Japan spacecraft carrying asteroid soil samples nears home

A Japanese spacecraft is nearing Earth after a yearlong journey home from a distant asteroid with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the origins of the solar system, a space agency official said Friday.

Image: A shadowy selfie taken 280 million km from Earth

On 21 September 2018, 280 million km from Earth, a roughly 1.5 square-metre cube descended towards a primitive space rock. After years of planning and 4 years in flight, this tiny spacecraft captured this 'shadow selfie' ...

Going green to the Red Planet

ESA's ground station in Western Australia routinely communicates with spacecraft at far-away places like Mars. Now, it's using sunlight to generate electricity, significantly reducing energy costs.

Strict limit on CPT violation from gamma-ray bursts

Kenji Toma (Osaka Univ.), Shinji Mukohyama (Kavli IPMU, Univ. of Tokyo), Daisuke Yonetoku (Kanazawa Univ.) and their colleagues have used the photon polarization in three distant gamma-ray bursts detected by Japanese spacecraft ...

The shock of separation

The BepiColombo mission to Mercury has undergone a series of shock tests at ESA's test facilities to replicate conditions it will experience during its intense ride into space. This video shows tests to mimic the moment it ...

page 1 from 2