Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most interesting bodies in the solar system – but at a glance it looks like a dull yellow ball, thanks to a soupy atmosphere. Now, using 13 years’ worth of infrared data from Cassini, astronomers have stitched together the clearest images yet of Titan’s surface.
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By their nature, stars burn bright – so when they start dimming and fading, scientists pay attention. Now, astronomers have observed a strangely-twinkling star and found that it might be the result of a collision between proto-planets orbiting it, and the star gobbling up the remains.
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About 3.7 billion years ago, a neutrino was thrown out of a blazar and launched towards Earth. The ghostly particle was detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica and traced back to its point of origin, helping to confirm the most distant neutrino source ever identified.
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Findings from three major world observatories confirm that a very rare binary asteroid came within a cosmic whisker of Earth on June 21, 2017 The near-Earth asteroid (actually two asteroids) passed within 3.7 million of our planet for the first time in 170 years before heading out into deep space.
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Next month, NASA is set to launch a pioneering new mission. The Solar Parker Probe will will become the spacecraft to most closely orbit our Sun, all things going to plan. And a pretty important part of that plan is the advanced heat shield now installed by NASA engineers.
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Using data returned by the unmanned Cassini spacecraft as it made its last orbits, space scientists have captured the dynamic interaction of plasma waves moving between Saturn and its moon Enceladus and turned them into a haunting cosmic soundtrack.
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ESA is working on a new robotic rover to retrieve containers of Martian rock and soil left behind by NASA's Mars 2020 rover. ESA has now awarded the initial £3.9 million (US$5.2 million) contract to design the new Fetch rover to Airbus, which will undertake the study in Stevenage, England.
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If astronauts are ever going to return to the Moon, they must come to terms with the lunar environment. To combat a major threat to astronaut health and technology, ESA is conducting a major study of moon dust to determine how dangerous it is and how to counter its effects on humans and machines.
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It's one of the most recognizable machines of the 20th century, but the building of the Saturn V is a story of brilliant technical innovation tinged with engineering conservatism, politics, in-fighting, and having to work on a project that no one had more than a hazy conception.
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NASA has announced yet another delay for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), following the publication of a report from the Independent Review Board (IRB) set up to assess the progress of the project in the wake of multiple setbacks.
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