https://phys.org/space-news/space-exploration en-us Phys.org provides the latest news on space, space exploration, space science and earth sciences. NASA's InSight mission provides data from the surface of Mars. Its seismometer, equipped with electronics built at ETH Zurich, not only records marsquakes, but unexpectedly reacts to solar eclipses as well. When the Martian moon, Phobos moves directly in front of the sun, the instrument tips slightly to one side. This miniscule effect could aid researchers in determining the planet's interior. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-solar-eclipse-mars-affects-interior.html Space Exploration Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:10:34 EDT news518429430 The absolute model age (AMA), or geologic age of Finsen crater on the moon's far side is determined to be about 3.5 billion years (Ga) based on crater counting method, according to a study published in Icarus. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-geologic-age-finsen-crater-side.html Space Exploration Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:08:23 EDT news518422100 To the surprise of many planetary scientists, the oxidized iron mineral hematite has been discovered at high latitudes on the Moon, according to a study published today in Science Advances led by Shuai Li, assistant researcher at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). https://phys.org/news/2020-09-earth-oxygen-rusted-moon-billions.html Space Exploration Wed, 02 Sep 2020 14:00:09 EDT news518248440 An alert pops up in your email: The latest spacecraft observations are ready. You now have 24 hours to scour 84 hours-worth of data, selecting the most promising split-second moments you can find. The data points you choose, depending on how you rank them, will download from the spacecraft in the highest possible resolution; researchers may spend months analyzing them. Everything else will be overwritten like it was never collected at all. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-magnetic-eruptions-space-ai.html Astronomy Space Exploration Wed, 02 Sep 2020 07:46:16 EDT news518251570 A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder is pioneering a new solution to the problem of spring cleaning on the moon: Why not zap away the grime using a beam of electrons? https://phys.org/news/2020-08-dustbuster-moon.html Space Exploration Mon, 31 Aug 2020 13:04:04 EDT news518097832 NASA has approved the final development stage of the Southwest Research Institute-led Lucy mission to explore the Trojan asteroids in preparation for its October 2021 launch. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-first-ever-mission-trojan-asteroids-nasa.html Space Exploration Fri, 28 Aug 2020 14:29:37 EDT news517843759 In a landmark study, scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have mapped the immense envelope of gas, called a halo, surrounding the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large galactic neighbor. Scientists were surprised to find that this tenuous, nearly invisible halo of diffuse plasma extends 1.3 million light-years from the galaxy—about halfway to our Milky Way—and as far as 2 million light-years in some directions. This means that Andromeda's halo is already bumping into the halo of our own galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-hubble-giant-halo-andromeda-galaxy.html Astronomy Space Exploration Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:52:33 EDT news517758729 The detection more than a decade ago by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope of an excess of high-energy radiation in the center of the Milky Way convinced some physicists that they were seeing evidence of the annihilation of dark matter particles, but a team led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine has ruled out that interpretation. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-dark-destruction-extra-galaxy-center.html Astronomy Space Exploration Wed, 26 Aug 2020 15:15:12 EDT news517673704 Imagine microscopic life-forms, such as bacteria, transported through space, and landing on another planet. The bacteria finding suitable conditions for its survival could then start multiplying again, sparking life at the other side of the universe. This theory, called "panspermia", support the possibility that microbes may migrate between planets and distribute life in the universe. Long controversial, this theory implies that bacteria would survive the long journey in outer space, resisting to space vacuum, temperature fluctuations, and space radiations. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-bacteria-survive-earth-mars-aggregates.html Space Exploration Wed, 26 Aug 2020 03:23:25 EDT news517631000 Fifty potential planets have been confirmed by a new machine learning algorithm developed by University of Warwick scientists. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-planets-machine.html Space Exploration Tue, 25 Aug 2020 09:08:00 EDT news517565277 Testing teams have successfully completed a critical milestone focused on demonstrating that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will respond to commands once in space. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-ground-segment-success-james-webb.html Space Exploration Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:21:21 EDT news517490469 The last time we saw NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission was on July 30, 2020, as it disappeared into the black of deep space on a trajectory for Mars. But with NASA's Eyes on the Solar System, you can follow in real time as humanity's most sophisticated rover—and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter traveling with it—treks millions of miles over the next six months to Jezero Crater. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-nasa-perseverance-rover-real-mars.html Space Exploration Sun, 23 Aug 2020 05:23:23 EDT news517378989 The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the closest images yet of the sky's latest visitor to make the headlines, comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, after it passed by the Sun. The new images of the comet were taken on 8 August and feature the visitor's coma, the fine shell that surrounds its nucleus, and its dusty output. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-hubble-snaps-close-up-comet-neowise.html Space Exploration Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:09:33 EDT news517237762 Europa's outer icy shell has completely reoriented itself in one of the last geologic events recorded on its young surface. Europa's poles are not where they used to be. Cracks in the surface of Jupiter's icy moon indicate its shell of ice rotated by 70 degrees sometime in the last several million years. In addition to supporting prior evidence for the existence of a subsurface ocean, it also means that the geologic history of Europa's surface must be reexamined. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-degree-shift-jupiter-icy-moon.html Space Exploration Fri, 21 Aug 2020 13:52:35 EDT news517236741 A rocket is going up into space with a drag sail. The goal? For the drag sail to bring the rocket back to Earth, preventing it from becoming like the thousands of pieces of space junk in Earth's lower orbit. