If you push two metal plates together on Earth, nothing happens. But if you take those same plates into the vacuum of space, they can fuse into a single piece of metal. This phenomenon, called cold welding, has been a known hazard for spacecraft engineers for a long time. So what’s actually happening at the … Read more
Astronauts could complete a round trip to Mars in less than a year someday, potentially cutting current mission timelines in half, according to a new study that drew inspiration from asteroid trajectories. Under current mission profiles, reaching Mars, which is located about 50% farther from the sun than Earth is, takes roughly seven to 10 … Read more
Scientists may have detected more than 10,000 never-before-seen exoplanets in a single survey, potentially tripling the number of known alien worlds in one fell swoop. The record-breaking haul was possible thanks to a new algorithm that helped researchers analyze more than 80 million stars — revealing subtle clues that would otherwise be “impossible” for us … Read more
Mars is out; the moon is in. And this time, we may be going there to stay. On March 24, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced new plans to build a “sustained human presence” on the moon, complete with a permanent lunar base. Construction of humanity’s new home away from Earth could begin as soon as … Read more
The sun has been Earth’s constant companion ever since our planet emerged. But if the sun were to suddenly disappear, what would happen to our home planet? To understand the fate of a sunless Earth, it’s important to know how both arose. The sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago, when a massive spinning cloud … Read more
Going to space is harsh on the human body, and as a new study from our research team finds, the brain shifts upward and backward and deforms inside the skull after spaceflight. The extent of these changes was greater for those who spent longer in space. As NASA plans longer space missions, and space travel … Read more
New evidence of ancient rivers suggests Mars may have been a “blue planet,” thanks to an ocean spanning its entire northern hemisphere. Cameras from several Mars orbiters captured the dusty remnants of apparent river deltas, which were described in research published Jan. 7 in the journal NPJ Space Exploration. The team, led by researchers at … Read more
NASA recently revealed the first pictures of its newly constructed Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which could soon help researchers hunt for exoplanets, map the Milky Way and unravel some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, such as the true nature of dark matter. Experts have also revealed the most probable launch date for the next-generation … Read more
What if some of the alien worlds we’ve discovered are not actually planets at all? Astronomers have spent years cataloging thousands of worlds orbiting distant stars, assuming that if something has the mass of a planet and exerts a gravitational pull on its parent star, it must be a planet. But there may be a … Read more
The interiors of Uranus and Neptune may be rockier than scientists previously thought, a new computational model suggests — challenging the idea that the planets should be called “ice giants.” The new study, published Dec. 10 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, may also help to explain the planets’ puzzling magnetic fields. Uranus and Neptune … Read more
