The Hakuto-R spacecraft won’t land on the Moon until April, but the private mission is already in the record books. Tokyo-based company ispace developed the lunar spacecraft and lander with the aim of becoming the first private mission to successfully land on the Moon. During its long journey to the Moon, Hakuto-R got as far as 855,000 miles (1.376 million kilometers) away from Earth on … Continue reading Lunar Lander Travels Deeper Into Space Than Any Other Commercial Spacecraft

Our solar system is home to millions of renegade space rocks, and this week three particularly large ones will blaze past Earth. But don’t worry – the closest one will still miss our planet by a comfy 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers), or about 10 times the average distance between Earth and the moon, according to NASA. On Monday (Feb. 27), an asteroid named … Continue reading NASA warns of 3 skyscraper-sized asteroids headed toward Earth

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched the first batch of its next-generation Starlink internet satellites as the company upgrades and further builds out its orbiting network. A Falcon 9 rocket carried 21 of the satellites, known as “V2 Mini” satellites, into orbit on Monday. The satellites represent the first iteration of Starlink’s “Gen2” plans, which the Federal Communications Commission authorized in December. Musk shared a video … Continue reading SpaceX begins launching second-generation Starlink satellites with four times the network capacity

This week, three sizable space rocks will make a close approach to Earth as they travel through our solar system. However, there is no need for concern as the nearest one will pass by our planet at a safe distance of 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers), which is approximately 10 times the average distance between the Earth and the moon, as confirmed by NASA. … Continue reading NASA warns of 3 skyscraper-sized asteroids headed toward Earth this week

On Monday evening (Feb. 27), SpaceX launched the first of a new generation of Starlink internet satellites into orbit in a beautiful sunset liftoff, Space.com reported. On Monday evening (Feb. 27), SpaceX launched 21 of its latest Starlink “V2 mini” satellites into orbit using a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch was delayed by approximately five hours from … Continue reading SpaceX launches 1st batch of new ‘V2 mini’ Starlink satellites to orbit

Astronomers are examining yet another strange signal coming from space. This time, researchers say the radio signals have a strange “heartbeat-like” pattern — coming from a source inside the Sun’s atmosphere.  Scientists detected the signals within a C-class solar flare over 5,000 kilometers above the Sun’s surface. Detecting and studying the solar signals could help astronomers understand the physical properties that drive solar flares — … Continue reading Mysterious ‘heartbeat-like’ radio signals discovered inside a solar flare

In a frustrating disappointment, the launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying a four-man crew bound for the International Space Station was called off with less than three minutes to go early Monday because of trouble with a system used to ignite the Falcon 9’s first stage engines. SpaceX’s closeout team then returned to the pad, opened the capsule’s side hatch and helped the … Continue reading SpaceX aborts launch of four-man crew to space station just before liftoff

An uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft launched to replace a damaged Soyuz arrived at the International Space Station Feb. 25. The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft docked with the station’s Poisk module at 7:58 p.m. Eastern, a few minutes ahead of schedule. The spacecraft had launched two days earlier on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Instead of a crew, it carried about 430 kilograms of … Continue reading Replacement Soyuz arrives at space station

A piece of meteor that streaked across the Texas sky last week, leading to numerous reports of loud explosions, has been recovered, according to the American Meteor Society. Residents in South Texas said they felt the ground shake and heard the loud booms on Feb. 15, and home security cameras captured the moment the meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere. A photo shared on Facebook by the AMS shows a smooth, … Continue reading See the meteorite chunk that was found after slamming into Texas

Questions have swirled around the status of China’s charismatic Zhurong Mars rover. The solar-powered rover went into a hibernation state in May 2022 thanks to a dust storm and cold conditions. A sequence of images captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the rover hasn’t moved since at least early September 2022.    The HiRise team at the University of Arizona shared three different views of … Continue reading NASA Images Confirm China’s Zhurong Mars Rover Hasn’t Budged in Months

Astronomers have spotted a runaway supermassive black hole, seemingly ejected from its home galaxy and racing through space with a chain of stars trailing in its wake.  According to the team’s research, which was published on the pre-print server arXiv.org and has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery offers the first observational evidence that supermassive black holes can be ejected … Continue reading ‘Runaway’ black hole found speeding through space with a trail of newborn stars behind it

Astronomers have discovered what appear to be massive galaxies dating back to within 600 million years of the Big Bang, suggesting the early universe may have had a stellar fast-track that produced these “monsters.” While the new James Webb Space Telescope has spotted even older galaxies, dating to within a mere 300 million years of the beginning of the universe, it’s the size and maturity … Continue reading Space telescope uncovers massive galaxies near cosmic dawn

