Space & Spaceflight

Illustration: Astrobiology Center, Japan

A Baby Planet Might Have Smashed Right Into Young Jupiter

Jupiter’s core seems off, astronomers think, in a way explainable by an ancient collision with another enormous body, perhaps one 10 times the mass of Earth. A collision early in our solar system’s history shouldn’t be a huge surprise; after all, scientists surmise that Earth’s own Moon resulted from a giant impact. A similar event…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger

Astrophotographer Discovers a Tiny ‘Churymoon’ Around Famous Comet

An astrophotographer has spotted what looks to be a moon orbiting the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission. The Rosetta mission launched in 2004, and arrived at 67P in 2014. Aside from producing lots of interesting data as well as thrills, it also sent many images of the comet back…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Astronomers Spot Unprecedented Flashes From Our Galaxy’s Black Hole

An attempt to prove Einstein’s hallmark theory of gravity revealed something even freakier: an unprecedented flash from the black hole at the center of our galaxy. The Milky Way features a black hole that’s 4 million times the mass of the Sun, called Sagittarius A* (pronounced A-star). Teams of scientists have been measuring it for…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

How to Watch the Peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower Tonight

One of the year’s best meteor showers peaks tonight into tomorrow and Wednesday, which means it’s a great opportunity to wake up early, find a dark place outdoors, and enjoy the spectacle. Space isn’t completely empty—clouds of dust left behind by comets dot Earth’s path around the Sun. When we pass through these clouds, specks…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Something Big Just Slammed Into Jupiter

An amateur astronomer in Texas captured a rare sight earlier this week when an apparent meteor slammed into Jupiter’s thick upper atmosphere. On Wednesday, amateur astronomer Ethan Chappel was on the lookout for Perseid meteors, reports ScienceAlert. But his telescope was trained on Jupiter with the camera running. Later, after feeding the data into a…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Stumbles Upon a Strangely Complicated Martian Rock

The Curiosity team is calling it “Strathdon”—a boulder-sized Martian rock comprised of dozens of sedimentary layers. Its discovery suggests the area being explored by the NASA rover is more geologically complex than is typically appreciated. For the past several months, Curiosity has been exploring a region called the “clay-bearing unit” within Gale Crater. This area,…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Astronomers Uncover Ancient Treasure Trove of Massive Galaxies

Astronomers have spotted a puzzling population of enormous galaxies in the far distance that will be crucial targets for upcoming telescopes. Today, astronomers struggle to explain the origin of the largest galaxies in the nearby universe. This new discovery, made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, offers an explanation—but something’s off. The…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

LightSail 2, Pushed by Sunlight, Raises Its Orbit by 10,500 Feet in Just Two Weeks

Two weeks after entering solar sailing mode, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 spacecraft has managed to raise its orbit by nearly 2 miles, in an important test of this promising new means of propulsion. LightSail 2 unfurled its 32-square-meter (344-square-foot) solar sail on July 23, around one month after it was deposited into low Earth…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

This Football-Shaped Planet Is Leaking Heavy Metal

This hot Jupiter is so close to its host star that gravitational forces are squeezing it into a football-like shape. Not only that, its temperatures are so extreme that heavy metal gases are escaping into space from the exoplanet’s atmosphere—a phenomenon never seen before until now. Iron and magnesium gases are escaping the atmosphere of…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Another Study Finds Our Galaxy Is ‘Warped and Twisted’

A team of Polish astronomers has created the most accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way to date, revealing surprising distortions and irregularities along the galactic disk. Building an accurate map of the Milky Way is not easy. Our location deep inside the gigantic structure means we can’t observe our galaxy externally, forcing us to…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Dramatic Video Shows the Moment Hayabusa2 Made Its Second Touchdown on the Ryugu Asteroid

A newly released video from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the critical moment when the Hayabusa2 spacecraft made contact with the surface of the Ryugu asteroid for an unprecedented second time. On July 11, 2019, Japan’s Hayabusa2 made history by performing its second touchdown onto Ryugu, an 870-meter-wide (2,854-foot) asteroid located 300 million…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

The suggestion that humans will soon set up bustling, long-lasting colonies on Mars is something many of us take for granted. What this lofty vision fails to appreciate, however, are the monumental—if not intractable—challenges awaiting colonists who want to permanently live on Mars. Unless we radically adapt our brains and bodies to the harsh Martian…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Hey, Check It Out: Butter Astronauts

