Teams of scientist are vying to find the hypothetical Planet X in the distant reaches of the solar system.
Jul 7, 2020Thousands participated in calling attention to barriers that keep black people out of science.
Jun 16, 2020Congress isn't sold on the idea that NASA should or can return to the Moon in four years.
Feb 18, 2020Billionaires and political leaders are vying to land on the Moon, colonize Mars or mine asteroids
Updated Jan 1, 2019Artist's impression of an exoplanet. Photo: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick
For the first time, scientists have found the core of a dead planet orbiting a star 730 light-years from Earth.
Why it matters: Our solar system only has a few types of planets by comparison to the diversity of worlds out there orbiting other stars. Finding this bizarre world adds to that tapestry — and opens up new avenues for discovery.
Earth as seen from orbit. Photo: NASA
Amazon Web Services announced last week it is forming a business division focused on helping government and commercial space entities become more agile and flexible by making use of the cloud.
The big picture: The new division — called the Aerospace and Satellite Solutions business segment — further solidifies Amazon's push into the space sector.
Artist's illustration of a Chameleon satellite. Image: Hypergiant Industries
A planned network of satellites — called the Chameleon Constellation — represents a new, flexible way of building and using fleets of satellites.
Why it matters: At the moment, it takes years, if not decades, to build and deploy satellite constellations in part because of the software and hardware development that needs to happen on the ground ahead of launch.
The dusty new planetary systems. Photo: Thomas Esposito/UC Berkeley
A series of photos of young stars with disks of planet-forming debris around them shows the rich diversity of how distant worlds form in our galaxy.
Why it matters: Researchers have been piecing together how our solar system came to be for decades, but being able to look out at other stars with their own new systems of planets can help turn back the clock to understand the evolution of our solar system and others like never before.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
China’s commercial space ambitions stretch far beyond the industry’s current domestic focus, with plans to use private space capabilities to help bring Chinese influence to the world.
Why it matters: Space is a cornerstone of the global race for tech supremacy, and China wants to dominate from both a governmental and commercial standpoint.
A miniaturized source of quantum entanglement. Photo: Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore
A nanosatellite can be used to produce a detectable quantum signal in space, researchers report.
Why it matters: Researchers envision creating global quantum communications networks, but quantum signals can't currently be transmitted long distances. Constellations of small, relatively less-expensive satellites that beam the signals from space to receivers on Earth have been proposed as a way to circumvent the problem.
Artist’s impression of the multiplanetary system of planets orbiting GJ 887. Credit: Mark Garlick
A small star only 11 light-years from our solar system may play host to a clutch of planets, one of which might be suitable for life.
Why it matters: Because this star and its planets are relatively nearby, they're great candidates for follow-up studies that could one day allow scientists to peer into their atmospheres and figure out exactly what they're made of.
Mathmatician Mary Jackson, the first Black woman engineer at NASA poses for a photo at work at NASA Langley Research Center in 1977 in Hampton, Va. Photo: Bob Nye/NASA/Donaldson Collection/Getty Images
NASA will rename its headquarters in Washington, D.C., after Mary Jackson, the agency's first Black female engineer, administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: Jackson was among the significant figures in NASA's history, serving in the computing unit during the space race while it was still segregated. Jackson — along with three other Black women, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden and Dorothy Vaughan — was depicted in the 2016 film "Hidden Figures."
Photo: NASA/ESA/J. Kastner (RIT)
Pulling back the layers of dust and gas surrounding a planetary nebula can reveal an object's history to scientists on Earth, light-years away.
The big picture: This new photo of the planetary nebula NGC 7027 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows that the object had been puffing out layers of gas in spiral or spherical patterns for hundreds of years, but that's not the case anymore.