Science

  The NASA Commercial Crew Program is one step closer to sending astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) today. After years of development and months of planning for this specific launch, the SpaceX crewed Dragon capsule (AKA Dragon II) successfully completed a demo flight to dock with the ISS. …

Observations by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter show evidence of an ancient planet-wide groundwater system on the Red Planet. Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from …

  We tend to think of our Solar System as a static, constant environment. The implications of the protoplanetary disc and the demarcation line between our inward rocky planets, the outer gas giants, and the farthest “ice giants” all combine to create a nifty little model in which the heaviest …

Collisions between bodies in our Solar System produce impact craters on large objects at a rate that depends on the population of impacting small bodies. By mapping the scars of ancient impacts on the surfaces of Pluto and its moon Charon, planetary researchers have discovered a surprising lack of very …

The remarkably complete fossil skeleton of a sea cow with large incisor tusks that lived approximately 20 million years ago (Miocene epoch) has been discovered in Panama. The skull of Culebratherium alemani. Image credit: Aaron Wood. The newly-discovered sea cow, named Culebratherium alemani, is a tusked seagrass-grazing relative of modern …

  Pluto used to be the ninth planet, but it lost that distinction several years back. It became the first of many dwarf planets in the outer reaches of the solar system, but there’s a hint something larger may lurk out there. Scientists have been on the hunt for a …

  It’s a massive undertaking to get a rover to the surface of Mars, so NASA designs its robots to last for at least a couple of months. Luckily, most of them operate for much longer. Opportunity was recently declared lost after 15 years on the red planet. Curiosity is …

  Like us, mice can’t see in the infrared. Well, most mice can’t. There are a few rodents in a laboratory that can see infrared light after being enhanced with special nanoparticles. The team thinks a similar procedure could work on humans, giving you night vision without any bulky goggles. …

Mars today is a cold, dry world, but it may not always have been so. Recent studies increasingly indicate that the planet once had a thicker, denser atmosphere that was able to lock in far greater amounts of warmth, and therefore facilitate and support the flow of liquid water on …

NASA has released new images taken by the Juno probe of Jupiter, featuring giant storms and swirling clouds in the gas giant’s atmosphere. This image of Jupiter was taken on February 12, 2019, as Juno performed its 18th close flyby of the planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI …