This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a sparkling collection of thousands of stars. One formation commonly seen within galaxies is called a globular cluster, in which thousands of stars are grouped tightly together in a spherical shape. The name comes from the Latin globulus, meaning small spherical body, as that is how Read more
One of the most contentious issues among space enthusiasts is the idea of UFOs. While many scientists agree that the odds are good that there could be life elsewhere in the universe, and organizations like SETI have been searching for evidence of this for decades, the idea of aliens visiting Earth isn’t one that astronomers Read more
Engineers have been working to fix a problem with a NASA spacecraft, Lucy, which launched in October 2021 and is on its way to visit the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. The problem is with one of Lucy’s large, round solar arrays. The spacecraft has two such arrays that collect energy from the sun, one of Read more
An international team of space researchers recently came together to test what might happen if Earth were threatened by a large asteroid strike. Results from the planetary defense exercise, which happened last year, have just recently been published and show the steps that would need to be taken if a planet-killing asteroid was headed for Read more
Three Chinese astronauts — Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe — have arrived at China’s new space station, which is currently under construction. The three will stay at the station for six months, managing the arrival of two new modules to be added to the station: One called Wentian which will launch in July, Read more
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, a Mars orbiter that is now almost a decade old, is back up and running following a scare that saw it put into safe mode for several months. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN craft resumed science operation on May 28, 2022, NASA recently announced, after recovering from the issue. The problem Read more
An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and shared by NASA this week shows the most stunning of spiral galaxies: A Grand Design Spiral called NGC 3631, given that designation because of its clear, prominent arms and highly organized spiral structure. This ideal spiral galaxy is located 53 million light-years from Earth in the Read more
It takes a lot of power to get a spacecraft through Earth’s atmosphere and out of its gravity. But once a craft has reached orbit, it requires relatively little power to move through space. In fact, even tiny amounts of consistent power could allow a craft to travel to the furthest depths of the solar Read more
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has captured the world’s affection with its explorations of Mars which have been far more successful than even the most optimistic predictions. But after 28 flights, the helicopter is beginning to suffer from the harsh conditions of the Martian winter. With seasonal changes on Mars, there is more and more dust in Read more
See four dwarf galaxies are merging into one in Hubble image An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shared this week by NASA shows an unusual interaction of four dwarf galaxies. There are two small galaxies which are so close together that they look like one object, called NGC 1741, located at the top of Read more
