Space Exploration

Cerealia Facula, a dome-like feature located in the center of Ceres’ Occator crater, is only 4 million years old — approximately 30 million years younger than the crater itself, according to research led by Dr. Andreas Nathues of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Cerealia Facula, a bright …

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured these stunning images of Pan, the second-innermost moon of Saturn, during a close flyby on March 7, 2017. These images are the closest images ever taken of the flying saucer-shaped moon. This image of Saturn’s small moon Pan was taken during the close flyby of NASA’s …

This summer, a suite of instruments called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) will fly to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will utilize the microgravity environment of the space station to form, create, and study ultra-cold quantum gases. Artist’s concept of a magneto-optical trap and atom chip to be …

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn has captured a breathtaking new image of Enceladus, the sixth-largest of the gas giant’s moons. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft returned a breathtaking image of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Enceladus. North on Enceladus is up and rotated 4 …

What you think of as “cold” really isn’t very cold in the grand scheme of things. Even the frigid depths of space are toasty by the standards of NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), an instrument being developed to study matter at extremely low temperatures. This device will head up to …

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft is orbiting Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere and how it interacts with the solar winds. Also high on its list of mission-critical goals is not crashing into things. That one almost went out the window recently, as MAVEN was found to be on a collision course …

The Mars of today is a cold, dry husk with no life as far as we can tell. Even if there is still some hearty microorganism living on the Red Planet, it’s not suitable for human habitation without a great deal of protective equipment. A NASA talk given at the …

The first gravitational wave ever sensed by mankind has a Twitter account, and you people voted to name it Wavey McWaveface. Clearly the internet has become self-aware, and is poking fun at itself. What should I change my twitter name to? — Wavy McWaveface (@iamgw150914) February 4, 2017 Jupiter is …

The hype train for Proxima b is impressive. Pale Red Dot, the Project Blue space telescope, and the recent collaboration between the ESO and Breakthrough Starshot represent just some of the money that people have been willing to invest in the idea that there’s a livable planet in the Centauri …

The Hubble Space Telescope has been orbiting Earth for more than a quarter century. It’s sent back some amazing photos during that time, while also expanding our knowledge of the universe. The telescope got its last maintenance sweep in 2009, but now there’s talk in the government of sending another …