NASA"s Europa clipper survives and thrives in "outer space on Earth"
In less than six months, NASA is set to launch Europa Clipper on a 1.6-billion-mile (2.6-billion-kilometer) voyage to Jupiter's ocean moon Europa. From the wild vibrations of the rocket ride to the intense heat and cold of space to the punishing radi.....»»
Mountain building linked to major extinction event half a billion years ago
As life on Earth rapidly expanded a little over 500 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion, Earth had tectonic plates slowly crashing into each other, building mountains and starting a series of unfortunate events that led to a mass extincti.....»»
NASA mission flies over Arctic to study sea ice melt causes
It's not just rising air and water temperatures influencing the decades-long decline of Arctic sea ice. Clouds, aerosols, even the bumps and dips on the ice itself can play a role. To explore how these factors interact and impact sea ice melting, NAS.....»»
A new deep-learning algorithm can find Earth 2.0
How can machine learning help astronomers find Earth-like exoplanets? This is what a new study hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated how a novel neural network-based algorithm could be used to detect Earth-like exoplane.....»»
Cryovolcanism: Why study it? What can it teach us about finding life beyond Earth?
Universe Today has had the privilege of spending the last several months venturing into a multitude of scientific disciplines, including impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, plane.....»»
Martian meteorites deliver a trove of information on red planet"s structure
Mars has a distinct structure in its mantle and crust with discernible reservoirs, and this is known thanks to meteorites that scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and colleagues have analyzed on Earth......»»
New vestiges of the first life on Earth discovered in Saudi Arabia
Stromatolites are the earliest geological record of life on Earth. These curious biotic structures are made of algae carpets growing toward the light and precipitating carbonates. After their first appearance 3.48 Ga ago, stromatolites dominated the.....»»
Rocket Report: North Korean rocket explosion; launch over Chinese skyline
The European Space Agency again turned to SpaceX to launch an important science mission. Enlarge / A sea-borne variant of the commercial Ceres 1 rocket lifts off near the coast of Rizhao, a city of 3 million in China's Shandong p.....»»
Two tiny NASA satellites are launching to study Earth’s poles
NASA has launched the first part of a two-satellite mission called PREFIRE to study Earth's poles, with the second satellite set to launch this Saturday......»»
Virtual flying lessons for Hera asteroid mission
As ESA's Hera spacecraft for planetary defense goes through pre-flight testing, the system that will steer it around its target binary asteroid system is also undergoing its final checks for space......»»
Image: James Webb Space Telescope spots starburst galaxy
The James Webb Space Telescope observed the "starburst" galaxy NGC 4449, seen in this image released on May 29, 2024......»»
NASA releases new high-quality, near real-time air quality data
NASA has made new data available that can provide air pollution observations at unprecedented resolutions—down to the scale of individual neighborhoods. The near real-time data comes from the agency's TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Po.....»»
Twin NASA satellites are ready to help gauge Earth"s energy balance
A pair of new shoebox-size NASA satellites will help unravel an atmospheric mystery that's bedeviled scientists for years: how the behavior of clouds and water vapor at Earth's polar regions affects our planet's climate......»»
Reduced sulfur content in shipping fuel associated with increased maritime atmospheric warming
An 80% reduction in sulfur dioxide shipping emissions observed in early 2020 could be associated with substantial atmospheric warming over some ocean regions, according to a modeling study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The sudden d.....»»
Travel through data from space in new 3D Instagram experiences
A new project provides special 3D "experiences" on Instagram using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes through augmented reality (AR), allowing users to travel virtually through objects in space. These new experiences of a.....»»
Scientists create the thinnest lens on Earth, enabled by excitons
Lenses are used to bend and focus light. Normal lenses rely on their curved shape to achieve this effect, but physicists from the University of Amsterdam and Stanford University have made a flat lens of only three atoms thick that relies on quantum e.....»»
Astronomers help find most distant galaxy using James Webb Space Telescope
An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of the two earliest and most distant galaxies ever seen, dating back to only 300 million years after the Big Bang. These results, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), mark.....»»
NASA confirms readiness for highly anticipated crewed mission
NASA and Boeing Space have confirmed their readiness to proceed with Saturday’s first crewed launch of the Starliner spacecraft to the ISS......»»
NASA confirms readiness for highly-anticipated crewed mission
NASA and Boeing Space have confirmed their readiness to proceed with Saturday’s first crewed launch of the Starliner spacecraft to the ISS......»»
Europe seeks to emulate NASA’s revolutionary commercial cargo program
European governments must commit more funding for the program to achieve its goals. Enlarge / A rendering of the European cargo reentry vehicle proposed by Thales Alenia Space. (credit: Thales Alecia Space) The European.....»»
Our only mission at Venus may have just gone dark
A jealous planet guards its secrets closely? Enlarge / Processed image of Venus captured by the Akatsuki spacecraft. (credit: JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Kevin M. Gill) JAXA, the Japanese space agency, confirmed Wednesday that it.....»»