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Astronomy & Space news
China recovers rocket stage on land for first time, after earlier recovery at sea
China has successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, state media reported Wednesday, as the country seeks to advance its space program.
Space Exploration
1 hour ago
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NASA's LRO images Falcon 9 crater on moon, learns new details
Between Aug. 11–12, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured a series of images of a new crater on the moon. The crater formed Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage impacted the surface following its Jan. 2025 ...
Space Exploration
12 hours ago
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Ruby-forming mineral found by Mars rover hints at violent impacts
So far, most of the minerals found on Mars tell a story of lava poured out by ancient volcanoes, followed by long stretches in which water trickled through and slowly reshaped the rock. However, some rocks scattered across ...
Dying radio galaxies suggest a shorter, more dynamic afterlife for black hole jets
Astronomers have uncovered a previously underexplored population of faint, rapidly fading remnant radio galaxies, offering new insights into what happens after supermassive black holes stop powering their enormous radio jets.
Astronomy
11 hours ago
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'Hidden stars' suggest that distant galaxies are much more massive than they appear
Astronomers have discovered that the most massive galaxies in the early universe contain far more small stars than expected. As a result, these early galaxies were likely much more massive than initial measurements suggested. ...
Astronomy
13 hours ago
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A single asteroid impact may explain the appearance of Mars' moon Deimos
Deimos, the smaller and outermost of Mars' two moons, is roughly oval in shape and has a deep depression at its south pole. Unlike its heavily scarred sister moon, Phobos, Deimos is covered by a loose layer of dust and rubble—a ...
Planetary Sciences
12 hours ago
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Mars attacks: How much dust from the red planet is safe to breathe?
NASA has released a report recommending an initial health standard for the Martian dust that astronauts could inhale during future missions. Although sending people to Mars is still years away, NASA needs to establish safety ...
Space Exploration
11 hours ago
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NASA's SkyFall Mars helicopters will feature a revolutionary antenna design
From 2021 to 2024, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter became the first vehicle of its kind to explore the Martian atmosphere and surface. With that proof of concept complete, NASA is preparing to send a trio of helicopters to search ...
Space Exploration
16 hours ago
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Webb captures clearest image yet of the Lion Nebula
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged NGC 2392 (also known as the Lion Nebula), named for its distinctive appearance, which resembles a lion's face seen head-on.
Astronomy
20 hours ago
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ISS hosts first spacewalk by a Frenchwoman
Sophie Adenot became the first French woman astronaut to venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) for a spacewalk on Tuesday, accompanied by American astronaut Anil Menon.
Space Exploration
18 hours ago
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Nuking an asteroid on short notice could save us
Readers of a certain age will remember a golden era of asteroid films, capped by two with very different endings. "Deep Impact" drove home the devastating consequences of letting a large piece of rock hit our planet, whereas ...
Astronomy
22 hours ago
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Dark matter may be gravitationally lensing a likely source of cosmic neutrinos
Astronomers have discovered that the jet of a distant blazar has been gravitationally lensed by an unseen source of dark matter. Led by Silke Britzen at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the team's ...
First pair of feeding supermassive black holes found in a Green Pea galaxy
Astronomers have discovered the first confirmed dual active galactic nucleus in a Green Pea galaxy, revealing two supermassive black holes growing at the same time inside a compact, intensely star-forming system. X-ray observations ...
How ancient trees are warning us about the next enormous solar storm
Our sun is capable of storms far bigger than we've ever recorded. Studying the world's oldest trees suggests we could soon be due one of these gargantuan events.
Planetary Sciences
Aug 17, 2026
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Hubble solves merger mystery from Milky Way's early years
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way ...
Astronomy
Aug 17, 2026
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Mega-Earth GJ 523b is 23 times as massive as our planet—but only 2.5 times as wide
It's nearly 170 million years old. It's more than 2.5 times the size of Earth. And it's the first exoplanet discovered and cataloged by researchers with the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).
Astronomy
Aug 17, 2026
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Stellar explosions come into focus with new nuclear reaction measurements
In two separate papers published in Physical Review Letters, researchers investigated the nuclear reactions that take place inside supernovae and X-ray bursts—two of the universe's most powerful explosions. Together, the ...
Astronomy
Aug 17, 2026
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The brightened night sky nobody actually wanted
A new paper has put hard numbers on a plan that's been rattling around the astronomy community for a while now—a California company called Reflect Orbital wants to put giant mirrors in orbit and beam sunlight down to Earth ...
Astronomy
Aug 17, 2026
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Black hole star: Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object
Astronomers at MIT and elsewhere have spotted an extremely bright red spot in the early universe. The object resembles an enormous star, roughly the size of our solar system. But it also is putting out 100 billion times more ...
Astronomy
Aug 16, 2026
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Einstein Probe catches rare X-ray flash from an exploding star
Astronomers have linked an X-ray flash discovered by the Einstein Probe to a known type of supernova with unusual features that point to the birth of an ultra-dense, rapidly spinning magnetar. The paper outlining this finding ...
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Japan aims for the moons of Mars
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What a dry meteorite tells us about water on Mars
Satellite constellations could create spiraling space debris
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Physicists entangle quantum memories across a record-breaking 420 km
A new approach to building noise-resistant quantum sensors
Krypton gas emerges as a new ingredient for quantum computing
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New study links bad bosses with greater work intensity
How body size and habitat shape the vocal repertoires of primates
Rare satellite data reveal major limits in flood models
Existing drug could treat invasive canine oral tumors
Secrets of a mystery mammal from Patagonia revealed at last
How to design a space habitat that supports its residents' mental health
Skies darken as solar eclipse heads south from Arctic to Spain
How to enjoy the solar eclipse safely
Structural snapshots reveal key steps in switching on DNA replication
