Space telescopes as a research area encompass the scientific and technical study, design, deployment, and utilization of astronomical observatories operating above Earth’s atmosphere to access wide spectral ranges (e.g., ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma-ray, infrared) and achieve high-precision photometry, spectroscopy, and imaging. The field addresses orbital dynamics, thermal and structural stability, detector and optics optimization, contamination control, and data calibration pipelines. Research includes mission architecture, survey strategies, multi-messenger and time-domain coordination, and methodologies for extracting cosmological, stellar, and planetary parameters from space-based observations, as well as technology development for next-generation observatories and constellations.
A sweeping barred spiral galaxy marks the spot in this image, but the real treasure is the gravitational lens in the lower-right corner, where a distant background galaxy is being magnified and distorted by the gravity of ...
Astronomy
Oct 23, 2026
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The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet in images taken between Sept. 16 and 24, 2026.
Planetary Sciences
Oct 19, 2026
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93
A University of Missouri astronomer is leading a team of 130 researchers from 62 institutions—including NASA, the California Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Harvard University—on an ambitious mission to ...
Astronomy
Oct 16, 2026
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A research team from the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Tokyo City University, Kanazawa University, the University of Tokyo and other institutions has successfully completed the test operations ...
Astronomy
Oct 14, 2026
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NASA has taken the next step in the process of developing a new all-glass telescope for the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, a space observatory designed to detect ripples in space-time called gravitational ...
Astronomy
Oct 9, 2026
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162
Cosmic detectives are being called on for an interstellar mission to hunt down thousands of invisible black holes lurking in our own backyard. Space scientists from the University of Southampton need amateur astronomers to ...
Astronomy
Oct 1, 2026
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227
A commercial mission to boost NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory ended without raising the spacecraft's orbit, but the agency and Katalyst Space gained experience that will benefit future in-space servicing programs.
Space Exploration
Sep 29, 2026
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14
Look up at the night sky with the naked eye and it may seem like it rarely changes. Yet the universe is in constant flux. Stars drift through space, orbiting the center of the Milky Way as planets orbit them. They rotate, ...
Astronomy
Sep 29, 2026
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106
The robotic spacecraft that failed to rescue an aging NASA telescope plunged back to Earth on Friday less than three months after launching on the bold mission.
Space Exploration
Sep 25, 2026
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389
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on Sept. 19, marking another milestone for an observatory that continues to transform our understanding of the universe.
Astronomy
Sep 23, 2026
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