Space & Spaceflight

Sink Into the Beauty of This Frozen Mountain Lake

Our planet can be too beautiful to be plausible some days. This frozen lake in the Himalayas is shockingly deep blue set against the slightly-oxidized rusty landscape. And it’s completely real, photographed from the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly photographed this patch of the Himalayan mountains, posting it on January 9, 2015. Top…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

Astronaut Scott Kelly on Liquid Salt, a Stinky Station, and Sleeping in Freefall

There are lots of things most of us never contemplate when we fantasize about living in space: What happens to your arms when they don’t naturally fall at your sides? Do you keep your callouses when you aren’t walking? What’s it like to sleep in free fall? NASA astronaut Scott Kelly—he of the Year in…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

Blue Origin Relaunched the Rocket it Landed in November

On Friday, Blue Origin launched their same New Shepard rocket booster that it launched into space two months ago. Looks like the commercial space race for reusable rockets is on—SpaceX is flashier with bigger trajectories, but Blue Origin keeps winning the race to first. The original New Shepard flight in November boosted the rocket to…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

Doomed Stars Glisten Like Diamonds in Latest Hubble Photo

Behold Trumpler 14, a dazzling star cluster located 8,000 light-years from Earth. Situated within the Carina Nebula, it’s home to one of the highest concentrations of massive, bright stars in the Milky Way. But as spectacular as these stellar objects appear be, their majestic appearance comes at a price. This family of white-blue stars are…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Ping Pong With Water Drops Is Another Cool Thing That Happens In Space

There’s a long, long list of fun things to do in zero gravity, but when you spend an entire year in space, you probably get quite bored. That’s where space ping-pong with water droplets and hydrophobic paddles comes in. Commander Scott Kelly has spent nearly an entire year in space as part of an experiment…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

Saturn Tries to Hide Behind the Space Station in This Awesome Pic

We’ve seen the International Space Station transit in front of the Sun and the Moon, but passing in front of Saturn is something entirely different. Nice composite shot! The relative sizes and distances involved are particularly neat for this composite photo of the transit. Saturn is over a million times larger than the space station,…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Rocks Latest Hover Tests

Go go Dragon! SpaceX just posted video of its Dragon 2 spacecraft testing its ability to hover. Once certified, this spacecraft will carry astronauts to the space station as part of NASA’s commercial crew program. Crewed test flights are tentatively planned to start in 2017. The Dragon 2 (or Crew Dragon) is the spacecraft that…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

How Will a New Clock Keep Good Time Even in Deep Space?

Navigating in deep space is tricky, particularly when you need to keep up interplanetary synchronized clocks. NASA is convinced we can do better with a new atomic clock they’re testing in orbit this year. Here’s how it works, as illustrated by an adorably consternated second hand. “The atomic clock obviously can tell time very accurately,”…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

How Astronomers Will Solve the ‘Alien Megastructure’ Mystery

KIC 8462852 has quickly become one of the biggest astronomical mysteries of the decade. It’ll be months before we have any firm answers on this fitfully flickering star, but astronomers intend to get to the bottom of it. How? “If we could catch it in the act of dimming again, that would really help,” Penn…

Space & Spaceflight Maddie Stone

The First Space Flower Bloomed Decades Ago, Not This Week

This week was full of lessons. Lesson One: Never trust an astronaut. Lesson Two: Everyone loves flowers. Lesson Three: We’ve grown a lot of plants in space. August 2011: Cosmonaut Sergei Volkov visits his plants on the space station. Image credit: NASA The first zinnias from the Veggie experiment on the International Space Station bloomed…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

This Satellite Antenna Looks Good Enough to Hang on a Wall as Art

It may look like an artistic experiment in geometry that you could find on Etsy, but this is in fact a new satellite antenna developed by the European Space Agency. If you were to hang it on the wall of your minimalist flat, though, it might look a little smaller than you’d like. That’s because…

Space & Spaceflight Attila Nagy

We Still Don’t Understand These Spots on Saturn’s Moon, and We’re Not Going Back

The Cassini spacecraft made its final close flyby of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus in December, releasing its final up-close look at these weird little spots last week. Discovered over a decade ago, we’re still trying to work out exactly how these spots formed. Now the spacecraft is making its farewell tour of Saturn’s moons in…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

Where Should Juno Look When Exploring Jupiter?

