Items tagged with NASA
Holy cheese cows, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft that keeps on giving has achieved a remarkable feat by reviving a set of backup thrusters that had been dormant since 2004—that's 21 years! This surprising milestone—achieved by the mission team right before a command pause for radio comms upgrades—ensures the spacecraft...
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On a mission to discover if one of Jupiter's 4 moons, Europa, supports life, NASA's robotic spacecraft, Clipper, has captured a close-range image of Mars. Although its mission began a few months ago and will arrive at its destination in April 2030, it has transmitted vital information to aid scientists in...
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As a planet that's over 1,300 times larger than the Earth, Jupiter was dubbed King of the Planets for a reason. Recurring extraordinary phenomena in its atmosphere are also testimonies that it is truly the largest planet in our solar system. Scientists have reported that data captured by NASA's JWST reveals stunning...
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Somewhere out in the cosmic deep—about 600 million light-years away—a wayward monster has been caught in the act. Using a combo of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble, and the NRAO Very Large Array, NASA has identified a 'wandering' supermassive black hole snacking on an unlucky star. The scene unfolded in what...
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Researchers from the University of Toho, Japan, recently collaborated with NASA scientists to use supercomputers to determine when all life on Earth will end. Detailed models were run on supercomputers, calculating many factors including climate and how temperature might change over time. In the end, the model made a...
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The Hubble Space Telescope has been deployed since April 25, 1990. Yesterday marked 25 years since it began its mission to help us better understand the cosmos. To commemorate this noteworthy anniversary, NASA has released a gallery of fascinating images captured by the powerful telescope from its home at 320 miles...
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With the aid of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists have found compelling evidence that biological life is present and active on a planet called K2-18b, located some 124 light years from Earth. The team was able to determine dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide—gases normally produced by biological...
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Most of us will never live long enough to see the kind of deep space travel depicted in shows like "Star Trek" become a reality, but in lieu of such sci-fi adventures, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to snap incredible images from far, far away. The latest one is being described as the most detailed...
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The weekend is when most Americans like to sleep in (at least who work a typical 9-5 shift Monday through Friday), but if you fancy yourself a stargazer who enjoys celestial events, you'll want to set your Nintendo Alarmo clock (or smartphone's alarm) to go off early tomorrow morning. That's because there is going to...
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It only took some 417 years since the invention (if going by patent filings) of the telescope to finally see Neptune's auroras, and it's thanks to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST (the same telescope that provided a crystal clear view of Neptune's rings in 2022). Webb is much more powerful than the handheld...
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Next week, Earth will be lined up between the Sun and the Moon, creating a total lunar eclipse. North Americans, at least, haven't seen such an eclipse, otherwise known as a "blood moon," in several years—since November 2022—so this is a great opportunity to catch this special event. Unlike a solar eclipse, no special...
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A recent study has claimed that Mars is red in color due to ferrihydrite, an iron oxide mineral that's left over from liquid water. This finding suggests that the Red Planet could've had a cold and wet, but habitable past. The ferrihydrite study was done in controlled lab environments recreated using Mars orbital and...
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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a product of over two decades of collaboration between NASA, CSA, and ESA, has made a remarkable discovery. From its home in a stable orbit in Lagrange point 2, the JWST captured a dazzling display of flaring activity from the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky...
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The Gemini South telescope, commissioned over two decades ago, continues to contribute significant astronomical findings. On February 7th, it captured a new image of Asteroid 2024 YR4, which ultimately resulted in a revised projected probability of Earth impact to 1 in 48 by 2032, from the previously estimated 1 in...
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If you've seen photos of the far side of the moon, specifically of two long canyons within what is called the Schrödinger basin and wondered what created them, look no further—researches have determined that ejecta from an ancient asteroid strike carved out the grand canyons (Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck) in...
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Almost by accident, a researcher stumbled upon a unique galactic event 50 million years in the making. Apparently NASA's Hubble Space Telescope had captured a ringed galaxy (LEDA 1313424) that not only heavily resembles a bullseye, but with nine (perhaps more) rings now holds the record for the most rings observed in...
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Yes, there's a chance that a recently spotted asteroid named 2024 YR4 could strike Earth in 2032, but experts are deeming the 196-foot wide small-body a low 1-in-83 strike risk, although others believe the closeness of the approach path to our planet in eight years still warrants some due caution. Still, we're usually...
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On Tuesday, January 7th, 2025, NASA announced an update to its Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program, created to help scientists understand the Red Planet by bringing home Martian rock samples. The agency is now torn between two plans for bringing the samples back to Earth: recreating a previous rocket method or getting a...
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It's not too often that you see an accident report for a vehicle on another planet, but such is the case with NASA providing some preliminary details from "the first aircraft accident investigation on another world." The first by NASA, anyway, as who knows if some intelligent beings on a distant planet or solar system...
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Who doesn’t associate the roaring, and crackling sound of rocket engines with Christmas these days? For those who may, or may not, NASA wants to kick off the Christmas season with a warm and cozy 8 hour 4K fireplace video. The space agency does point out that technically the fireplace packs the heat of the SLS...
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A new image of the Sombrero galaxy from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has astronomers taking their hats off in place of a cosmic bullseye. The galaxy, known as Messier 104 (M104), was discovered in 1781 by French astronomer and comet hunter Pierre Mechain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues.
In Webb’s image of...
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NASA’s Curiosity rover is wrapping up its time in the Mars Gediz Vallis channel, and is making its way to an area of the Martian surface referred as the Boxwork. The Boxwork feature was first viewed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2006, and looks like spiderwebs stretching across the Martian...
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