NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite was built to search for new planets, but astronomers at Ohio State found it could also observe supernovas created by exploding white dwarf stars. This means we might soon have a better idea about why they explode, and what they leave behind.
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Modern Mars is a desolate husk of a planet, as far as life is concerned. But it’s not completely uninhabitable, since microbes could be hiding in the cracks of rocks and dirt. And now a new study has found a possible food source for these organisms – space dust.
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An unexpected explosion during engine testing of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule threw up some questions about both the program timeline and dependability of its vehicles, which it is now offering some answers to following joint investigations with NASA.
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Researchers from Harvard have shown that thin layers of silica aerogel could warm the surface of Mars and block UV radiation while still letting visible light through. That could be enough to keep water liquid and let plants photosynthesize within a given region.
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In a move that may one day lead to satellites that can build other satellites, NASA has agreed to a US$73.7 million contract with Made in Spac to launch a demonstrator spacecraft that will manufacture and assemble satellite components in orbit.
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Hubble has discovered a structure around a black hole thought to be impossible. A small, “malnourished” black hole has a disk of material circling it – a feature thought unique to supermassive black holes. This disc is also so close to the black hole that it’s distorting and stretching the light.
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Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and the University of Bath are developing a technique that uses satellite radar imaging to monitor the safety of bridges and other large-scale infrastructure.
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NASA engineers are conducting an extremely long-range reconfiguring of the space agency's two 42-year-old Voyager deep-space probes to extend their service lives by cutting back and reallocating heating resources.
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NASA has awarded Carnegie Mellon University and Astrobotic a US$5.6 million contract to build a new suitcase-sized robotic lunar rover that could land on the Moon as soon as 2021. The 24-lb MoonRanger rover is designed to operate autonomously on week-long missions within 0.6 mi of its lander.
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NASA astronomers have managed to probe the atmosphere of GJ 3470 b, a planet unlike any in our solar system. It marks the first time for this kind of world, and could be a step towards identifying potentially habitable planets.
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