NASA’s Kepler Telescope is Dead
After nine years in deep space, NASA officially bid farewell to the Kepler telescope. The spacecraft revealed a universe full of planets. The most prolific planet-hunting machine has run out of fuel. The American space agency has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. “Science...
Parker Solar Probe Becomes Closest Spacecraft to the Sun
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe just broke the record for closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object. So, the spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about 1:04 p.m. EDT, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team. It was the German-American...
Mars Could Have Enough Oxygen To Support Life
Salty Martian water could contain enough oxygen for life to exist. Researchers are confident they know exactly where to find it. Space innovation suitors are spending billions in the race to get humans to the red planet. A computer model developed by a US team suggests that salty water near the surface of Mars could contain...
Astronomers Find A Titanic Structure In The Early Universe
Astronomers have discovered a titanic structure nicknamed Hyperion. It is the most massive structure existing so early in the formation of the Universe. This massive object lies in the constellation of Sextans (The Sextant). Hyperion exists at a remote time and distance, merely 2 billion years after the Big Bang. The giant...
Researchers Find Four Alien Planets Orbiting Newborn Star
Astronomers have identified a young star with four alien planets orbiting around it. This system lies 500 light-years from Earth. The newfound star is CI Tau which is just 2 million years old. In comparison, our own star is nearly 5 billion years old. A swirling clump of dust and gas, a protoplanetary disk, surrounds the...
Virgin Galactic to Launch Space Flight Within Weeks
British entrepreneur Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, says the private company will be in space for test flights “in weeks, not months”. “We should be in space within weeks, not months. And then we will be in space with myself in months and not years,” the billionaire said speaking to...
Hubble Telescope is in Trouble After a Mechanical Failure
One of the most important scientific instruments ever created is in trouble. NASA placed Hubble Space Telescope in safe-mode after a mechanical failure. The 28-year-old space observatory just lost one of the gyroscopes needed to point the spacecraft. So, the telescope is now operating with only essential functions. “On...
SpaceX Launching NASA Astronauts For the First Time in 2019
NASA has scheduled its very first crewed flight by a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station for June next year. The mission will be the first manned US launch to the ISS since the retirement of NASA’s shuttles in 2011. Since that time, astronauts have had to rely on Russian spacecraft to get to the orbiting...
Have We Discovered The First Exomoon?
Astronomers have collected compelling evidence for the discovery of what could be an exomoon, a moon outside our solar system. If the discovery turns out to be true, this would be the first time astronomers find a moon orbiting a planet outside our Solar System. Data shows that the moon orbits a gas-giant planet 8,000...