Tracks of China’s Zhurong Mars rover spotted by NASA orbiter (photo)
A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has spotted China’s Zhurong rover down on the surface, providing an epic overview of the vehicle’s travels through the red dirt.
Hubble telescope spies striking spiral galaxy that’s part of a huge cosmic structure
The Hubble Space Telescope caught a galaxy on camera that underlies a much larger structure, known as the Virgo Cluster.
Carbon footprint of huge astronomy observatories raises climate change concerns
Astronomers in the future may not be able to build large complex power-hungry observatories if they want to reduce their carbon footprint in line with greenhouse gas emission requirements, a study suggests.
Sulfur from dino-killing asteroid caused way more global cooling than thought
When the dinosaur-destroying asteroid collided with Earth 66 million years ago, massive amounts of sulfur — volumes more than were previously thought — were thrown high above land into the stratosphere, a new study finds.
NASA finally opened 50-year-old Apollo moon rock sample as agency eyes human return to lunar surface
NASA scientists have unsealed an extraterrestrial time capsule 50 years after astronauts collected the rock and dust from the moon and sealed it away before returning to Earth.
Odd circular shape beneath the ocean in Google Earth images is probably not aliens
A circular shape on the seafloor visible on Google Earth is raising cries of “UFO,” but chances are … it’s not aliens.
Arianespace and SpaceX work to adjust launch manifests
WASHINGTON — Arianespace says it is working to remanifest payloads that were to launch on Soyuz rockets while SpaceX says it’s finding ways to accommodate new customers on its vehicles.
Vulcan Centaur on schedule for first launch in 2022 as New Glenn slips
WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance remains confident that its Vulcan Centaur rocket will make its first launch this year while Blue Origin is pushing back the first flight of its New Glenn vehicle.
NASA to support development of second Artemis lunar lander
WASHINGTON — NASA announced March 23 that it will support development of a second lander to transport astronauts to and from the lunar surface to provide competition with SpaceX for the later “sustainable” phase of the Artemis program.
Life as we know it would not exist without this highly unusual number
The fine-structure constant is a seemingly random number with no units or dimensions, which has cropped up in so many places in physics, and seems to control one of the most fundamental interactions in the universe.
Mars helicopter Ingenuity soars on 22nd Red Planet flight
NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity has done it again, soaring successfully on its 22nd Red Planet flight.
The sun as you’ve never seen it: European probe snaps closest-ever photo of our star
The European sun-chasing spacecraft Solar Orbiter has snapped the closest images of the sun ever taken, revealing the finest details of our star’s outer atmosphere, the corona.
Cosmic orcs? Scientists snap best image yet of eerie ‘odd radio circles’ in space
Astronomers imaged a weird circle in space in high-definition for the first time as they try to figure out how these mysterious structures form.
Known as “odd radio circles” (ORCs), the enigmatic shapes were first spotted in 2019 in images from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. Consisting of 36 colossal dishes located in Western Australia, ASKAP images the entire night sky in radio waves, began seeing circles in various spots.
