Space missions have long exemplified humankind's indomitable spirit and boundless ambition. Once the reserve of nations, space is fact opening up to commercial enterprises and could soon be the must-go destination for tourists – provided the accumulation of debris doesn't turn Earth's orbit into a no-go zone. All this comes as missions beyond the Moon provide greater insights into our solar system and more powerful telescopes give us a glimpse at exoplanets light years away.
New Atlas keeps you up to date with the latest space news and fantastic images from all corners of the Universe.
Google Maps is both amazing and a little terrifying at times. Not content to just map out almost every corner of the Earth, Google has now added the ability to explore 12 other worlds in our little corner of the galaxy.
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There are stories in the stars, so they say, and the story of Kronos is a doozy. Astronomers from Princeton noticed some marked chemical differences between the star and its binary partner, Krios, and determined the most likely cause: Kronos has devoured the equivalent of 15 Earths.
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An asteroid passing within 26,000 mi (42,000 km) of Earth might seem like cause for concern, but when the 10 to 20 m wide asteroid 2012 TC4 did just that in the early hours of today, it provided the perfect opportunity to test a global asteroid-impact early-warning system.
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Sixty years ago this month, the Space Age was born. It's a story about a metal beach ball that stunned the world, and pivots on the rivalry of two superpowers and of two men. This is the story of Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, the first manmade object to orbit the Earth.
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Astronomers have observed an occultation of a distant star to get a better look at the little-known dwarf planet Haumea, which orbits the Sun beyond Neptune. Scientists were able to pin down the planet’s size, shape and density, and make a surprising new discovery: Haumea has a rocky ring around it.
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On September 15, 2017, the Cassini mission came to a fiery end as the unmanned deep space probe slammed into the atmosphere of Saturn. Now, telemetry data lets NASA engineers reconstruct the final dramatic seconds before contact with the explorer was lost forever.
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The Moon isn’t quite the wasteland we might assume it to be. There’s more water up there than scientists previously thought, and it was a far wetter and more active place in the distant past. Now, a NASA study has found evidence that the ancient Moon may once have had a watery atmosphere.
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To experience life in and around the ISS requires years of astronaut training, but technology does continue to bring us closer to the experience. The latest example is a 360-degree video that places the viewer in the thick of the action as Russian cosmonauts carry out a spacewalk.
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While a lot of attention has been focused on Mars thanks to the rovers that are heading out there in 2020, the Red Planet's tiny moon Phobos has been relatively overlooked. Now the THEMIS camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has captured a heat map of what a day looks like on the oddly-shaped moon.
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SpaceX has made astounding progress in its relatively short existence, but in many ways it is just getting started. As the company prepares to launch its next generation rocket booster next month, the Falcon 9 Heavy, let's take a moment to appreciate some of its successes so far.
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