Simulating a Piece of Space Junk
When a spacecraft dies, it loses the ability to maintain its direction in space. Additionally, as the spacecraft’s orbit begins…
Aerocapture is a Free Lunch in Space Exploration
This article was updated on 11/28/23 When spacecraft return to Earth, they don't need to shed all their velocity by…
JWST Reveals Protoplanetary Disks in a Nearby Star Cluster
The Orion Nebula is a favourite among stargazers, certainly one of mine. It’s a giant stellar nebula out of which,…
Apollo Samples Contain Hydrogen Hurled from the Sun
According to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, men should drink 3.7litres of water a day and…
Next Generation Space Telescopes Could Use Deformable Mirrors to Image Earth-Sized Worlds
NASA and its commercial partners are working on deformable mirrors (DM) that will allow next-generation telescopes to directly observe exoplanets.
The Early Universe Had No Problem Making Barred Spiral Galaxies
Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are like cosmic snowflakes—no two are exactly alike. For many years, astronomers thought spirals…
NASA Tests its Next-Generation Mars Helicopter Blades
While NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter continues to break records for both airspeed and altitude while it explores Jezero Crater on…
Where are All the Double Planets?
A recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society examines formation mechanisms for how binary planets—two…
Ariane 6 Fires its Engines, Simulating a Flight to Space
The ESA recently conducted a test fire of its next-generation Ariane 6 rocket, a dress rehearsal for its first test…
Dark Matter Could Help Solve the Final Parsec Problem of Black Holes
One outstanding mystery in astrophysics is known as the "final parsec problem." Simulations predict that binary black holes should stall…