Space Exploration

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa, the second Galilean satellite outward from Jupiter, is actually sodium chloride (table salt). The discovery, reported in the journal Science Advances, suggests that Europa’s underground ocean may chemically resemble …

  NASA plans to return to the moon in the next decade, and it won’t just be for a quick visit this time. The agency wants to establish a long-term human presence on and in space around the moon, but that’s going to require new technologies. The NASA Innovative Advanced …

  Scientists have long believed the formation of a quasar in a galaxy would spell the end of star formation there. A new analysis from Allison Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, suggests that may not be the case. Kirkpatrick found that some galaxies …

The South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest crater in the Solar System — is a gigantic impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Data from NASA’s lunar spacecraft point to the existence of a large excess of mass — about 2.18*1018 kg — in the lunar mantle under …

Scientists studying the moon have made an unexpected discovery. While we have good data on the surface topography, there’s still a lot we don’t know about what lies beneath the craggy craters and dunes. A large crater in the southern polar region appears to contain a large deposit of dense …

As space agencies look to expand their presence in space, the value of reusable vehicles keeps increasing. SpaceX has seen great success with its Dragon and Falcon 9 combo, for example. The European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to move forward with its Space Rider project, an uncrewed, reusable orbital …

NASA is just over a year away from the launch of the Mars 2020 rover, and all systems are go for the rover’s flying passenger. After completing its flight test early this year, the Mars Helicopter Scout (MHS) is undergoing final preparation and could join the rover this summer. If …

  Scientists recently produced the first images of a giant black hole in a distant galaxy, but there’s a supermassive black hole much closer to home. In the center of our own galaxy lurks an invisible monster, the gravity of which may help hold the Milky Way together. We can’t …

  NASA’s Curiosity rover has been a smashing success since its landing on Mars in 2012. So, it’s no surprise the upcoming Mars 2020 rover will use a very similar design. The team is currently assembling the rover, which is scheduled for a July 2020 launch, and it just got …

  In our ever-expanding universe, light from distant galaxies takes longer to reach us and may someday escape our ability to see it entirely. After all, when we’re looking deep into space that’s millions of light years away, we’re seeing far into the past. What we observe today may have …