Now that TESS is Operational, Astronomers Estimate it’ll Find 14,000 Planets. 10 Could Be Earthlike Worlds in a Sunlike Star’s Habitable Zone
How many exoplanets are there? Not that long ago, we didn't know if there were any. Then we detected a…
We May Soon Be Able To See the First, Supergiant Stars in the Universe
We need to talk about the dark ages. No, not those dark ages after the fall of the western Roman Empire.…
We Have the Technology. Airplanes Could Spray Particles into the Atmosphere to Battle Climate Change. But Should We?
If climate change models are correct, humanity is working itself—and dragging the rest of life on Earth with it—into a…
One of the Most Exciting Parts of InSight is Actually the Tiny Cubesats Tagging Along for the Ride and Their Role in the Mission
A very important, but perhaps overlooked, aspect of the InSight mission was the first-ever deployment of CubeSats (MarCO) to deep…
Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 28, 2018: David Eicher’s “Mission Moon 3-D”
Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier )…
Astronomy Cast Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive
Ion engines are a mainstay of science fiction, featured in both Star Trek and Wars. But this is a very…
Hubble’s First Picture After Returning to Service. The Telescope is Fully Operational Again with Three Working Gyros
The Hubble Space Telescope is a hero in the astronomy world. And when it suffered a malfunctioning gyro on October…
InSight Deploys its Solar Cells, Prepared for Surface Operations on Mars!
The InSight Lander, which had touched down on the Martian surface just hours before, has deployed its solar cells and…
Some of the Stars in this Cluster are Almost as Old as the Universe Itself While Others Formed in a Second Generation. It Looks Young and Old at the Same Time
Star clusters are not rare. They're one of the most common arrangements of stars in the Universe. But star cluster…
InSight Lander Touches Down! Begins Mission to Unlock the Secrets of Mars
Earlier today, after a seven month journey through space, NASA's InSight Lander mission touched down on the Martian surface.