A Small Satellite With a Solar Sail Could Catch up With an Interstellar Object
When Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever observed passing through the Solar System, was discovered in 2017, it exhibited some…
To Take the Best Direct Images of Exoplanets With Space Telescopes, we’re Going to Want Starshades
The Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS) has released a special edition of papers dedicated to educating the…
Astronomers Detected a Black Hole-Neutron Star Merger, and Then Another Just 10 Days Later
When black holes collide with neutron stars, all sorts of interesting things happen. And astronomers have recently seen two of…
China Releases Sound and Video of its Rover Landing
Remember the stunning video of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars? The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) has now released…
New Photos and Video Shows China’s Zhurong Rover on the Move
New images from orbit and from Mars’ surface show the Zhurong rover on the move. China’s National Space Administration (CNSA)…
Modern Solar Eclipse Science: Huge Coronal Mass Ejection Caught in Action
There’s an old adage that says there is ‘nothing new under the Sun…’ but that doesn’t apply when it comes…
A Lunar Farside Telescope Could Detect Exoplanets Through Their Magnetospheres
Earth's ionosphere blocks us from seeing radio aurora on distant worlds, but a radio telescope on the Moon would let…
Most Exoplanets won’t Receive Enough Radiation to Support an Earth-Like Biosphere
According to new research, most extrasolar planets do not get enough radiation to support photosynthesis, which places limits on how…
LightSail 2 Has Now Been in Space for 2 Years, and Should Last Even Longer Before Re-Entering the Atmosphere
The Planetary Society's crowdfunded solar-sailing CubeSat, LightSail 2, launched on June 25th 2019, and two years later the mission is…
Gravitational-Wave Detector Could Sense Merging Primordial Black Holes With the Mass of a Planet, Millions of Light-Years Away
A new idea for detecting gravitational waves might allow us to discover planet-mass primordial black holes.