NASA selects bold proposal to "swarm" Proxima Centauri with tiny probes
Humans have dreamed about traveling to other star systems and setting foot on alien worlds for generations. To put it mildly, interstellar exploration is a very daunting task. As we explored in a previous post, it would take between 1000 and 81,000 y.....»»
Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk
A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA's moonwalkers......»»
Navy captains don’t like abandoning ship—but with Starliner, the ship left them
"As the commander or pilot of your spacecraft, you don’t want to see it go off without you." Enlarge / NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams wave to their families, friends, and NASA officials on their way to the laun.....»»
Starliner astronauts speak of ‘tough times’ watching their spacecraft depart without them
Two NASA astronauts have spoken publicly for the first time since the Boeing Starliner departed from the International Space Station without them......»»
Printed engines propel the next industrial revolution
In the fall of 2023, NASA hot fire tested an aluminum 3D printed rocket engine nozzle. Aluminum is not typically used for 3D printing because the process causes it to crack, and its low melting point makes it a challenging material for rocket engines.....»»
NASA"s SpaceX Crew-9 to conduct space station research
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are headed to the International Space Station for the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 mission in September. Once on station, these crew members will support scientific investigations that in.....»»
Evidence of “snowball Earth” found in ancient rocks
An outcrop in Scotland has material from when the Earth went into a deep freeze. Enlarge / Artist's conception of the state of the Earth during its global glaciations. (credit: NASA) Earth has gone through many geologic.....»»
Aging, overworked and underfunded: NASA faces a dire future, according to experts
Aging infrastructure, short-term thinking, and ambitions that far outstrip its funding are just a few of the problems threatening the future of America's vaunted civil space agency, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Me.....»»
Scientists discover crude oil decimates sea otter buoyancy
Sea otters are famed for their luscious pelts, but the fur almost led to their extinction. By 1938, only a tiny population of ~50 remained clinging to the central California coast. Since then, the mammals have battled back. However, the charismatic c.....»»
Image: Chili flowers bloom in International Space Station
In July 2021, NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station started growing chili peppers in the Advanced Plant Habitat, as part of the Plant Habitat-04 (PH-04) experiment......»»
An evolutionary battleground: Plants vs. microbes
Gazing out on a freshwater pond, you may see tiny green plants with oval-shaped leaves floating in clusters. In overgrown ponds, these plants coat the water's surface. These plants—called duckweed or water lentils—can grow so fast that they can d.....»»
Webb peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy
Astronomers have directed NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists call this region the Extreme Outer Galaxy due to its location more than 58,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center. (For co.....»»
Europe’s privacy watchdog probes Google over data used for AI training
Meta and X have already paused some AI training over same set of concerns. Enlarge / Google's booth at the Integrated Systems Europe conference on January 31, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain. (credit: Getty Images | Cesc Maymo ).....»»
Eminent officials say NASA facilities some of the “worst” they’ve ever seen
Buildings at Johnson Space Center in Houston are among the worst at any NASA facility. Enlarge / The primary mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope enters a vacuum test chamber at NASA's Johnson Space Center in 2017. (credit:.....»»
NASA"s EZIE mission set for 2025 launch
In 2025, NASA will launch its first mission to image the magnetic fingerprint of intense electrical currents that flow high in our atmosphere when auroras shimmer above Earth's poles......»»
JunoCam spots new volcano on active Io
A new volcano has been spotted on Jupiter's moon Io, the most geologically active place in the solar system. Analysis of the first close-up images of Io in over 25 years, captured by the JunoCam instrument on NASA's Juno mission, reveal the emergence.....»»
Starship Super Heavy breezes through wind tunnel testing at NASA Ames
NASA and its industry partners continue to make progress toward Artemis III and beyond, the first crewed lunar landing missions under the agency's Artemis campaign......»»
9 phenomena NASA astronauts will encounter at Moon"s south pole
NASA's Artemis campaign will send the first woman and the first person of color to the moon's south polar region, marking humanity's first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years......»»
NASA finds summer 2024 hottest to date
August 2024 set a new monthly temperature record, capping Earth's hottest summer since global records began in 1880, according to scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The announcement comes as a new analysis up.....»»
NASA scientists recreate Mars"s spider-shaped geologic formations in lab for the first time
Tests on Earth appear to confirm how the red planet's spider-shaped geologic formations are carved by carbon dioxide......»»
Image: James Webb Space Telescope observes nearby star-forming region NGC 1333 in infrared
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has infrared vision that lets us peer through the dusty veil of nearby star-forming region NGC 1333. We can see planetary mass objects, newborn stars, and brown dwarfs; some of the faintest "stars" in this mosaic ima.....»»