Content for Space

Hubble’s Most-Used Camera is Back in Action After a Strange Malfunction

“The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 is once again operational after issues earlier this month caused the camera to suddenly stop observations. On Jan. 8, the telescope’s camera abruptly stopped working when it detected voltage levels …

World Magnetic Model Out-of-Cycle Release

“Earth’s northern magnetic pole is moving quickly away from the Canadian Arctic toward Siberia. This movement has forced NCEI’s scientists to update the World Magnetic Model (WMM) mid-cycle. Typically, a new and updated version of the WMM is …

Curiosity Says Farewell to Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge

“NASA’s Curiosity rover has taken its last selfie on Vera Rubin Ridge and descended toward a clay region of Mount Sharp. The twisting ridge on Mars has been the rover’s home for more than a year, providing scientists …

NASA’s Opportunity Rover Logs 15 Years on Mars

“NASA’s Opportunity rover begins its 16th year on the surface of Mars today. The rover landed in a region of the Red Planet called Meridiani Planum on Jan. 24, 2004, sending its first signal back to Earth from the …

China’s Moon Plants Are Dead

“The moon is a lifeless world once again. The cotton plants that sprouted on the moon’s far side aboard China’s Chang’e 4 lander are dead, done in by the bitter cold of the lengthy lunar night, GBTimes …

Holy Cow! Mysterious Blast Studied with NASA Telescopes

“A brief and unusual flash spotted in the night sky on June 16, 2018, puzzled astronomers and astrophysicists across the globe. The event - called AT2018cow and nicknamed “the Cow” after the coincidental final letters in its official name - is unlike …

Citizen Scientists Find New World with NASA Telescope

“Using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, citizen scientists have discovered a planet roughly twice the size of Earth located within its star’s habitable zone, the range of orbital distances where liquid water may exist on the planet …

NASA’s TESS Rounds Up its First Planets, Snares Far-flung Supernovae

“NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has found three confirmed exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, in its first three months of observations. The mission’s sensitive cameras also captured 100 short-lived changes — most of them likely stellar …

China’s Chang’e-4 probe soft-lands on moon’s far side

“China’s Chang’e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon Thursday, becoming the first spacecraft soft-landing on the moon’s uncharted side never visible from Earth. The probe, comprising a lander and a rover, landed at …

NASA-Industry Team Creates and Demonstrates First Quantum Sensor for Satellite Gravimetry

“NASA and the Sunnyvale, California-based AOSense, Inc., have successfully built and demonstrated a prototype quantum sensor capable of obtaining highly sensitive and accurate gravity measurements — a stepping stone toward next-generation geodesy, hydrology, and climate-monitoring missions in space. The prototype sensor …