Most current space activities operate close to Earth in what is called near–Earth orbit. However, as more satellites and other infrastructure begin to extend beyond that region, maintaining situational awareness of those ...
Space Exploration
Aug 11, 2026
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For decades, astronomers have assumed that the Martian surface froze solid around 3 billion years ago and has stayed that way ever since. If this were really the case, any liquid water would have long since either been locked ...
Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2026
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Boston College scientists have determined that a newly discovered meteorite from Mars is 1.27 billion years old and derived from a previously unsampled, pristine source on the Red Planet. The study is published in the journal ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 9, 2026
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What shape is an asteroid? For (44) Nysa, the honest answer until now has been that nobody knew. It is one of the brightest and largest E-type asteroids in the main belt, a class with a surface rich in enstatite, and its ...
Space Exploration
Aug 9, 2026
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Within our solar system, Uranus is a geometric oddball. Its spin axis tilts more than 90° from its orbit, so it essentially rolls on its side through space. In contrast, Earth and other planets tilt only moderately or not ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 7, 2026
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On Mother's Day weekend in May 2024, Earth experienced its most powerful geomagnetic storm in two decades, spawning auroras—the ribbony bands of light in the nighttime skies in the Northern and Southern hemispheres—that may ...
Astronomy
Aug 7, 2026
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A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has captured a massive stream of gas—one trillion miles, or 0.2 light-years, long—feeding the young triple-star system GW Orionis. These ...
Astronomy
Aug 6, 2026
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Deep inside super-Earths—rocky planets with masses between 1 and 10 times that of Earth—high pressure can cause familiar minerals to take forms rarely seen on Earth. Understanding more about the temperature and pressure conditions ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 6, 2026
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High-energy particles in Earth's radiation belt can appear to spread out randomly, even when they are moving in a "predictable" way. This is because spacecraft observations naturally blur the fine-scale structure of the particle ...
Astronomy
Aug 6, 2026
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