Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 07, 2023
Is there life beyond Earth - perhaps even in the Solar System? This fundamental question continues to motivate the scientific community worldwide. On 13 April 2023, a spacecraft will set off from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on a long research journey to address this and many other questions. A journey like no other - the European Space Agency's JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE)

New Haven CT (SPX) Apr 07, 2023
There's an invisible monster on the loose, barreling through intergalactic space so fast that if it were in our solar system, it could travel from Earth to the Moon in 14 minutes. This supermassive black hole, weighing as much as 20 million Suns, has left behind a never-before-seen 200,000-light-year-long "contrail" of newborn stars, twice the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. It's likely the re

Lisbon, Portugal (SPX) Apr 07, 2023
With data from Kepler (NASA), Gaia (ESA) and SOHO (NASA/ESA) satellites, a team1, led by Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco (IA2) researcher Angela Santos, seems to have put an end to the idea that the Sun might not be a regular "sun-like" star. The results were published in Astronomy and Astrophysics3. Although it might seem odd to try to find out if the Sun is a sun-like star,

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 07, 2023
On Feb. 22, 1971, a sounding rocket lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with specialized sensors aimed at the Crab Nebula, a bright cosmic object 6,500 light-years away. In those days, before recovering physical tapes from the experiment, scientists first received scientific data on a strip chart recorder, a device that printed signals on paper. Astronomer Martin Weisskopf and his colleagu

Jiuquan, China (XNA) Apr 07, 2023
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, which is currently China's only site for launching manned spacecraft into orbit, is looking to tap into the burgeoning commercial market by offering more services and stronger capabilities. Located in northwest China's Gobi Desert, the Jiuquan launch center has carried out numerous space missions since its establishment in 1958. It frequented media Chin

As preparations for the Artemis 2 mission ramp up, NASA has established a congressionally mandated office to oversee planning for that and future missions to the moon.

SpaceX successfully launched Intelsat’s IS-40e communications satellite April 7, which will help the operator meet growing demand for connectivity on planes while also carrying its first hosted payload for NASA.

A comparison of two recent wargames reveals that the United States’ current course of action to ensure space resilience may not adequately deter and defend against emerging new Chinese space […]

Week in images: 03-07 April 2023

Discover our week through the lens

A large mass of Sargassum ‘seaweed’ circling around the Gulf of Mexico may soon wash up along the US west coast near Florida – depending on the right combination of currents and wind. The bloom, which may likely be the largest ever recorded, is so large that it’s visible from space.