explode and how newly formed elements are produced.

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