New Hubble observations show that WASP-121b is a planet that’s so intensely hot it’s vaporizing heavy metals and venting them into space. As if that wasn’t enough, the poor planet is also being stretched into a football shape thanks to the strong gravity of its host star.
Continue Reading
With an annual budget of US$21.5 billion, over 17,000 employees and who knows how many geniuses, you'd think NASA could pretty much solve any problem. But NASA not only needs outside help, it encourages it, announcing 19 partnerships with US businesses to benefit the entire US space sector.
Continue Reading
NASA’s TESS mission has been very busy lately, making many exoplanet discoveries. Now, the productive little satellite has made another important discovery – the closest super-Earth that’s potentially habitable.
Continue Reading
Stand by to start space mining – not on an asteroid, but aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The experimental mining kit will use bacteria to study how microorganisms can be used to extract minerals and metals from rocks on asteroids, moons, and planets.
Continue Reading
NASA's TESS probe is halfway through its two-year primary mission and has completed its survey of the southern sky in its search for extrasolar planets. According to the space agency, the unmanned telescope has discovered 21 confirmed exoplanets and 850 candidates for further study.
Continue Reading
NASA's Mars 2020 rover got a bit of a workout recently as it flexed its mechanical muscles. Captured in a time-lapse video, the robotic arm with its 88-lb "hand" did a bit of curling as space agency engineers guided it from its deployed to its stowed configuration for launch to the Red Planet.
Continue Reading
NASA has decided to put a major component of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket through a “Green Run,” which will include an eight-minute engine burn, in the runup to the scheduled 2021 launch of the Artemis 1 lunar mission.
Continue Reading
NASA has celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory's orbital life with a collection of new images that reflect the beauty and scientific importance of the veteran space telescope's work.
Continue Reading
NASA has shut down the first of the two Van Allen Probes in anticipation of their controlled burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in about 15 years. On July 19, 2019, at 1:27 pm EDT, mission control sent the signal ordering Van Allen Probe B to close down its systems after running out of propellant.
Continue Reading
NASA has given the green light to begin placing the plutonium-238 dioxide fuel into the nuclear Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) on the Mars 2020 robotic rover that will provide it with heat and electricity.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning