Space
New Atlas keeps you up to date with the latest space news and fantastic images from all corners of the Universe.
Latest News
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Earth may have once had a ring like Saturn – and it caused chaos
September 16, 2024Saturn’s rings are iconic, but new evidence presented by researchers from Monash University suggests Earth might once have sported one of its own. This ring would likely have caused climate chaos on the surface. -
NASA coaxes Voyager 1's thrusters back to life
September 15, 2024After almost five decades sailing through space, NASA is trying to squeeze a few more years out of the venerable Voyager 1 deep space probe by swapping a wonky thruster system for a disused secondary one to keep its radio antenna pointing at the Earth. -
Watch: Polaris Dawn splashes down after historic spacewalk mission
September 15, 2024After five days in orbit, the Polaris Dawn mission, which conducted the world's first commercial spacewalk, has returned safely to Earth. At 3:36 am EDT, the Dragon capsule Resilience splashed down off the coast of the Dry Tortugas, Florida. -
Watch: Nearby star blows bubbles the size of 75 Suns
September 12, 2024The Sun is the biggest fish in our small pond of a solar system, but it’s a mere minnow compared to the whales that dwell out in the cosmos. New telescope images show a gigantic star casually blowing bubbles 75 times bigger than our Sun. -
Watch: World's first private spacewalk
September 12, 2024The world's first private spacewalk has been completed. On September 12, 2024 at 7:58 am EDT, two of the four-person crew of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Resilience returned after a 106-minute tethered EVA 732 km (455 miles) above the Earth. -
Alien star could have side-swiped our solar system closer than Voyager
September 12, 2024Our solar system might still bear the scars from an extremely close shave with an alien star. Such an encounter – the closest pass we know of – would have shaken up objects on the outskirts and might even mean there’s no Planet Nine after all. -
Polaris Dawn prepares for first private spacewalk: How to watch
September 11, 2024Having completed its first day in orbit, the Polaris Dawn mission is preparing to make the first private spacewalk in history. Two astronauts are scheduled to exit the Dragon spacecraft Resilience at 2:23 am EDT and here's how to watch. -
First private spacewalk mission blasts into orbit
September 10, 2024The most ambitious private space mission yet, which will see the first private spacewalk, has lifted off. At 5:23 am EDT, the Polaris Dawn mission rose from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center atop a Falcon 9 rocket for low-Earth orbit. -
First-ever 3D metal printing in space achieved on ISS
September 09, 2024In an experiment that sounds about as safe as bobbing for fries, ESA carried out the first-ever 3D metal printing in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Built with Airbus, the Metal 3D Printer completed the first of four test shapes. -
Elon Musk plans to send first Starships to Mars in 2026
September 08, 2024SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that the first of his company's Starship spacecraft will set off for Mars in two years and the first crewed missions will follow in 2028. He sees this as part of his plan to make humanity an interplanetary species. -
Starliner returns to Earth empty – crew still 'not stranded' on ISS
September 06, 2024The ill-fated Starliner spacecraft has returned from Earth at the end of a 93-day mission that was only supposed to last eight days. The empty capsule landed safely on September 7, 2024 at 12:01 am EDT at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. -
Ancient impact shattered Ganymede and knocked it off its axis
September 03, 2024The largest moon in our solar system may have been knocked off its axis and cracked like an egg four billion years ago by an asteroid bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous age. -
Watch Starliner return home empty on Friday – but it may have gremlins
September 01, 2024The "not stranded" astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) won't have an emergency ride home after Friday. NASA says that the uncrewed Starliner capsule will undock and return to Earth autonomously. Oh, and it might be 'haunted.' -
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket grounded by FAA after botched landing
August 28, 2024The FAA has grounded SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket after one failed during a powered landing attempt on August 28, 2024 after the successful launch of 21 Starlink satellites. It's the first unsuccessful landing for SpaceX since 2021. -
Stellar light show predicted for next year as black hole swallows star
August 26, 2024Astronomers have watched a supermassive black hole take two bites of a star, and predicted when it might go back for a third. If it does, this should make for an intriguing stellar light show.
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