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-upcoming-space-mission-rocket-earth.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Aug 2020 14:59:49 EDT news517154383 A new study from The University of Texas at Austin is helping scientists piece together the ancient climate of Mars by revealing how much rainfall and snowmelt filled its lake beds and river valleys 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-sustained-planetwide-storms-lakes-rivers.html Space Exploration Thu, 20 Aug 2020 04:09:22 EDT news517115358 NASA's Mars rovers have been one of the great scientific and space successes of the past two decades. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-deep-future-mars-rovers-faster.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Aug 2020 12:45:03 EDT news517059898 Researchers at the University of Bern have developed the highly sensitive ORIGIN instrument, which can provide proof of the smallest amounts of traces of life, for future space missions. Space agencies such as NASA have already expressed interest in testing ORIGIN for future missions. The instrument may be used on missions to the ice moons of Europa (Jupiter) and Enceladus (Saturn), for example. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-sensitive-instrument-life-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Aug 2020 12:21:05 EDT news517058455 A small but evolving dent in Earth's magnetic field can cause big headaches for satellites. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-nasa-track-slowly-dent-earth.html Space Exploration Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:28:38 EDT news516900425 The debate over the origins and molecular structure of 'Oumuamua continued today with an announcement in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that despite earlier promising claims, the interstellar object is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-scientists-oumuamua-isnt-molecular-hydrogen.html Astronomy Space Exploration Mon, 17 Aug 2020 12:30:27 EDT news516886221 A special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is helping scientists better understand the science of auroras and their powerful drivers out in space. Known as auroral beads, these lights often show up just before large auroral displays, which are caused by electrical storms in space called substorms. Previously, scientists weren't sure if auroral beads are somehow connected to other auroral displays as a phenomenon in space that precedes substorms, or if they are caused by disturbances closer to Earth's atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-aurora-mysteries-nasa-themis-mission.html Space Exploration Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:38:01 EDT news516641740 A new study led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, shows that exhaust from a mid-sized lunar lander can quickly spread around the Moon and potentially contaminate scientifically vital ices at the lunar poles. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-simulations-lander-exhaust-cloud-lunar.html Space Exploration Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:00:30 EDT news516628822 NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter received a checkout and recharge of its power system on Friday, Aug. 7, one week into its near seven-month journey to Mars with the Perseverance rover. This marks the first time the helicopter has been powered up and its batteries have been charged in the space environment. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-recharges-batteries.html Space Exploration Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:49:51 EDT news516545381 New 2-D and 3-D computer modeling of impacts on the asteroid Psyche, the largest Main Belt asteroid, indicate it is probably metallic and porous in composition, something like a flying cosmic rubble pile. Knowing this will be critical to NASA's forthcoming asteroid mission, Psyche: Journey to a Metal World, that launches in 2022. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-main-belt-asteroid-psyche-remnant.html Space Exploration Tue, 11 Aug 2020 08:32:36 EDT news516353553 Dozens of times over the last decade NASA scientists have launched laser beams at a reflector the size of a paperback novel about 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) away from Earth. They announced today, in collaboration with their French colleagues, that they received signal back for the first time, an encouraging result that could enhance laser experiments used to study the physics of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-laser-earth-moon-boost-science.html Space Exploration Tue, 11 Aug 2020 08:24:17 EDT news516353032 NASA's Dawn spacecraft gave scientists extraordinary close-up views of the dwarf planet Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. By the time the mission ended in October 2018, the orbiter had dipped to less than 22 miles (35 kilometers) above the surface, revealing crisp details of the mysterious bright regions Ceres had become known for. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-mystery-bright-areas-ceres-salty.html Astronomy Space Exploration Tue, 11 Aug 2020 04:44:47 EDT news516339865 Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. But scientists aren't sure just how much there actually is in the Sun's atmosphere, where it is hard to measure. Knowing the amount of helium in the solar atmosphere is important to understanding the origin and acceleration of the solar wind—the constant stream of charged particles from the Sun. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-nasa-rocket-helium-sun-atmosphere.html Astronomy Space Exploration Fri, 07 Aug 2020 12:30:54 EDT news516022242 NASA's first asteroid sampling spacecraft is making final preparations to grab a sample from asteroid Bennu's surface. Next week, the OSIRIS-REx mission will conduct a second rehearsal of its touchdown sequence, practicing the sample collection activities one last time before touching down on Bennu this fall. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-osiris-rex-rehearsal-asteroid-bennu.html Space Exploration Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:52:44 EDT news515947959 An international team of solar physicists, including academics from Northumbria University, in Newcastle upon Tyne, has recently measured the global magnetic field of the outer most layer of the Sun's atmosphere, the solar corona, for the first time. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-global-magnetic-field-solar-corona.html Space Exploration Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:48:13 EDT news515947597 Vast areas of the Martian night sky pulse in ultraviolet light, according to images from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft. The results are being used to illuminate complex circulation patterns in the Martian atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-nasa-maven-martian-night-sky.html Space Exploration Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:40:29 EDT news515947224