• Lunar Night Permanently Ends the Odysseus Mission

    Updated: 2024-03-28 23:17:11
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in This image shows one of the Odysseus lander's legs breaking due to the shock of first contact on the moon . Credit : Intuitive Machines Posted on March 28, 2024 March 28, 2024 by Matt Williams Lunar Night Permanently Ends the Odysseus Mission On February 15th , Intuitive Machines IM launched its first Nova-C class spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket . On February 22nd , the spacecraft codenamed Odysseus or Odie” became the first American-built vehicle to soft-land on the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. While the landing was a bit bumpy Odysseus fell on its side the IM-1 mission successfully demonstrated technologies

  • Webb Joins the Hunt for Protoplanets

    Updated: 2024-03-28 20:45:23
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in This artist†s impression shows the formation of a gas giant planet embedded in the disk of dust and gas in the ring of dust around a young star . A University of Michigan study aimed the James Webb Space Telescope at a protoplanetary disk surrounding a protostar called SAO 206462, hoping to find a gas giant planet in the act of forming . Image credit : ESO L . Calà ada Posted on March 28, 2024 March 28, 2024 by Evan Gough Webb Joins the Hunt for Protoplanets We can’t understand what we can’t clearly see . That fact plagues scientists who study how planets form . Planet formation happens inside a thick , obscuring disk of gas and dust . But when it comes to seeing through

  • Hubble Sees a Star About to Ignite

    Updated: 2024-03-28 17:51:06
    This is an image of the FS Tau multi-star system taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright object at the nebula's heart is FS Tau A, a newly ignited T Tauri star, but its companion on the right side, FS Tau B, hasn't ignited yet. It's still in the process of collapsing and heating up, releasing heat from the gravitational collapse. The Harbig-Haro protostar releases jets of fast-moving energized material, visible as the blue material stretching across the nebula. The post Hubble Sees a Star About to Ignite appeared first on Universe Today.

  • Someone Just Found SOHO's 5,000th Comet

    Updated: 2024-03-28 16:33:33
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in The 5,000th comet discovered with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory SOHO spacecraft is noted by a small white box in the upper left portion of this image . A zoomed-in inset shows the comet as a faint dot between the white vertical lines . The image was taken on March 25, 2024, by SOHO†s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph LASCO which uses a disk to block the bright Sun and reveal faint features around it . Credit : NASA ESA SOHO Posted on March 28, 2024 March 28, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson Someone Just Found SOHO's 5,000th Comet The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory SOHO was designed to examine the Sun , but as a side benefit , it has been the most successful comet

  • DART Changed the Shape of Asteroid Dimorphos, not Just its Orbit

    Updated: 2024-03-28 03:50:28
    , Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA†s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on Sept . 26, 2022. Observations of the asteroid before and after impact suggest it is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object . Credit : NASA JHUAPL Posted on March 27, 2024 March 27, 2024 by Matt Williams DART Changed the Shape of Asteroid Dimorphos , not Just its Orbit On September 26th , 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test DART collided with the asteroid Dimorphos , a moonlet that orbits the larger asteroid Didymos . The purpose of this test was to evaluate a potential strategy for planetary defense . The demonstration showed that a kinetic

  • Webb Finds Deep Space Alcohol and Chemicals in Newly Forming Planetary 

    Updated: 2024-03-28 01:13:21
    Skip to content Universe Today Space and astronomy news Menu Videos Newsletter Podcast Contact Us Support Us Log in This image was taken by Webb†s Mid-InfraRed Instrument MIRI of a region parallel to the massive protostar known as IRAS23385.  IRAS 2A and IRAS23385 not visible in this image were targets for a recent research effort by an international team of astronomers that used Webb to discover that the key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds are present in early-stage protostars , where planets have not yet formed . With MIRI†s unprecedented spectral resolution and sensitivity , the JOYS+ James Webb Observations of Young ProtoStars programme individually identified organic molecules that have been confirmed to be present in interstellar ices . This includes the

  • Voyager 1’s Communication Malfunctions May Show the Spacecraft’s Age

    Updated: 2024-03-26 18:00:00
    People aren’t the only ones subjected to the aches and pains of aging. Spacecraft are too, as Voyager 1’s trip through space suggests.

  • The 'devil comet' is visible in the night sky, and is sticking around for the eclipse

    Updated: 2024-03-17 17:22:19
    Known as 12P/Pons-Brooks, the rarely seen comet prone to colorful outbursts could soon be viewed without a telescope or binoculars.

  • NASA's Search for Life on Mars Faces Issues With Rovers and Budget

    Updated: 2024-03-16 13:00:00
    The surface of Mars is cold, dry and rocky, and NASA rovers are exploring it.

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