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Collisions with high-speed space rocks in Venus’s early history could have melted most of the planet’s mantle and driven any water into the atmosphere Space 17 December 2021 By Jonathan O’Callaghan Artist’s rendering of an early, large collision on Venus Southwest Research Institute/Simone Marchi High-speed impacts on Venus early in its history could help explain … Read more
December’s cold moon, the longest full moon of the year, will debut this Saturday night (December 18), making it the last full moon before the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. To catch the cold moon at its fullest, look up at 11:36 pm EST (0432 UTC on December 19). If you miss that moment, you’ll … Read more
By Leah Crane A selfie of the Perseverance Mars rover NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS NASA’s Perseverance rover has taken some of the most detailed measurements we’ve ever had of Mars rocks, yielding insights into the lake that once filled Jezero crater. When the rover landed on Mars in February, researchers were immediately intrigued by layered outcroppings near its … Read more
A NASA spacecraft has entered a previously unexplored region of the Solar System—the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. The long-awaited milestone, which happened in April but was announced on 14 December, is a major accomplishment for the Parker Solar Probe, a craft that is flying closer to the Sun than any mission in history. “We … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Record-setting NASA astronaut Christina Koch is continuing her mission to inspire the next generation of explorers. As part of a long-duration mission, Christina Koch spent 328 days in space, marking the longest single spaceflight by a woman, and the second-longest after fellow NASA astronaut, Scott Kelly. While aboard the International Space … Read more
NASA has given the go-ahead to another private crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The agency will work with Axiom Space to find a window for the Houston-based company’s second ISS mission, NASA officials said in an update Monday (Dec. 13). That flight, known as Ax-2, is currently scheduled to launch from NASA’s … Read more
By Leah Crane An illustration of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has reached out to our star and touched its atmosphere. On 28 April, it became the first spacecraft to enter the upper atmosphere of the sun, called the corona. This milestone was announced on 14 … Read more
Humans aren’t built to live in space, and being there can pose serious health risks. For space administrations like NASA, a major goal is to identify these risks to hopefully help lessen them. That was a major theme during NASA’s Spaceflight for Everybody Virtual Symposium in November, a virtual symposium dedicated to discussing current knowledge … Read more
Former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin is working to help the next generation reach the same lofty heights that he did. Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut, completed two space shuttle missions to the International Space Station during his tenure, one in 2008 and the other in 2009. But in the years since then, Melvin has been … Read more
NASA and the Italian Space Agency are launching the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer space telescope to measure the X-ray light coming from objects including neutron stars and black holes Space 8 December 2021 By Will Gater An artist’s impression of the IXPE mission NASA NASA and the Italian Space Agency are scheduled to launch an … Read more