solar system

A potentially history-making private moon mission is underway.Odysseus, a robotic lunar lander built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida early this morning (Feb. 15).If all goes according to plan, Odysseus will touch down near the moon's south pole on Feb. 22, becoming the first-ever private spacecraft to ace a lunar landing. Success would also be a big deal for the United States, which hasn't been to the lunar surface…

This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024.Total solar eclipses, such as the one set to sweep across a swath of North America this April, are among the most sublime and transcendental natural phenomena that one can experience. The spectacle of totality—when the moon completely covers the sun to cast a dark shadow on Earth below—is almost unreal, as if the natural rhythm and regular order of the cosmos has come undone.…

February 15, 20242min readEven if you’re not in the path of totality, the solar eclipse on April 8 will offer a show to nearly everyone across North and Central AmericaBy Katie Peek This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024.On the afternoon of Monday, April 8, the moon will pass between Earth and the sun, its shadow sweeping across North America from west to east in a total solar eclipse. The sun and moon will appear…

Meteorites, remnants of asteroids, are crucial for understanding our solar system’s history, acting as time capsules that preserve primordial material. Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in the Winchcombe meteorite, identifying key nitrogen compounds, including amino acids and hydrocarbons, without chemical treatments, using a novel detector design. This finding, significant for research into life’s origins on Earth, was facilitated by a high-resolution electron microscope at the SuperSTEM laboratory. This…

A striking set of gigantic sunspots, first spotted from Mars and now designated AR3576, is currently facing Earth, capturing the attention of astronomers, space enthusiasts, and concerned space weather forecasters.Hurricanes and Climate | Extreme EarthThe cluster, nicknamed the “Martian sunspots,” was first discovered by NASA’s Perseverance rover using its MastCam in the final week of January. Since this initial observation, these sunspots have significantly increased in size and are now facing our planet. The entire…

In the ancient Greek epic the Odyssey, Ithacan king Odysseus doggedly sails through treacherous waters to get back home. As soon as this Valentine’s Day, a spacecraft of the same name will attempt a dangerous journey of its own: the first U.S. soft landing on the moon since 1972.As soon as 12:57 A.M. EST on February 14, a 14-foot-tall moon lander built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. That spacecraft, nicknamed Odie—short for Odysseus—will be carrying payloads…

In the distant future—about six billion or seven billion years hence—the sun will start to die, swelling up into a bloated red giant. In a span of several hundred million years it will blow away its outer layers, lose about half its mass and leave behind its überhot, überdense, super small core: a white dwarf.The inner planets will be toast when this happens. Mercury, Venus and most likely even our precious Earth will be literally consumed by the sun and vaporized as their once benevolent host star literally overruns and…

Scientists are now inspecting snagged, bagged and tagged bits and pieces from asteroid Bennu, the cosmic mother lode delivered by NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security — Regolith Explorer mission.Known in acronymic astro-speak as OSIRIS-REx, that seven-year-long voyage brought home the goods via a sample return canister that came to full stop on Sept. 24, 2023, parachuting into a remote stretch of the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. Those specimens from afar…

February 7, 20243 min readNASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is eliminating nearly 600 workers due to funding shortfalls for the space agency's Mars Sample Return missionBy Mike Wall & SPACE.comThe Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is a research and development lab federally funded by NASA and managed by Caltech. Budgetary issues have forced the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA's chief center for robotic planetary exploration, to reduce its workforce by about 8%.The cuts affect roughly 530 employees…

To planetary scientists, Mimas—one of Saturn’s moons—is best known for its uncanny resemblance to the Death Star in Star Wars. While Mimas most definitely isn’t a planet-destroying superweapon, nobody could say with any certainty whether an abundance of liquid water was hiding beneath its icy shell. But a new paper, published today in Nature, has called it: That’s no moon; that’s an oceanic world. And this newfound ocean, against all expectations, appears to be a proverbial newborn on the timescale of the solar…