Tag Archives: Space

One of the James Webb Space Telescope’s superpowers is its ability to investigate the cosmic dawn, the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The telescope has once again lived up to its reputation, spotting light from a galaxy which existed only 280 million years after the Big Bang, the most distant ever detected. Known as MoM-z14, it …

In January 2022, the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano, located in the southwest Pacific near Tuvalu, astonished the world due to its immense power and its unprecedented visibility from space. The eruption, one of the most violent in recent memory, released massive plumes of ash that reached up to 100,000 feet into the atmosphere. The event was so …

Atomic Space Batteries! – Dr. Robert O’Brien of USRA – YouTube Watch On On Episode 170 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik are joined by are joined by Dr. Robert O’Brien, director of the Center for Space Nuclear Research for the Universities Space Research Association, to discuss powering spacecraft by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Powering spacecraft, …

The next four people to launch to the International Space Station have arrived at their launch site. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, together with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov flew on a NASA aircraft from Ellington Field in Houston, Texas to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Saturday (July …

The European Space Agency is throwing its weight behind a design effort for a hypersonic spaceplane, with hopes of getting the final idea airborne (and spaceborne) by 2031. The ESA is putting up funding for the Invictus research program, which wants to achieve one of the space industry’s most coveted breakthroughs: The ability for …

The molecules that form the building blocks to life may be far more common in space than once thought, according to researchers from the Max Planck Institute. Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, reports the detection of over a dozen types of complex organic molecules swimming closely around a protostar in the constellation Orion, suggesting that the chemicals can …

On July 25, 2025, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured a rare solar eclipse from its vantage point in space. This unique phenomenon, visible only from the SDO’s position, revealed around 62% of the sun covered by the moon. The event, which lasted approximately 35 minutes, was a stunning display that provided scientists with valuable insights into solar behavior. This …

As part of the Expedition 73 crew began preparing for their return to Earth, science research and maintenance activities continued this week aboard the International Space Station (ISS). So did outreach efforts, as the outpost’s residents spoke to audiences in Las Vegas and South Korea. Orbital observation On Thursday (July 24), NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, a flight engineer on the …

Next time you’re drinking a frosty iced beverage, think about the structure of the frozen chunks chilling it down. Here on Earth, we generally see ice in many forms: cubes, sleet, snow, icicles, slabs covering lakes and rivers, and glaciers. Water ice does this thanks to its hexagonal crystal lattice. That makes it less dense than nonfrozen water, which allows …

Blue Origin has announced a partnership with Scout Space, a company focused on orbital domain awareness and safety in space. Scout’s Owl sensor will be the first payload to fly on Blue Origin’s Blue Ring spacecraft, integrating the advanced space domain awareness (SDA) sensor into the payload delivery vehicle. The mission is expected to launch in Spring 2026, and will …