The Final Vega Rocket Blasts Off
The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its final Vega rocket this week, lofting a Sentinel-2C Earth observation satellite into orbit.…
Ouch! A Monster Asteroid Crashed Into Ganymede 4 Billion Years Ago, Rolling it Over
Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, is a fascinating celestial body. Measuring 5,268 km (3,272 mi) in diameter, it is also the largest…
NASA’s Putting its Solar Sail Through its Paces
Those of you following the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System may have heard that its booms and sail are now…
There are Important Differences Between the Ice Caps on Mars
In the 17th century, astronomers Giovanni Domenica Cassini and Christian Huygens noted the presence of hazy white caps while studying the…
Archaeological Methods Reveal How Astronauts Work on the International Space Station
Archaeology is the study of human prehistory, so it seems incongruous to use its methods to study how humans behave…
Explaining Different Kinds of Meteor Showers. It’s the Way the Comet Crumbles
The Universe often puts on a good show for us down here on Earth but one of the best spectacles…
Dark Oxygen Could Change Our Understanding of Habitability
The discovery of dark oxygen at an abyssal plain on the ocean floor generated a lot of interest. Could this…
A Surprise Asteroid Lit Up the Sky Over the Philippines
With all of humanity's telescopic eyes on the sky, it's rare for an asteroid to take us by surprise. But…
A Review of Humanity’s Planned Expansion Between the Earth and the Moon
Between Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Moon, there is a region of space measuring 384,400 km (238,855 mi) wide…
Simulating the Accretion Disk Around a Black Hole
Black holes are by their very nature, challenging to observe and difficult to spot. It's usually observations of the accretion…