Space & Science

News and insights from NASA, ESA, and the frontier of space exploration and scientific discovery.

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Prepping for Starship, SpaceX is about to demolish one of ULA’s launch pads

The Air Force’s draft Environmental Impact Statement includes this map showing SpaceX’s site plan for SLC-37. Credit: Department of the Air Force Similar to the approach SpaceX is taking at SLC-37, a document released last year indicates the Starship team plans to construct a separate catch tower near the Starship launch tower at LC-39A. If […]

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A Rare ‘Super-Earth’ Has Been Identified by Astronomers Using This Breakthrough Exoplanet Detection Method

Chinese and German scientists have utilized the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) technique to locate an exoplanet super-Earth for the first time, validating a new tool that significantly broadens the possibilities for exoplanet detection. Since the first discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star in 1995, astronomers have been seeking Earth-like planets residing in their

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Astronomers Pinpoint Starburst Origins of Early Galaxies, Settling a Stellar Formation Debate

Roughly two to three billion years after the Big Bang came “Cosmic Noon,” which astrophysicists have discovered was a crucial period for a particular class of galaxies, Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs), then experiencing their first significant wave of star formation.  A Rutgers University-New Brunswick researcher led the new study, which the team believes will provide

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The nine-armed octopus and the oddities of the cephalopod nervous system

Nine arms, no problem In 2021, researchers from the Institute of Marine Research in Spain used an underwater camera to follow a male Octopus vulgaris, or common octopus. On its left side, three arms were intact, while the others were reduced to uneven, stumpy lengths, sharply bitten off at varying points. Although the researchers didn’t

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A Japanese lander crashed on the Moon after losing track of its location

Intuitive Machines, Firefly, and a third company—Astrobotic Technology—have launched their lunar missions under contract with a NASA program aimed at fostering a commercial marketplace for transportation to the Moon. Astrobotic’s first lander failed soon after its departure from Earth. The first two missions launched by ispace were almost fully private ventures, with limited participation from

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“It Was a Crazy Idea”: James Webb Space Telescope Confirms Dramatic Phenomenon On Pluto

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations indicate that Pluto’s atmosphere is unlike any other in the solar system, confirming a 2017 hypothesis and potentially revealing how the early Earth developed a habitable atmosphere from its nitrogen and hydrocarbon beginnings.  Pluto is covered in a haze of nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide, whose individual particles regulate

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