probes

Stingray-Shaped Probes Could Explore Venus’s Atmosphere

Researchers with the University at Buffalo are working on a conceptual design that would see a morphing aircraft explore the skies above Venus, including its elusive “dark side.” It’s called BREEZE, or Bio-inspired Ray for Extreme Environments and Zonal Explorations. Like a stingray propelling itself through water with its pectoral fins, this morphing probe would…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Nov 11

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Is Once Again Heading Toward the Sun

It’s been a while since we last heard from the Parker Solar Probe, the NASA spacecraft voted most likely to end up as a blistered chunk of molten metal. An update from the space agency suggests it’s now all systems go for the Sun-bound probe, which recently began its second of 24 planned stellar orbits.…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Jan 30

Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede Generates Incredible Magnetic Waves

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft surprised scientists when it revealed that Jupiter’s moon Ganymede generated its own magnetic field. But new research shows Ganymede also creates incredibly powerful waves that rocket particles to enormous energies. Scientists revealed these huge electromagnetic waves while studying old data from Galileo, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. The observations show…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Aug 7

How an Interstellar Starship Could Actually Explore Alpha Centauri

Last year, Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner hatched an ambitious plan to send a tiny probe to the Alpha Centauri star system. Travelling at 20 percent the speed of light, the researchers weren’t entirely sure how the probe was supposed to stop once it arrived at its destination, or whether it would even…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Feb 1

Japan’s Decade-Long Mission to Mine an Asteroid

1999 JU3: It doesn’t sound like a very noteworthy name. It’s just one of more than 5,000 Apollo-class asteroids. But 1999 JU3 could become a household name if Japan succeeds in mining it—a mission that JAXA has struggled with for decades, often disastrously. And on Sunday, it revealed the probe that could redeem it. Four…

Space & Spaceflight Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Sep 2

This Mission Plan Could Get NASA To Europa On The Cheap

NASA is currently accepting ideas for a mission to Europa — the moon voted most likely to harbour alien life. But thanks to recent budget cuts, it can only consider the most affordable solutions. The fine minds at Draper Labs may have just come up with the answer. https://gizmodo.com/nasa-is-now-accepting-ideas-for-a-mission-to-europa-1572408544 Here’s how it would work: A…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 20

NASA plans a robotic mission to search for life on Europa

It looks like it’s finally going to happen, an actual mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa — one of the the solar system’s best candidates for hosting alien life. Yesterday, NASA announced an injection of $17.5 billion from the federal government (down by $1.2 billion from its 2010 peak). Of this, $15 million will be…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 5

How we could start looking for alien transmitters in our solar system

SETI now has the technology to go snooping for extraterrestrials in our own backyard. No, not as close as little green men cutting up crop circles. Rather, we should be able to detect an alien device positioned somewhere between the sun to 30 times farther out than Pluto. What would aliens place 100 billion miles…

io9 Ray Villard — Discovery News Oct 17

The Day the Probes Hit

Only a few science fiction fans and futurists had heard of Von Neumann probes before that day in November when the pods smashed down. Some long-dead alien civilization had sent them out before they burped their last methane breaths. The probes’ single goal was to spread life to the galaxy, which sounds great on paper.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Mar 25

16 Scary Probes That You Don’t Want Inside of You

The worst part of going to the doctor’s is being poked and prodded with any number of terrifying probes and needles, but you probably haven’t seen many of the really scary implements that are out there. Here are 16 crazy ones you probably don’t want anywhere near you. This is one of the two probes…

Tech News Eric Limer Sep 28

Citizen! Only You Can Help Us Find Life On Mars

Space buffs take note: A science project called MAPPER is seeking citizen researchers to help aide in the search for off-world life on planets like our close neighbor, Mars. Before you get all up in a tizzy about controlling a bot that’s millions of miles away on the Red Planet however, be warned. This particular…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Oct 2

A Tiny Man-Made Probe Is Orbiting a Massive Asteroid 117 Million Miles from Earth

History, made: The unmanned Dawn spacecraft has successfully entered orbit around Vesta, a massive asteroid some 117 million miles from our planet. This is the first spacecraft to orbit and object in our solar system’s asteroid belt. [MSNBC] You can keep up with Jack Loftus, the author of this post, on Twitter

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Jul 17

The Ghosts of Saturn

Designer Chris Abbas collected a ton of Cassini photography from the Saturn mission and made this video. It is at times simultaneously eerie and awe-inspiring. This is not your father’s NASA highlight reel. Nine Inch Nails provides the soundtrack because that’s exactly what you’d expect of a ghostly Saturn fly-by video. Which reminds me: If…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Jun 4