Scientists have long wondered what lies at the very center of the Earth, and the latest research is putting weight behind a theory that our planet has a distinct ball of iron within its metallic core. Beneath the outermost crust, the mantle and the molten-liquid outer core lies the Earth’s solid metal center — which actually has a hidden layer, or an “innermost inner core” … Continue reading Earth’s innermost layer is a 400-mile-wide ball of iron, new study suggests

The Pentagon‘s UFO office is investigating historic reports of mysterious objects interfering with key nuclear missile silos. Two Air Force veterans told DailyMail.com they have testified to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) this month about their experiences of UFOs interfering with US nuclear missiles. One email shows AARO staff contacted former US Air Force ICBM launch officer Robert Salas to gather information about his … Continue reading Air Force vets witnessed UFOs turn off nukes in ’60s

Our closest star has been restless recently and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is here to document its whims, moods and outbursts. On Friday, SDO captured views of the sun coughing out a strong X2.2 solar flare. X-class flares are the most powerful kind. On Sunday (appropriately enough), NASA tweeted a time-lapse video of the sun’s busy week where it released 36 notable flares and 28 coronal … Continue reading NASA Captures the Sun Coughing Out a Thrilling X-Class Solar Flare

NASA managed to image an asteroid larger than the Empire State Building and with similar proportions as it hurtled past Earth at the beginning of February, 2023. The asteroid, designated 2011 AG5, passed safely past our planet at a distance of around 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), about five times the distance between Earth and the moon. But, while it posed no danger of … Continue reading Oddly shaped asteroid once considered an impact risk for Earth races past the planet

The mysterious red streaks crisscrossing the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be the result of a newly discovered kind of salty ice. Europa has long intrigued scientists because the moon has a subsurface ocean beneath a thick shell of ice. Plumes of water have been known to erupt from cracks in the ice shell, releasing the contents of the moon’s alien ocean into space. … Continue reading New type of salty ice may exist on extraterrestrial ocean moons

A huge planet that has never been seen by astronomers could be lurking, almost invisibly, at the dark edges of our solar system, some scientists believe. By 1846, astronomers had pinpointed all the eight main planets – and have since found several other ‘dwarf planets’ including Pluto. But the search goes on for the mysterious ‘ninth planet’ which is thought to sit far beyond Neptune … Continue reading ‘Hidden’ planet at edge of our solar system could be five times the size of Earth

A robotic Russian cargo ship stricken by a coolant leak undocked from the International Space Station late Friday (Feb.17) while a cosmonaut snapped photos of it looking for signs of damage. The Progress spacecraft, known as Progress 82 by NASA and Progress MS-21 by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, cast off from the space station’s Poisk module at 9:26 p.m. EST (0226 GMT) after nearly four … Continue reading Russian Progress cargo ship departs space station despite coolant leak

After completing the first sample depot on another world, the rover continues its hunt for Mars rocks worthy of study on Earth. NASA’s Perseverance rover will celebrated its second anniversary on the surface of Mars on Saturday, February 18. Since arriving at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet that are central … Continue reading NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Enters Third Year in Search for Signs of Life at Jezero Crater

When astronomers discovered that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, they theorized that some force must be pushing things farther apart and overcoming gravity, which should be slowing things down. That force was suggested to be dark energy, but no one has ever figured out from where it comes. But a team of 17 international researchers led by the University of Hawaii has … Continue reading Black holes may be the source of mysterious dark energy

The elusive “Planet Nine,” which may or may not lurk in the outer reaches of the solar system, could be surrounded by a small swarm of potential moons, a new study reveals. What’s more, these moons could be the key to finding the missing planet. Planet Nine, if it exists, lurks beyond the orbit of Neptune in an icy region known as the Kuiper Belt.  … Continue reading Elusive Planet Nine could be surrounded by hot moons

Scientists have detected signs of a hidden structure inside Earth’s core using a new method that combines seismic data with machine learning algorithms. The study analyzed data from thousands of earthquakes to create a three-dimensional picture of the core and found evidence of a distinct zone at the boundary between the inner and outer core. The researchers believe this zone could be composed of a … Continue reading Scientists Detect Signs of Hidden Structure Inside Earth’s Core

A massive solar flare erupted from the sun over the weekend, causing radio blackouts on Earth – and more could be on the horizon.  The sun emitted the solar flare on Saturday, peaking around 10:48 a.m. EST, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. The flare, which came from a part of the sun named active region 3217, was designated a X1.1 flare, one … Continue reading One of the strongest types of solar flares erupted on the sun