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Space

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Stay informed with the latest space news. Explore the wonders of space, from astronomical discoveries to space exploration missions.

NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map

October 30, 2023

Buried ice will be a vital resource for the first people to set foot on Mars, serving as drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel. But it would also be a major scientific target: Astronauts or robots could one day drill ice cores much as scientists do on Earth, uncovering the climate history of Mars and exploring potential habitats (past or present) for microbial life. The need to look…

NASA Technologies Receive Multiple Nods in TIME Inventions of 2023

October 30, 2023

As NASA explores, innovates, and inspires through its work, agency inventions aimed at monitoring atmospheric pollution, studying samples from asteroids, extracting oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, and revolutionizing flight have been named TIME’s Inventions of 2023.

NASA-ISRO Radar Mission to Provide Dynamic View of Forests, Wetlands

October 30, 2023

Once it launches in early 2024, the NISAR radar satellite mission will offer detailed insights into two types of ecosystems – forests and wetlands – vital to naturally regulating the greenhouses gases in the atmosphere that are driving global climate change. NISAR is a…

How NASA Is Protecting Europa Clipper From Space Radiation

October 25, 2023

When NASA’s Europa Clipper begins orbiting Jupiter to investigate whether its ice-encased moon, Europa, has conditions suitable for life, the spacecraft will pass repeatedly through one of the most punishing radiation environments in our solar system. Hardening the spacecraft against potential damage from that radiation is no easy task. But on Oct. 7, the mission put the final piece of the…

NASA’s Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters

October 20, 2023

Engineers for NASA’s Voyager mission are taking steps to help make sure both spacecraft, launched in 1977, continue to explore interstellar space for years to come. One effort addresses fuel residue that seems to be accumulating inside narrow tubes in some of the thrusters…

International Ocean Satellite Monitors How El Niño Is Shaping Up

October 19, 2023

Not all El Niño events are created equal. Their impacts vary widely, and satellites like the U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich help anticipate those impacts on a global scale by tracking changes in sea surface height in the Pacific Ocean. Water expands as it warms…

Webb Detects Tiny Quartz Crystals in Clouds of Hot Gas Giant

October 16, 2023

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected evidence for quartz nanocrystals in the high-altitude clouds of WASP-17 b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet 1,300 light-years from Earth. The detection, which was uniquely possible with Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), marks the first time that silica (SiO2) particles have been spotted in an exoplanet atmosphere. “We were…

Journey to a Metal-Rich World: NASA’s Psyche Is Ready to Launch

October 12, 2023

In less than 24 hours, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is slated to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With its sights set on a mysterious asteroid of the same name, Psyche is NASA’s first scientific mission to be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy…

5 Things to Know About NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications

October 11, 2023

NASA’s pioneering Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment will be the first demonstration of laser, or optical, communications from as far away as Mars. Launching with NASA’s Psyche mission to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name on Thursday, Oct. 12, DSOC…

NASA’s Webb Captures an Ethereal View of NGC 346

October 10, 2023

One of the greatest strengths of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is its ability to give astronomers detailed views of areas where new stars are being born. The latest example, showcased here in a new image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), is NGC 346 – the brightest and largest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a satellite…