Latest science news in Astronomy & Space

NASA uncovers shattered remains of Japanese lunar lander that mysteriously disappeared on April 25

25 weeks ago from Live Science

Japan's private Hakuto-R spacecraft broke into at least four large pieces of debris, according to new images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Virgin Galactic completes final test flight ahead of taking paying customers to space

25 weeks ago from CBC: Technology & Science

Virgin Galactic completed what's expected to be its final test flight Thursday before taking paying customers on brief trips to space, marking what the space tourism company described as a...

The brightest supernova in years could help astronomers forecast future star explosions

25 weeks ago from Space.com

The close proximity of supernova 2023ifx and the amount of observations gathered since its discovery may lead to major advances in stellar death forecasting.

South Korea's homegrown Nuri rocket launches 8 satellites on 3rd-ever mission (photo)

25 weeks ago from Space.com

South Korea's Nuri rocket launched on its third-ever mission on Thursday (May 25), successfully delivering eight small satellites to orbit.

Big guns lured from barns for big Memorial Day weekend of horse racing

25 weeks ago from UPI

Equine stars including Country Grammer, C Z Rocket and Echo Zulu will be celebrating Memorial Day weekend on race tracks across the continent; other big races run in Japan, Hong...

An amateur astronomer spotted a new supernova remarkably close to Earth

25 weeks ago from PopSci

The Messier 101 galaxy, aka the Pinwheel galaxy, is home to the exploded star. Hubble Image: NASA, ESA Million of years ago, before land connected Earth’s North and South American continents, about 21...

Earth from Space: São Paulo, Brazil

25 weeks ago from European Space Agency

Image: This radar image from Copernicus Sentinel-1 shows the city of São Paulo and part of the homonymous state in southeast Brazil.

Rocket Lab successfully launches 2 NASA weather-tracking satellites

25 weeks ago from UPI

Rocket Lab successfully launched a second batch of NASA weather-tracking satellites into space from New Zealand late Thursday after the mission had suffered repeated weather delays earlier in the week.

Milky Way's cosmic neighbors help bring ancient galaxies into focus

25 weeks ago from Space.com

Astronomers are snooping on the Milky Way's galactic neighbors to gain insights about the ancient galaxies being viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Bird brains can flick switch to perceive Earth's magnetic field  

25 weeks ago from Physorg

Earth's magnetic field, generated by the flow of molten iron in the planet's inner core, extends out into space and protects us from cosmic radiation emitted by the sun. It...

Watch: Kyle Gallner, Holland Roden haunted in 'Mother May I?'

25 weeks ago from UPI

Dark Sky Films released the trailer for the horror movie "Mother May I?" Thursday. The film starring Kyle Gallner and Holland Roden is in theaters and VOD July 21.

A rare type of black hole never proven to exist could be orbiting our galaxy right now, Hubble telescope reveals

25 weeks ago from Live Science

A potential intermediate-mass black hole may be lurking in Messier 4, the nearest globular star cluster to Earth, new Hubble data reveals.

Today is Towel Day! Salute the legacy of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' author Douglas Adams

25 weeks ago from Space.com

Towel Day is dedicated to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams

New supernova thrills astronomers and skywatchers around the world (photos)

25 weeks ago from Space.com

A star explosion in deep space is visible in amateur telescopes, although folks have had to battle low lighting conditions, haze and the occasional satellite trail to see it in...

Virgin Galactic aces final test spaceflight, eyes start of commercial service in June

25 weeks ago from Space.com

Virgin Galactic aced its fifth test flight to suborbital space this morning (May 25), keeping the company on track to start commercial operations next month.

New methods will allow for better tests of Einstein's general theory of relativity using LIGO data

25 weeks ago from Physorg

Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity describes how the fabric of space and time, or spacetime, is curved in response to mass. Our sun, for example, warps space around us...

Virgin Galactic resumes spaceflights after two year pause

25 weeks ago from Physorg

Virgin Galactic successfully carried out its first spaceflight in nearly two years Thursday, the company said, after an "enhancement period" to make safety upgrades to its fleet.

Project helps to improve forensic shoeprint scanning accuracy

25 weeks ago from Physorg

Research involving the University of Huddersfield is helping to improve accuracy in the field of forensic comparison.

Raging 'polar vortex' discovered over Uranus' north pole for 1st time

25 weeks ago from Live Science

A polar cyclone is swirling on Uranus, further showing that the planet's atmosphere is a hive of hidden activity.

New research offers insight into fast radio bursts

25 weeks ago from Physorg

Researchers using a telescope owned and operated by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, have detected a "fast radio burst" in a nearby galaxy that questions what we know about how...

Strange star system may hold first evidence of an ultra-rare 'dark matter star'

25 weeks ago from Space.com

In a distant star system, a sunlike star orbits an invisible object that may be the first example of a 'boson star' made of dark matter, new research suggests.

Gravitational wave lab LIGO roars back online to detect the oldest black hole collisions ever seen

25 weeks ago from Live Science

LIGO has been upgraded to observe gigantic black hole mergers 5 billion light-years away.

Astronomers discover a key planetary system for understanding formation mechanism of mysterious 'super-Earths'

25 weeks ago from Physorg

A study led by researchers of the University of Liège and the CSIC—using observations from NASA's TESS telescope—presents the detection of a system of two planets slightly larger than Earth...

The soot line: A new way to expand the search for habitable planets

25 weeks ago from Physorg

A University of Michigan astronomer and his team are suggesting a new way to expand the search for habitable planets that takes into account a zone not previously considered: the...

Meteorites and volcanoes may have helped jump-start life on Earth

25 weeks ago from Space.com

Iron particles from meteorites and volcanoes could have catalyzed chemical reactions to form some of the organic compounds essential for life.

Helium nuclei research advances our understanding of cosmic ray origin and propagation

25 weeks ago from Physorg

Much of our understanding of the universe and its mysterious phenomena is based on theoretical interpretations. In order to deepen the understanding of distant objects and energetic phenomena, astronomers are...

Picking up lightsabres for Mars

25 weeks ago from European Space Agency

Video: 00:02:10 Detect, fetch and collect. A seemingly easy task is being tested to find the best strategy to collect samples on the martian surface, some 290 000 million km away from...

'Barbie' soundtrack to feature Dua Lipa, Karol G, Lizzo

25 weeks ago from UPI

"Barbie the Album," a soundtrack to the "Barbie" movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, will feature Dua Lipa, Ice Spice, Karol G, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj and other artists.