space Archives | Page 10 of 19

Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lander Is Making a Fiery Re-Entry to Earth Right Now

— Astrobotix The Peregrine lander from Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic almost became the first privately-owned robot to reach the Moon’s surface. But it’s not to be. Shortly after launching two weeks ago, Peregrine began running out of fuel due to a failure in the propulsion system, and the team realized it wouldn’t reach the Moon safely. […]

The Oldest Black Hole Ever Discovered Is Surprisingly Big

— Getty Images/Getty Images News/Getty Images The oldest supermassive black hole astronomers have ever seen is gorging messily on the heart of its host galaxy, which may ultimately doom the black hole along with its prey. In the process, this ancient black hole — or at least as it looked 13.4 billion years ago — […]

Astrobotic’s Moon Lander Will Return To Earth In a Blaze of Glory

Gene Roddenberry’s ashes are set to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere later this week, along with those of half the main cast of his original Star Trek series, as well as a lunar rover, a small flock of robots, and millions of dollars in scientific instruments, all of which were originally supposed to land on […]

Physicists Confirm A Long-Held Belief About Dark Matter Using Unique Supernova

— NASA Ironically, to study dark energy — a murky, unknown something that seems to act as an accelerant for our universe’s expansion — astronomers rely on brilliant supernovae. From 2013 to 2019, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) peered from Chile’s Victor M. Blanco Telescope out into the sky in search of supernovae (among other […]

Astronomers Captured A Supposedly Dead Star Feasting On Its Cosmic Neighbor

When a star goes supernova, things can get messy. As the celestial object reaches the end of its life, the explosion, a supernova, spews light and energy across the universe and disrupts the gentle balance that once existed in the star system. The end result is either a neutron star or a black hole: two […]

Netflix’s Biggest Sci-Fi Epic of 2024 Is Hoping One Classic TV Trope Still Works

— Netflix In March, a massive sci-fi epic from David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo is coming to Netflix. Scientists are cracking up, there’s a ticking clock, a mysterious otherworldly VR headset, and aliens knocking at our door. This is 3 Body Problem, a series poised to be the next big thing in sci-fi […]

NASA Is Delaying Artemis Moon Missions By A Year — Here’s The Main Safety Reason

— Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service/Getty Images NASA has delayed humanity’s highly-anticipated return to the Moon, its Artemis II mission, to September 2025 from an original target launch of November 2024, citing the need for extra time to analyze why the space capsule’s heat shield created hazardous, burning debris upon re-entry to Earth during the Artemis […]

SpaceX Competitor, ULA, Will Launch Monday Carrying First U.S. Moon Lander Since Apollo

— CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images In the predawn hours of Monday, January 8, two new projects aim to take flight. Private space company United Launch Alliance will see the inaguaral flight of its Vulcan Centaur rocket. Onboard the Vulcan Centaur is Astrobotic’s Peregrine I lander, which will attempt to land on the Moon and, among other […]

A Planetary Scientist Reveals the 6 Biggest Space Missions in 2024

— NASA The year 2023 proved to be an important one for space missions, with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission by Ali M. Bramson at Purdue University. Read the original article here.

The First Pieces Of The World’s Largest Telescope Just Arrived In Chile

— ESO The first mirrors for the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) arrived at the scope’s future home in Chile just in time for Christmas, but the unboxing process is going to take a while longer — and there’s definitely some assembly required. The 18 mirrors that sailed halfway around the world in […]