Space exploration

While two thirds of exoplanets may be a fiery, boiling wasteland, scientists believe the other third occupy a "just right" goldilocks orbit around their star, and this, much like Earth's orbit, could provide the right environmental support for life.

Space launch company Virgin Orbit has been grounded for good after a US bankruptcy court broke it up and sold off its assets to bidders. The demise of the ambitious venture comes after a failed attempt to conduct its first mission in January.

After an initial disappointment, Jeff Bezos is back in the Moon business. NASA selected Blue Origin's Blue Moon crewed lander for the space agency's Artemis V mission to the lunar South Pole in 2029 under a firm-fixed price contract of (US)$3.4 billion.

Terran Orbit has demonstrated a record-breaking 200-gigabit orbital data link that finally allows high-bandwidth data transfer from space to Earth. It'll replace antique, low-bandwidth X-band radio technology that's currently a critical bottleneck.

A new, Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 90 light-years away. In astronomical terms, that’s right next door. Moreover, it may be capable of supporting life thanks to volcanic eruptions caused by the gravitational tug of a nearby planet.

NASA's Juno deep space probe has made its closest flyby yet of Jupiter's volatile moon Io. During its 51st orbit of the giant planet, the solar-powered robotic spacecraft came within 22,600 miles (35,500 km) of Io's volcanic surface.

Able to detect gravitational waves and visible light sources, ESO's BlackGEM telescopic array at La Silla Observatory in Chile is on the hunt for ripples in space-time. And unlike existing observatories, it can pinpoint where they're coming from.

ESA's Juice Jupiter mission is back on track after Mission Control in Darmstadt, Germany managed to shake loose and deploy the stuck ice-penetrating Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna that was stuck due to a tiny pin.

Space startup Vast has announced that it intends to launch what it calls the world's first commercial space station, Haven-1, sometime after August 2025 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as the first element of a 100-m (330 ft) rotating station.

As its Aeolus wind monitoring mission comes to an end, ESA is testing new procedures for deorbiting the decommissioned 1360-kg (3,000 lb) spacecraft to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, advancing international space safety standards.

Looking at data from NASA's Voyager 2 collected during the deep space probe's flyby of Uranus in January 1980, scientists have concluded that four of the planet's known 27 moons may have oceans beneath their icy crusts.

Looking back at data from the geology experiments left on the lunar surface by the Apollo missions half a century ago, scientists have finally determined that the Moon has a solid core surrounded by a fluid outer core similar to the Earth's.