What Type of Excavator Is Most Suitable for Asteroids?
Digging in the ground is so commonplace on Earth that we hardly ever think of it as hard. But doing…
The Rubin Observatory Will Unleash a Flood of NEO Detections
After about 10 years of construction, the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is scheduled to see its first light in January…
What if you Flew Your Warp Drive Spaceship into a Black Hole?
Warp drives have a long history of not existing, despite their ubiquitous presence in science fiction. Writer John Campbell first…
DART Did More Than Deter Dimorphos; It Sent It Into a Chaotic Tumble
In 2022, NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft collided with an object named Dimorphos. The objective was to test…
Is Betelgeuse Actually a Binary Star?
Betel-gurz or Beetle-juice has been a favourite among amateur astronomers for many years. However you pronounce it, its unexpected dimming…
How Can Biofilms Help or Hinder Spaceflight?
As humans spread into the cosmos, we will take a plethora of initially Earth-bound life with us for the ride.…
Massive Stars Shine in This Ultraviolet View From Hubble
Just outside the Milky Way Galaxy, roughly 210,000 light-years from Earth, there is the dwarf galaxy known as the Small…
Is There a Low-Radiation Path To Europa?
Any mission to Jupiter and its moons must contend with the gas giant's overwhelming radiation. Only a judicious orbital pattern…
How Can Astronauts Avoid Vision Loss from Spaceflight?
Human bodies are sacks of fluids supported by skeletons. The entire human organism has evolved over billions of years on…
The Hardest Bias in Astronomy
A nasty sort of bias called Malmquist bias affects almost every astronomical survey, and the only solution is to...keep doing…