Space & Spaceflight

This Squishy NASA Rover Is Mostly Empty Space

Naturally, NASA’s a big fan of light and portable things, so this rover made of poles and cables represents a way forward. No wheels. No bulk. All agility. It’s called the Super Ball Bot, and it weighs only a few pounds. This contraption is light enough and agile enough to make its way around Saturn’s…

How Your Christmas Presents Were Shipped—As Seen in Clouds From Space

Today’s as good a day as any to ponder how massive amounts of stuff gets moved around the world. iPhones from China, sweaters from Bangladesh, chocolates from Switzerland—they all make the intercontinental journey in containers stacked like Lego blocks on cargo ships. And these ships can seed their own clouds, tracing out their paths across…

Watch Today’s ISS Spacewalk Live, Right Here, Right Now

It may be Christmas Eve, but today’s a working day for the astronauts on the International Space Station. NASA’s Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are conducting the second spacewalk in four days to repair the ISS’s cooling system, and you can watch it live right here. https://gizmodo.com/15-awesome-facts-about-the-international-space-station-1468236778 Today’s mission is the second half of a…

Relive Man’s First Launch to the Moon, 45 Years Ago Today

On December 21st, 1968, three men left earth and became the first humans to orbit the moon. Their entire journey was legendary, and even 45 years later watching Apollo 8 launch is almost heart-stopping. Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders were the first men to leave our…

Crazy Hacker Wants to Save Bitcoin by Blasting a CubeSat into Space

Jeff Garzik is a dreamer. You know, the kind of guy who probably thought that he could fly with his red cape when he was younger. (Note: As a toddler, I unsuccessfully tried to fly several times.) But now Jeff Garzik is looking higher. He’s looking to space, and he wants Bitcoin to live there.…

The European Space Agency’s Gaia Telescope—which is set to scan the entire sky and change our understanding of the universe—successfully launched yesterday morning at 09:12 GMT. [ESA]

Astronomers Figured Out How to Weigh Entire Planets Using Starlight

Weighing a planet is a tough task. I mean, it’s not like you can just put them on a bathroom scale. And, while astronomers figured out how to measure the mass of planets in our solar system a long time ago, it’s practically impossible to weigh exoplanets. Well, it was until recently. MIT planetary scientists…

Just Look at What Saturn’s Moons Do To Its Rings

Saturn’s moons do more than just orbit the planet: they interact with its rings, too. In this image, you can see the moon Prometheus’ gravitational field gently sculpting the planet’s F ring. Over on the left, you can also just about make out some ripples at the edge of the Keeler gap, which are in…

Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Might Have Blasted Life to Mars

The massive asteroid that slammed into Earth some 66 million years ago is often—and understandably—considered a vicious killer. But new research into the cosmic effects of the impact suggest quite the opposite. That deadly asteroid might have actually blasted life throughout the solar system. As a team of researchers argue in the latest issue of…

The Crab Nebula Is a Swirling Cloud of Electric Purple Light

The Crab Nebula never fails to disappoint—and that’s particularly true in this image, a view by the Herschel Space Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope of the swirling cloud of dust and gas. https://gizmodo.com/crab-nebula-should-be-renamed-smoking-blue-jellyfish-ne-5732650 The image is a composite from the two satellites, combing Hubble’s view of the nebula at visible wavelengths and Herschel’s far-infrared…

The Chinese Rover’s First Moon Photos Are Here

China’s National Space Administration has released photos taken by theYutu rover on the moon. There is also video footage of the Chang’e 3 lander’s descent, and you can see in the video (below) when it comes to a full stop about 50 meters above the surface of the moon for a quick photo survey. https://gizmodo.com/bang-zoom-straight-to-the-moon-china-launches-its-fi-1474883623…

China’s Rover Has Reportedly Landed On the Moon

China’s state-run television network is reporting that the unmanned Yutu lunar rover has successfully soft-landed on the moon. The rover, which touched down a few minutes after 9PM Saturday night Beijing time, is the first object to be successfully soft-landed on the moon since 1976. https://gizmodo.com/bang-zoom-straight-to-the-moon-china-launches-its-fi-1474883623 The Chang’e-3 landing craft carried the rover to the…

Inside the Incredible, Complex Factories Where Satellites Are Born

Greg White has shot some of the most remote and unusual places in the world. The UK photographer has published photo essays on Chernobyl, Svalbard, and even CERN. But for his latest project, he discovered an alien world within the ordinary confines of his home country: The labs where satellites are built. Working under commission…

This mosaic of images taken from 2004 to 2013 the shutter-snapping Cassini spacecraft shows the most detailed look at the famous lakes on the surface of Saturn’s moon, Titan. Thought to be filled with methane and ethane, the lakes are the only areas filled with standing liquid in the entire solar system except, of course,…

14 Fresh Pieces of Space Art for Your Viewing Pleasure

Contemporary visual arts and the new space age we are currently living in often pleasantly fuse together, resulting in great art and illustrations that everyone would gladly hang on the wall. To Infinity And Beyond is a space art exhibition of 40 young Hungarian graphic designers and painters currently on display in the Budapest Planetarium,…

How the Gaia Telescope Will Scan the Entire Sky

When the Gaia space telescope launches next week, it’s going to attempt the biggest astronomy project of all time: it will try and scan the entire sky, capturing images of at least a billion stars in our galaxy. Plunging 1.5 million kilometers into space, it’ll do all of that with unprecedented accuracy, almost certainly transforming…

We’re Being Overprotective of Mars

Mars is a big boy. At 4.5 billion years old, the Red Planet can surely take care of itself by now—but you wouldn’t know it based on the great lengths NASA and friends go to protect it from contamination by Earthly debris. Some astrobiologists think these measures are unnecessary. Cornell’s Alberto G. Fairén and Washington…

NASA’s Morpheus Lander Completes Its First Explosion-Free Test Flight

We all have to crawl before we can walk, and NASA’s Morpheus lander is no different—well, except for the fact that “crawl,” in this case, actually means burst into a pile of flames. But all that’s in the past, and NASA’s taken to their YouTube and Instagram accounts to show off the absolutely stunning success…

How Europe Is Going to Land on a Comet

In November 2014, after traveling 10 years and hundreds of millions of miles, a European spacecraft will touch down on a two-and-a-half-mile-wide ball of ice and dust as it hurtles through space towards the sun. And if all goes according to plan, this unprecedented feat could finally give us what we need to understand the…

Curiosity Discovers a Giant Lake Once Suitable for Life on Mars

The possibility that Mars was once home to all kinds of life is looking better and better with each new Curiosity discovery. According to newly published research, the rover has stumbled across a site in the Gale Crater that scientists believe might have once been a lake full of life. The newly discovered lake site…