News From Space
After the 2020 announcement of the discovery of phosphine above Venus’ clouds, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) conducted follow-up observations to confirm or refute the finding. Its observations did not find phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere, a potential biomarker and possible indicator of organic matter, or life. Venus is considered Earth’s twin in many […]
NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:40 a.m. PST December 11, 2022, after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test. Splashdown is the final milestone of the Artemis I […]
NASA’s InSight lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake December 24, 2021, but scientists learned later the cause of that quake: a meteoroid strike estimated to be one of the biggest seen on Mars since NASA began exploring the cosmos. What’s more, the meteoroid excavated boulder-sized chunks of ice buried closer to the martian equator than […]
The Curiosity Mars rover has arrived at a special region believed to have formed as Mars’ climate was drying. After journeying last summer through a narrow, sand-lined pass, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recently arrived in the “sulfate-bearing unit,” a long-sought region of Mount Sharp enriched with salty minerals. Scientists hypothesize that billions of years ago, […]
NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out of energy, a state engineers refer […]
NASA’s Perseverance rover will establish the first sample depot on Mars. The next step in the unprecedented campaign to return scientifically selected samples from Mars was made on October 19 with a formal agreement between NASA and its partner the European Space Agency (ESA). The two agencies will proceed with the creation of a sample […]
Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft’s kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. […]
NASA and the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which leads the Psyche mission, shared a response to the results of an independent review board convened to determine why the mission to study a metal-rich asteroid of the same name missed its planned 2022 launch opportunity. The mission is moving forward as previously […]
NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is the first purpose-built space telescope that will advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts by finding and tracking hazardous near-Earth objects. A space telescope designed to search for the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that stray into Earth’s orbital neighborhood, NEO Surveyor recently passed a rigorous technical and programmatic review. Now the […]