Space News
Firefly Aerospace seeking to raise $350 million
Space News - 28 Jan 2021 02:45
Small launch vehicle developer Firefly Aerospace, nearing its first orbital launch attempt, is looking to raise $350 million to scale up production and work on a new, larger vehicle. SpaceNews
NASA's Mars rover Perseverance is in the home stretch of its journey to Red Planet
SPACE.com - 28 Jan 2021 14:28
The car-size Perseverance rover, which launched on July 30 of last year, is scheduled to land inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater on Feb. 18.
The lessons learned from the fatal Challenger shuttle disaster echo at NASA 35 years on
SPACE.com - 28 Jan 2021 14:26
It was 35 years ago today (Jan. 28) that the most defining accident of NASA happened, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded after launch.
Dickinson's guidance to space troops: Prepare for 'competitive and dangerous' environment
Space News - 28 Jan 2021 23:38
Gen. James Dickinson on Jan. 28 released a "commander's strategic vision" document that lays out broad goals for Space Command. SpaceNews
Fruit Fly Brain Network Hacked For Language Processing
Discover - 28 Jan 2021 23:32
A simulated fruit fly brain has learnt to perform natural language processing tasks.
A string of planets in our solar system sparkles in photos from 3 different sun probes
SPACE.com - 28 Jan 2021 23:25
Turns out sungazing is not the only thing NASA's solar spacecraft do.
Exoplanetary System Found With 6 Worlds in Orbital Resonance
Universe Today - 28 Jan 2021 23:21
200 light-years away from Earth, there’s a K-type main-sequence star named TOI (TESS Object of Interest) 178. When Adrian Leleu, an astrophysicist at the Center for Space and Habitability of the University of Bern, obs...
Mysterious 'kick' just after the Big Bang may have created dark matter
SPACE.com - 28 Jan 2021 22:55
A mysterious "kick" in the early universe may have produced more matter than antimatter. And that imbalance may have also led to the creation of dark matter, researchers now say.
Glavkosmos to sell seats on Soyuz missions
Space News - 28 Jan 2021 22:46
Glavkosmos, the commercial arm of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has announced its intent to enter the space tourism market, selling a minimum of four Soyuz seats to commercial astronauts through 2023. SpaceNews
35 years since Challenger launch disaster: 'Never forgotten'
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 22:32
NASA leaders, retired launch directors, families of fallen astronauts and space fans marked the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster on Thursday, vowing never to forget the seven who died during liftoff.
Thick lithosphere casts doubt on plate tectonics in Venus's geologically recent past
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 21:40
At some point between 300 million and 1 billion years ago, a large cosmic object smashed into the planet Venus, leaving a crater more than 170 miles in diameter. A team of Brown University researchers has used that ancie...
Saturn Got Its Tilt From Its Moons
Universe Today - 28 Jan 2021 20:46
One of the fundamental tenets of physics is that two objects, now matter how different their size, exert a force on each other. In most cases the size makes a big difference, with the larger objects enacting a much great...
Successful test paves way for new planetary radar
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 20:39
The National Science Foundation's Green Bank Observatory (GBO) and National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and Raytheon Intelligence & Space conducted a test in November to prove that a new radio telescope system ca...
US Mint marks 35 years since Challenger with 'Teacher in Space' coin
SPACE.com - 28 Jan 2021 18:25
A new U.S. coin honoring Christa McAuliffe, NASA's first "Teacher in Space," will help continue her educational mission 35 years after she and her six astronaut crewmates were tragically lost.
Simulating space
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 18:12
While most ESA personnel work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, essential activities continue to take place on site across Agency establishments while following social distancing protocols.
Thousands more satellites will soon orbit Earth--we need better rules to prevent space crashes
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 18:10
In recent years, satellites have become smaller, cheaper, and easier to make with commercial off the shelf parts. Some even weigh as little as one gram. This means more people can afford to send them into orbit. Now, sat...
US planetary radar may get a boost from Green Bank Observatory
SPACE.com - 28 Jan 2021 17:32
It was serendipity that had scientists already toying with a demonstration of a new planetary radar system just as Earth lost its most powerful such instrument.
Low-cost approach to scanning historic glass plates yields an astronomical surprise
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 17:16
You never know what new discoveries might be hiding in old astronomical observations. For almost a hundred years starting in the late 19th century, emulsion-coated dry glass plate photography was the standard of choice u...
What did the solar system look like before all the planets migrated?
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 17:16
Early planetary migration in the solar system has been long established, and there are myriad theories that have been put forward to explain where the planets were coming from. Theories such as the Grand Tack Hypothesis ...
High schoolers discover four exoplanets through Harvard and Smithsonian mentorship program
Phys.org - 28 Jan 2021 17:14
They may be the youngest astronomers to make a discovery yet.
ExoMars orbiter's 20000th image
ESA - 28 Jan 2021 16:00
Image: ExoMars orbiter's 20000th image
Simulating space
ESA - 28 Jan 2021 14:54
Image: Simulating space