Space Exploration

SpaceX is no stranger to delays. The private space firm headed by Elon Musk has pushed back is launch schedule several times in the last few years after rockets have been lost. Now, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says there may be an issue with the Falcon 9 rocket that …

Astronomers announced several months ago that there is most likely a small Earth-like planet in orbit of Proxima Centauri. That’s a big deal because Proxima Centauri happens to be the closest star to Earth, at just a bit over four light years away. That’s still an insurmountable distance for human …

Ahuna Mons, a 2.5-mile- (4 km) tall mountain on Ceres interpreted as a geologically young cryovolcano, may have some hidden older siblings, according to a team of planetary researchers led by Dr. Michael Sori of the University of Arizona. Ahuna Mons, Ceres’ lonely mountain, is seen in this simulated perspective …

Northwest Africa (NWA) 7635 — a Martian meteorite found in Algeria in 2012 — has given planetary researchers information about volcanic activity on the Red Planet, and it’s not like anything we’ve ever seen on Earth. Hand sample images of the cut NWA 7635 stone and a representative backscattered electron …

Isn’t it funny how often things “everyone knows” turn out to be just part of the story? This might be stretching the definition of “everyone” a little bit, but bear with me: It’s been scientific consensus that much of the material that hit the Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment …

While you were sleeping last night, an asteroid passed close to Earth—very close. The object is known only as 2017 BH30, and it passed within 40,563 miles of the planet. That’s closer than the orbit of the moon, which is 238,000 miles away. The troubling part here is that astronomers …

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took these stunning photos of Saturn’s rings on December 18, 2016, while it was performing one of its ‘ring-grazing’ orbits. This Cassini image features a density wave in Saturn’s A ring (at left) that lies around 83,575 miles (134,500 km) from Saturn. Density waves are accumulations of …

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has spotted a huge anticyclonic storm in Jupiter’s high north temperate latitudes. Juno snapped this shot of Jupiter’s northern latitudes on Dec. 11, 2016, as the orbiter performed a close flyby of the gas giant. The spacecraft was at an altitude of 10,300 miles (16,600 km) above …

The International Space Station (ISS) was first launched in 1998, but it took a number of years and multiple launches to get all the pieces in place. The station currently houses a crew of six, and will continue to do so for a few more years. The ISS will be …

Astronomers have found a great many exoplanets out there among the stars, but one thing they have not found is exomoons. There’s no evidence of moons orbiting any of the planets we’ve found orbiting other stars, and it’s not clear why. Moons are obviously common in our solar system — …