Perseverance's Mars rock samples may even hide salt crystal time pills. Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars has started its perfect rock collection. The rover, which was created to search for indications of ancient life on Mars and package up product for a future sample-return mission, made its first two effective tasting maneuvers on...
Like a golf cart relocating at 15,000 miles per hour slamming into the side of a football stadium.' It would have been good if the dinosaurs had a space program. They did not, but some may claim a space program that cannot protect its people from space-based dangers, like colossal asteroids, was not that terrific, after...
The new shield will be used on the Dream Chaser winged spacecraftSierra Space/ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Sierra Space Corporation have created an advanced heat shield, inspired by 1980s Space Shuttle technology, to protect reusable spacecraft during reentry. Challenges of Atmospheric Reentry and Advances in Heat Shield Technology Earth's atmosphere poses a significant challenge for returning...
Generations Ships would be similar to space habitats designed in the 1970sNASA/Rick Guidice If you've ever dreamed of designing a spacecraft to carry humans to another star system over centuries, now's your chance. The Project Hyperion Design Contest encourages teams to develop Generation Ship concepts—self-sustaining vessels built for long-term interstellar travel. Colonizing other planets has often...
Artist's concept of an orbital solar power plantSpace Solar UK startup Space Solar has signed a deal with Reykjavik Energy that could make Iceland the first country to receive solar power beamed from space, with a 30-MW demonstration set for launch by 2030. While solar power is a clean energy source, it faces limitations like cloud...
Credit: pixabay The planet Jupiter has no solid ground—no surface, like the grass or dirt we walk on here on Earth. There’s nowhere to land or walk on. But how is that possible? If Jupiter has no surface, then what does it have? How does it hold together? Even for a physics professor who studies unusual phenomena,...
An artist's impression of an accreting X-ray pulsar. (Dana Berry/NASA) Neutron Star Spins at Unbelievable Speed A neutron star located 27,400 light-years away is exhibiting one of the most remarkable rotational speeds ever observed. In the binary system 4U 1820-30, this dead star spins so rapidly around its axis that it completes an astounding 716 rotations per second....
(JIJI PRESS/AFP/Japan OUT) Wooden Satellite Launched into Space Its Japanese creators announced on Tuesday that they launched the first-ever wooden satellite into space aboard a SpaceX rocket. This satellite is part of a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Scientists at Kyoto University developed the satellite, designing it to burn up entirely upon re-entering Earth’s...
Green dye highlighting the DNA of microbes in a sample. (Suzuki et al., Microbial Ecology, 2024) Deep underground, a community of microbes has thrived in isolation for billions of years. These organisms, found in 2 billion-year-old rock, have been cut off far longer than any known subterranean microbes, surpassing the previous record of 100 million years. Geomicrobiologist...
(Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA & NASA) Nuclear power generates about 10% of the world's electricity, with countries like France relying on it for nearly 70%. Tech giants like Google are also turning to nuclear energy to power their demanding data centers. The energy for nuclear power comes from atomic binding energy, released through two primary processes: fission...
