Space

Fragments of a rare type of meteorite have been found in the sample of material brought back from the lunar far side by China’s Chang’e 6 mission, and they could help shed light on the origin of Earth’s water. The meteoritic debris found among the 1,935.3 grams (68.3 ounces) of lunar regolith sampled by Chang’e 6 belongs to a class of carbon- and water-rich meteorites known…

The amount of bandwidth provided by SpaceX’s Starlink satellites is limiting Ukraine’s ability to operate ground robots on the frontline of the nation’s war against Russia, forcing the beleaguered nation’s tech innovators to look for out-of-the-box solutions. Over the past year, Ukraine dispatched thousands of wheeled ground robots to its frontline military units to help…

A newly found space rock almost broke a speed record. The asteroid, called 2025 SC79, has a pathway within the orbit of Venus that zips around the sun in only 128 days, making it the second-fastest unique asteroid orbit in the solar system, according to a statement from Carnegie Science. 2025 SC79 is also a pretty big asteroid: roughly 0.4 miles (700 meters) long, or roughly the length of a…

Crystals used in applications as varied as lasers, LEDs and the semiconductors used in sensors found in astronomical instruments could someday be ‘drawn’ rather than ‘grown’, leading to higher performance and lower costs. A team led by Elad Harel of Michigan State University has used a laser to heat a gold nanoparticle, which then triggers crystal formation within a…