The idea of traveling through interstellar space using spacecraft propelled by ultrathin sails may sound like the stuff of sci-fi novels. But in fact, a program started in 2016 by Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner, known as ...
Space Exploration
Jan 30, 2025
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Our home planet is bombarded with particles from outer space all the time. And while we are mostly familiar with the rocky meteorites originating from within our solar system that create fascinating shooting stars in the ...
Astronomy
Jan 29, 2025
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64
With the installation of a charged particle detector on Dec. 3, 2024, all 10 of NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) science instruments have been fully integrated on the spacecraft.
Space Exploration
Jan 17, 2025
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4
Once upon a time, the core of a massive star collapsed, creating a shockwave that blasted outward, ripping the star apart as it went. When the shockwave reached the star's surface, it punched through, generating a brief, ...
Astronomy
Jan 14, 2025
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The first dark comet—a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet—was reported less than two years ago. Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 9, 2024
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In a new study using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Prof. Dasyra of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and her team provided insights into how supermassive black holes affect galaxy ...
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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98
When 'Oumuamua traversed our solar system in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our solar ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 5, 2024
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NASA's Voyager mission launched in the 1970s. Today, it's making history as it conducts new science. But how are two spacecraft from the '70s not just surviving, but thriving farther out in space than any other spacecraft ...
Space Exploration
Nov 5, 2024
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10
Perhaps the greatest tool astronomers have is the ability to look backward in time. Since starlight takes time to reach us, astronomers can observe the history of the cosmos by capturing the light of distant galaxies.
Astronomy
Nov 4, 2024
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59
Mission engineers at NASA have turned off the plasma science instrument aboard the Voyager 2 spacecraft due to the probe's gradually shrinking electrical power supply.
Planetary Sciences
Oct 2, 2024
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