Space Exploration

  Scientists have had a hard time agreeing on how many planets there are in the solar system. Most experts will tell you there are eight that we know of, but some people like NASA’s Jim Bridenstine (and Jerry Smith) think Pluto should be among them. There’s increasing evidence of …

  One of the ongoing puzzles in astronomy is that very few solar systems that we’ve examined to date look anything like ours. It’s common, for example, for solar systems to have so-called Hot Jupiters, planets the size of Jupiter that circle their host stars at a closer distance than …

  NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is orbiting the Earth to search for alien worlds, but it spotted something much different recently. NASA says TESS observed a rare phenomenon known as a “tidal disruption event.” As TESS watched from a safe distance, a star spiraled toward a black hole …

  It was just this year that we got our first real look at a black hole, and it matched many of the theoretical predictions that came before the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project made history. An impressive new NASA simulation shows us what that black hole might look like …

  We’ve always looked to the stars for answers, but in our modern era, we’re actually able to find some of them.  Learning more about the universe has led us to ask a lot of new questions about the nature of reality, space, time, and our existence.  While the biggest …

  Today, Venus and Earth don’t have a lot in common other than being about the same size and orbiting the same star. Venus has crushing atmospheric pressure and a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead. However, Venus might have been more Earth-like in the past. New simulations from …

Nova Southeastern University’s Professor Jose Lopez and his colleagues from the University of California Davis and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro propose a major revision in current space exploration philosophy and planetary protection policy, especially regarding microbes in space. Potential trajectory for how terraforming, PIPs and other related …

  NASA is currently on an incredibly ambitious timetable to send the new crewed missions to the moon by 2024. The Artemis Program will use the agency’s Orion spacecraft, which borrows liberally from the old Apollo-era command module. Now, NASA is formalizing its plans with a long-term contract for Lockheed …

The Venusian climate remained stable and temperate for about three billion years, until a mysterious global event resurfaced around 80% of the planet, according to new research by NASA planetary scientists. Observations suggest Venus may have had water oceans in its distant past; a land-ocean pattern like that above was …

The High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter captured this detailed image of the Red Planet on June 17, 2019. This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a beautiful slice of the Red Planet from the northern polar cap downwards, and highlights cratered, pockmarked swathes of the Terra …