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.
As more satellites, telescopes, and other spacecraft are built to be repairable, it will take reliable trajectories for service spacecraft to reach them safely. Researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The ...
Space Exploration
Feb 14, 2025
0
52
Where is all the water that may form oceans on distant planets and moons? The SPHEREx astrophysics mission will search the galaxy and take stock.
Astronomy
Feb 13, 2025
0
50
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a stunning 80 million-pixel image of the star cluster RCW 38, as captured by ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), operating in Chile's Atacama ...
Astronomy
Feb 13, 2025
0
57
A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star-forming region called 30 Doradus.
Astronomy
Feb 12, 2025
0
63
Canadian astronomers have taken an extraordinary step in understanding how planets are born, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). JWST was used to study PDS 70, a young star with two growing planets in its orbit. ...
Astrobiology
Feb 12, 2025
0
251
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission's deployable aperture cover—a visor-like sunshade that will help prevent unwanted light from entering the telescope—to the outer barrel ...
Space Exploration
Feb 12, 2025
0
39
Euclid blasted off on its six-year mission to explore the dark universe on 1 July 2023. Before the spacecraft could begin its survey, the team of scientists and engineers on Earth had to make sure everything was working properly.
Astronomy
Feb 10, 2025
2
320
When the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton pointed its telescope at two unidentified sources of light in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud, scientists were able to confirm what seemed an unlikely discovery. They ...
Astronomy
Feb 6, 2025
0
56
With an assist from the NEID spectrograph, a team of astronomers have confirmed the existence of exoplanet Gaia-4b—one of the most massive planets known to orbit a low-mass star. Gaia-4b is also the first planet detected ...
Astronomy
Feb 4, 2025
0
164
This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month presents HH 30 in unprecedented detail. This target is an edge-on protoplanetary disk that is surrounded by jets and a disk wind, and is located in the ...
Astronomy
Feb 4, 2025
1
116
