CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Two astronauts who were supposed to be back on Earth weeks ago said Wednesday they are confident the Boeing space capsule can bring them back safely despite a series of nasty glitches. NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams boarded Boeing’s new Starliner capsule early last month, the first humans … Read more
China is planning its first mission to hit an asteroid in the name of planetary defense. The mission will serve a dual purpose: one craft will hit the asteroid while its partner observes the space rock to learn more about the solar system and its formation. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) mission may have … Read more
You can imagine what thoughts go through an astronaut’s mind when he or she looks at our planet from space. But I think that ‘that’s still far away’ might be a good option. But for 62-year-old former NASA space cadet Ron Garan, there was only one thing on his mind… the “sobering realization” that we … Read more
This article was originally published on The conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com Expert Voices: Opinion Pieces and Insights. Alan Cooper is a professor at Charles Sturt University Pavle Arsenovic is a senior scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Science (BOKU). The remarkable aurora borealis in early May this year … Read more
Scientists have confirmed that time passes faster on the moon than on Earth, which has implications for future space missions. Because the Moon’s gravity is one-sixth that of Earth’s, this affects the speed at which time moves. NASA scientists have determined that time passes 57 millionths of a second faster on the moon than on … Read more
Source: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain According to a study by the University of Michigan, up to 60% of objects near Earth could be dark comets. These are mysterious asteroids that orbit the sun in our solar system and probably contain or once contained ice. These asteroids could have been one of the routes for delivering water … Read more
When we think of unexpected events, asteroid impacts are usually pretty low on the list. After all, it is highly unlikely that a large asteroid will hit Earth in the near future. Given the potential catastrophic damage such an event could cause, NASA experts have made preparing for this distant possibility a priority. Every two … Read more
Fuzzy new photos of a mountain-sized asteroid, a ‘planet killer’ that recently reached its closest approach to Earth in more than a century have revealed a surprising new feature of the giant space rock: it has a secret mini-moon. Asteroid 2011 UL21 is a possibly dangerousnear-Earth object previously estimated to be anywhere from 1.1 to … Read more
NASA tracked two near-Earth asteroids, gathering vital data on their trajectories and physical characteristics using radar technology that supports ongoing planetary defense efforts. (Artistic concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com Deep Space Network’s Goldstone planetary radar had a busy few days observing asteroids 2024 MK and 2011 UL21 as they safely passed by Earth. Researchers at NASA‘s Jet … Read more
NASA has captured photos and videos of the two massive asteroids that passed by our planet a few weeks ago. The two asteroids, 2011 UL21 and 2024 MK, passed by Earth on June 27 and 29 respectively and were captured by NASA’s Deep Space Network’s Goldstone planetary radar. While 2011 UL21 flew past us at … Read more