Juno is cruising ever-closer to Jupiter, and mission scientists are asking for your help in finding the most interesting spots on the gas giant to focus their cameras once the spacecraft arrives later this year. The Juno mission has been collecting photographs of Jupiter from amateur astronomers as part of their planning process, and soliciting…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

Mysterious Planet X Could Be the Ninth Planet In Our Solar System

There could be a new ninth planet floating beyond the dark edges of our solar system, according to new research published in The Astronomical Journal from CalTech professors Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin. If those names ring a bell, it’s because Brown and Batygin worked to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006. The…

Space & Spaceflight Michael Nunez

All Five Naked-Eye Planets Are Up at Dawn to Greet You

Are you awake before dawn? Good. Go outside. Look east. Bask in the astronomical wonder of seeing all the brightest planets out at the same time, pinpricks of worlds drifting up from the horizon. Missed it? Try again any morning for the next month. Starting this morning, all five planets bright enough to see with…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

Check Out the Wreckage of SpaceX’s Almost-Landed Rocket

SpaceX landed a rocket on a barge this weekend, until it tipped over and exploded. Now the drone ship is back in port with the wreckage on deck. The Falcon 9’s engines are looking shockingly intact for surviving launch, reentry, landing, and an explosion! Eagle-eyed photographer Matthew Wang publishing under the name Bacon Gummy spotted…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon

How We Could Build a City on Mars

If we want to someday live on Mars, spaceships won’t be enough. We would need a Martian city—and this is how we might build one. In many ways, the problem of moving to Mars is simply a packing problem. We need a lot of gear (food, water, shelter) to keep us alive, and the only…

Space & Spaceflight Ria Misra

JPL Rocket Scientist Shows Why He’s the Right Kind of Crazy

When NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012, millions of people across the globe tuned in to watch. It was the culmination of nine long years of effort — and it went off without a hitch. In particular, we marveled at the ingenious method designed by the engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory…

Space & Spaceflight Jennifer Ouellette

Even Astronauts Take Selfies When They Go For a Spacewalk

Last week, astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra scrambled around the outside of the International Space Station to replace a failed voltage regulator. The hard work didn’t prevent Peake from taking a selfie, though. The astronaut found time during the 4 hours and 43 minutes of spacewalking to snap what must be one of the…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

Watch How Astronauts Still Make Coffee in Space, the Old-Fashioned Way

You might have thought that by now astronauts were quietly sipping at steaming cups of Lavazza espresso when they wanted a coffee in space. But the reality is still foil-packed containers of pre-mixed “coffee with cream and sugar substitute.” Tasty. In this video, astronaut Tim Peake shows us how a cup of regular joe is…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

Sink Into the Beauty of This Frozen Mountain Lake

Astronaut Scott Kelly on Liquid Salt, a Stinky Station, and Sleeping in Freefall

Blue Origin Relaunched the Rocket it Landed in November

Doomed Stars Glisten Like Diamonds in Latest Hubble Photo

Ping Pong With Water Drops Is Another Cool Thing That Happens In Space

Saturn Tries to Hide Behind the Space Station in This Awesome Pic

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Rocks Latest Hover Tests

How Will a New Clock Keep Good Time Even in Deep Space?

How Astronomers Will Solve the ‘Alien Megastructure’ Mystery

The First Space Flower Bloomed Decades Ago, Not This Week

This Satellite Antenna Looks Good Enough to Hang on a Wall as Art

We Still Don’t Understand These Spots on Saturn’s Moon, and We’re Not Going Back

Where Should Juno Look When Exploring Jupiter?

Mysterious Planet X Could Be the Ninth Planet In Our Solar System

All Five Naked-Eye Planets Are Up at Dawn to Greet You

Check Out the Wreckage of SpaceX’s Almost-Landed Rocket

How We Could Build a City on Mars

JPL Rocket Scientist Shows Why He’s the Right Kind of Crazy

Even Astronauts Take Selfies When They Go For a Spacewalk

Watch How Astronauts Still Make Coffee in Space, the Old-Fashioned Way

2027 Is Shaping Up to Be a Great Year for Big Sci-Fi RPGs

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

Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, xAI Has Now Shed All 11 of Its Non-Elon Musk Founders

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

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

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Let us help find what you are looking for...