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.
This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures a jet of gas from a forming star shooting across the dark expanse. The bright pink and green patches running diagonally through the image are HH 80/81, a pair of Herbig-Haro ...
Astronomy
Jan 12, 2026
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We live in a very exciting time: answers to some of the oldest questions humanity has conceived are within our grasp. One of these is whether Earth is the only place that harbors life.
Planetary Sciences
Jan 12, 2026
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After a string of dramatic failures, the huge Starship rocket from SpaceX had a fully successful test on Oct. 13, 2025. A couple more test flights, and SpaceX plans to launch it into orbit.
Astronomy
Jan 12, 2026
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On Jan. 11, 2026, I watched anxiously at the tightly controlled Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as an awe-inspiring SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried NASA's new exoplanet telescope, Pandora, into orbit.
Astronomy
Jan 12, 2026
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The platypus is one of evolution's lovable, oddball animals. The creature seems to defy well-understood rules of biology by combining physical traits in a bizarre way. They're egg-laying mammals with duck bills and beaver-like ...
Astronomy
Jan 11, 2026
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The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a joint mission between the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, launched on Sept. 7th, 2023. Its advanced imaging filters and spectrometers were designed ...
Astronomy
Jan 10, 2026
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Pandora, the latest in a long portfolio of University of Arizona's space science missions, has cleared its last major milestone on its journey into space. This week, Pandora—a satellite about the size of fridge—was mounted ...
Space Exploration
Jan 10, 2026
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122
What will we see in the southern sky in 2026? A total eclipse of the moon (at a convenient time), a blue moon and a supermoon, the two brightest planets close together, and Jupiter disappearing behind the moon in the daytime.
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2026
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70
After combing through NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's archive of sweeping extragalactic cosmic fields, a small team of astronomers at the University of Missouri says they have identified a sample of galaxies that have ...
Astronomy
Jan 6, 2026
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NASA's SPHEREx Observatory has mapped the entire sky in 102 infrared colors, as seen here in this image released on Dec. 18, 2025. This image features a selection of colors emitted primarily by stars (blue, green, and white), ...
Astronomy
Jan 6, 2026
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