solar sail
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…
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…
Want the Fastest Solar Sail? Drop it Into the Sun First
A new study from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy shows how a "Sun Diver," a light sail that dives…
LightSail 2 is Still Solar Sailing, But it’s Getting Lower and Lower with Each Orbit
LightSail 2 deployed it solar sail five months ago, and it's still orbiting Earth. It's a successful demonstration of the…
The Light Sail is Working… It’s Working!
Good news from The Planetary Society: LightSail 2's solar sail is functioning as intended. After launching on June 25th, then…
LightSail 2 is Sending Home New Pictures of Earth
LightSail 2, the brainchild of The Planetary Society, has gifted us two new gorgeous images of Earth. The small spacecraft…
Exactly How We Would Send our First Laser-Powered Probe to Alpha Centauri
In a recent study, an international team of scientists present their concept for a lightsail and spacecraft that could make…
There Could be Hundreds of Interstellar Asteroids and Comets in the Solar System Right Now That we Could Study
According to a new study, there could be hundreds of identifiable objects in our Solar System like 'Oumuamua, some of…
Do Stars Move? Tracking Their Movements Across the Sky
The stars look static in the sky, but are they moving? How fast, and how do we know? What events…
Can We Really Get to Alpha Centauri?
It’s going to be almost impossible to travel to another star, but a new idea was announced that might get…