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Right now our solar system is barreling into a region of space that we know next to nothing about. For about 60,000 years, our sun has been traversing the local interstellar cloud (LIC), a region of gas and dust within a mostly empty bubble that was carved out of the Milky Way by supernovae millions … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed all five layers of its tennis-court-sized sunshield, a prerequisite for the telescope’s science operations and the most nerve-wracking part of its risky deployment. The challenging procedure, which required careful tensioning of each of the five hair-thin layers of the elaborate sunshield structure was a seamless success today (Jan. 4). … Read more
On a recent morning, in Lower Manhattan, 20 scientists, including me, gathered for a private screening of the new film Don’t Look Up, followed by lunch with the film’s director, Adam McKay. The film’s plot is simple. An astronomy graduate student, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), and her professor, Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), discover a new … Read more
Last year, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid explorer returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu, and now the first analysis of the rock shows it has a primitive composition and a curiously dark colour Space 20 December 2021 By Alex Wilkins Artist’s impression of Hayabusa 2 near Ryugu Akihiro Ikeshita The asteroid Ryugu contains some of the … Read more
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
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
A communications glitch between the observatory and its launch vehicle forced the delay, NASA officials say Technicians work to secure the James Webb Space Telescope atop the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it to space from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: Manuel Pedoussaut/ESA Advertisement The launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope … 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
The new James Webb Space Telescope is topped off and one step closer to taking flight. Mission team members have finished fueling the James Webb Space Telescope at ahead of its planned Dec. 22 launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency announced Monday (Dec. 6). The fueling for Webb, which is an … Read more