NEWSWORTHY
Israel will launch its first moon mission this week, sending an unmanned spacecraft to collect data to be shared with NASA, organizers said Monday. The 585-kg Beresheet (Genesis) spacecraft is to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday. Israel Aerospace ...
NASA is accelerating plans to return Americans to the moon — and this time, the space agency says, it will be there to stay. Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, told reporters Thursday that the agency plans to speed up plans backed by President Donald Trump to ...
NASA declares Red Planet rover Opportunity dead, 14-year mission over
During 14 years of intrepid exploration across Mars, NASA's Opportunity rover advanced human knowledge by confirming that water once flowed on the red planet — but it has analyzed its last soil sample. The robot has been missing since the U.S. space agency lost contact ...
NASA about to pull plug on Mars rover eight months after massive dust storm left it silent
NASA is trying one last time to contact its record-setting Mars rover Opportunity, before calling it quits. The rover has been silent for eight months, victim of one of the most intense dust storms in decades. Thick dust darkened the sky last summer and, for ...
NASA's faraway space snowman Ultima Thule has flat, not round, behind
The faraway space snowman visited by NASA last month has a flat — not round — behind. New photos from the New Horizons spacecraft offer a new perspective on the small cosmic body 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) away. Scientists say the two-lobed object, ...
Two tiny satellites have fallen silent millions of miles away, after proving new technology at Mars. The twin CubeSats, nicknamed WALL-E and EVE, shadowed NASA's InSight lander to Mars last year. As the lander descended to the Martian surface in November, the briefcase-size satellites flew ...
Our Milky Way galaxy is truly warped, at least around the edges
It turns out our Milky Way galaxy is truly warped, at least around the far edges. Scientists in China and Australia released an updated 3D map of the Milky Way on Tuesday. They used 1,339 pulsating stars — young, newly cataloged stars bigger and brighter ...
Check your compass: Magnetic north pole is on the move, heading from Canada to Siberia
True north isn't quite where it used to be. Earth's north magnetic pole has been drifting so fast in the last few decades that scientists' past estimates are no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. On Monday, they released an update of where true north ...
Telescopes capture moment of comet-rock impact on moon during eclipse
Astronomers managed to capture the moment of an impact during this week's eclipsed moon. Spanish astrophysicist Jose Maria Madiedo of the University of Huelva said Wednesday it appears a rock from a comet slammed into the moon during the total lunar eclipse late Sunday and ...
Blue Origin shoots NASA experiments into space in test ahead of manned trip
Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, has launched NASA experiments into space on a brief test flight. The New Shepard rocket blasted off Wednesday from West Texas, hoisting a capsule containing the experiments. The eight experiments were exposed to a few minutes of weightlessness, before ...
Total lunar eclipse set to woo sky-watchers from Sunday night to Monday
An unusual set of celestial circumstances comes together Sunday for sky-watchers in Europe, Africa and the Americas, where a total lunar eclipse may be glimpsed, offering a view of a large, red moon. The full moon will appear bigger than normal because it is closer ...
The space agencies of the United States and China are coordinating efforts on moon exploration, NASA said Friday as it navigates a strict legal framework aimed at preventing technology transfer to China. "With the required approval from Congress, NASA has been in discussions with China ...