This year’s Ohio State Fair has, par for the course, giant butter sculptures—but this year it has butter astronauts carved to celebrate the recent 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. Per CNET, visitors to the fair (which began on July 24 and runs until Aug. 4 in Columbus, Ohio) can see huge butter carvings…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

SpaceX’s Starhopper Makes Its First Free-Flying Leap

SpaceX has completed its first untethered leap of Starhopper—a prototype for its planned Starship vehicle. The brief but important test now sets the stage for more ambitious jumps. Without any tethers to guide its way or catch its fall, Starhopper rose 20 meters (65 feet) into the air, returning safely to the ground a few…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al; Optical: UKIRT; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Our Favorite Images From Chandra X-Ray Telescope’s 20 Years in Space

If the Hubble Space Telescope set the standard for what a jaw-dropping space picture should look like, then the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, launched 20 years ago this week, perfected it. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory went to orbit onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. Unlike Hubble, which measures ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared radiation…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

SpaceX Aborts First Attempted Flight Test of ‘Starhopper’ Prototype After Engines Fire

A week after a fireball erupted from the base of SpaceX’s prototype “StarHopper” rocket during a static-fire test at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas facility, the company’s first “untethered” test launch of the craft was aborted after encountering technical difficulties on Wednesday, CNBC reported. During the test, the rocket was supposed to fire its engines…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

LightSail 2 Opens Its Sails in an Early Test of Tech That May Make Interstellar Travel Possible

A tiny spacecraft in Earth orbit has successfully deployed its solar sails. Called LightSail 2, the craft will now use the power of the Sun to lift its orbital height even further, in what’s considered an important test of this promising means of propulsion. LightSail 2 is a crowdfunded project run by the Planetary Society,…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

This Amazing White Dwarf Discovery Could Be a ‘Gold Mine’ for Physicists

Scientists have discovered a pair of white dwarfs that might one day produce a major gravitational wave discovery, according to a new paper. Certain chaotic events, like black holes slamming together, produce waves of warping spacetime that physicists have spotted here on Earth. But other events, like dense objects quickly orbiting each other, can produce…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Who Protects Earth From Asteroids?

Of all the things that could end our world, an asteroid strike may be the doomsday we have the most control over. In fact, an asteroid strike is near the bottom of the list of feasible armageddons. After all, we inhabit a nuclear weapon-armed world where human activity is permanently altering habitats and changing the…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Historic Indian Moon Mission Underway After Successful Launch of Chandrayaan-2 Lander and Rover

The Chandrayaan-2 mission is officially off to a promising start, as India vies to become the fourth nation to land on the Moon. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the three-stage GSLV Mk-III rocket on Monday, July 22 at 2:43 p.m. local time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, an island off…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

A Baby Planet Might Have Smashed Right Into Young Jupiter

Astrophotographer Discovers a Tiny ‘Churymoon’ Around Famous Comet

Astronomers Spot Unprecedented Flashes From Our Galaxy’s Black Hole

How to Watch the Peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower Tonight

Something Big Just Slammed Into Jupiter

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Stumbles Upon a Strangely Complicated Martian Rock

Astronomers Uncover Ancient Treasure Trove of Massive Galaxies

LightSail 2, Pushed by Sunlight, Raises Its Orbit by 10,500 Feet in Just Two Weeks

This Football-Shaped Planet Is Leaking Heavy Metal

Another Study Finds Our Galaxy Is ‘Warped and Twisted’

Dramatic Video Shows the Moment Hayabusa2 Made Its Second Touchdown on the Ryugu Asteroid

Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

Hey, Check It Out: Butter Astronauts

SpaceX’s Starhopper Makes Its First Free-Flying Leap

Our Favorite Images From Chandra X-Ray Telescope’s 20 Years in Space

SpaceX Aborts First Attempted Flight Test of ‘Starhopper’ Prototype After Engines Fire

LightSail 2 Opens Its Sails in an Early Test of Tech That May Make Interstellar Travel Possible

This Amazing White Dwarf Discovery Could Be a ‘Gold Mine’ for Physicists

Who Protects Earth From Asteroids?

Historic Indian Moon Mission Underway After Successful Launch of Chandrayaan-2 Lander and Rover

Tesla Goes Ahead and Admits Its Robotaxis Are Sometimes Fully Human-Controlled

School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

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