NASA probe will bring back pieces of an asteroid

Meet OSIRIS-REx, the NASA probe with the kingly name, which will be the first craft to visit an asteroid and bring pieces back to Earth. The probe, whose name stands for Origins Spectral-Interpretation Resource-Identification Security Regolith Explorer, launches in 2016. NASA selected this proposal over two other candidates for its New Frontiers Program: a sample-collecting…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 26

For the First Time In Human History We Have a View of the Entire Sun

Until today, NASA was only able to directly view the Earth-facing side of the Sun. We could see solar storms as they happened, but not necessarily as they developed. Now, thanks to STEREO, we can see all sides simultaneously. Our limited view was due to the fact that the Sun’s roughly 27-day rotation hid the…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Feb 6

We’re Going to Investigate Europa’s 62-Mile Deep Ocean for Signs of Life

It’s official: NASA and the ESA will be sending specialized probes to the Jupiter moon Europa to further investigate that icy, ocean-y place for signs of life. In 2020. Patience! Called the Europa Jupiter System Mission, this joint initiative will see two probes dispensed into Jovian orbit, where they will scour Europa and several other…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Feb 6

Up Close and Personal with Hyperion, Saturn’s Mysterious Ugly Potato Moon

In November, the Cassini probe got very, very close to Hyperion, one of Saturns many moons. These 61 frames comprise a fly-by movie of the moon. Defrost the thing and add some sour cream and it’s good enough to eat! As Bad Astronomy explains it, the jump cuts and discrepancies in the animation are probably…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Dec 5

China Shoots for the Moon

On Friday, sometime around 1100 GMT, China sent a probe to the moon. The rocket, bearing the Chang’e-2 probe, launched from the Xichang launch center around that time and proceeded to take the probe toward a trans-lunar orbit. The trip from earth to moon will take approximately five days, after which time the probe will…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Oct 3

NASA IBEX Probe Confirms Freaky Stuff Happening at the Edge of Our Solar System

Fact: Space is a freak show. But that link goes to a post about deep space, beyond our solar system. Thanks to the IBEX probe, however, we’re quickly learning that our own backyard is rife with the freaky-deaky too. We first reported on the ambitious IBEX probe back in October, 2008, when NASA was preparing…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Oct 3

A Mysterious Force Is Pulling Pioneer 10 Back Toward the Sun

I kind of dig space—especially the unexplained—so today I’m in a bit of a tizzy. Pioneer 10, you see—which left our solar system in 1983—is slowly being drawn back toward the Sun by an unknown force. https://gizmodo.com/get-ready-humanity-because-space-is-a-freak-show-5238308 No, it’s not gravity, it’s something else. Something mysterious. Something barely perceptible that is tugging at the probe…

Space & Spaceflight Jack Loftus Sep 19

probes

Stingray-Shaped Probes Could Explore Venus’s Atmosphere

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Is Once Again Heading Toward the Sun

Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede Generates Incredible Magnetic Waves

How an Interstellar Starship Could Actually Explore Alpha Centauri

Japan’s Decade-Long Mission to Mine an Asteroid

This Mission Plan Could Get NASA To Europa On The Cheap

NASA plans a robotic mission to search for life on Europa

How we could start looking for alien transmitters in our solar system

The Day the Probes Hit

16 Scary Probes That You Don’t Want Inside of You

Citizen! Only You Can Help Us Find Life On Mars

A Tiny Man-Made Probe Is Orbiting a Massive Asteroid 117 Million Miles from Earth

The Ghosts of Saturn

NASA probe will bring back pieces of an asteroid

For the First Time In Human History We Have a View of the Entire Sun

We’re Going to Investigate Europa’s 62-Mile Deep Ocean for Signs of Life

Up Close and Personal with Hyperion, Saturn’s Mysterious Ugly Potato Moon

China Shoots for the Moon

NASA IBEX Probe Confirms Freaky Stuff Happening at the Edge of Our Solar System

A Mysterious Force Is Pulling Pioneer 10 Back Toward the Sun

Tubi Manages to Turn People Against Recommendations With Bad AI Branding

Gizmodo’s Favorite Photos From NASA’s Artemis 2 Mission

Lucasfilm Keeps Telling Authors Not to Bring Back Mara Jade

As Mass Drownings Add Up, Emperor Penguins Officially Join the Endangered List

OpenAI: Hey, We Also Have a New Tool That Is So Scarily Powerful We Can’t Release It

Razer’s Wireless Gaming Earbuds Are Back With Upgraded ANC

How ‘The Testaments’ Uses Voiceover to Add Layers to Its Characters

The Trump Regime Really Wants You to Know About Its Cool Secret Agent Gadgets

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

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

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