Space, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2020

Mysterious asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system

There's a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth. The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the...

Oct 31, 2020

Planned satellite constellation poses a collision threat, NASA says: Reports

NASA has voiced substantial concerns about a planned constellation of broadband satellites, saying the commercial spacecraft would increase the risk of collisions in an important slice of Earth orbit. On Oct. 30, NASA submitted an official comment letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding a request by Texas-based...

Oct 31, 2020

Mars: Mounting evidence for subglacial lakes, but could they really host life?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University Venus may harbour life some 50km above its surface, we learned a couple of weeks ago. Now a new paper, published...

Oct 31, 2020

Watch a bright fireball explode over the Tasman Sea (video)

A bright green meteor streaked across the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia, and researchers caught the fireball on camera as it broke up over the ocean. The meteor lit up the night sky on Wednesday (Nov. 18) at 9:21 p.m. local Tasmanian time (5:21 a.m. EST and 1021 GMT). A...

Oct 31, 2020

A Thanksgiving sun treat: Big sunspot rotates into view

A group of sunspots has emerged on the Earth-facing side of the sun, just in time for Thanksgiving. Researchers identified the sunspots before they were even visible from Earth, via a technique called helioseismology, which uses acoustic waves beneath the sun's surface to probe for the features. We measured a...

Sep 30, 2020

Astrophysicists figure out the total amount of matter in the universe

The stuff that makes up our universe is tricky to measure, to put it mildly. We know that most of the universe's matter-energy density consists of dark energy, the mysterious unknown force that's driving the universe's expansion. And we know that the rest is matter, both normal and dark. Accurately...

Sep 30, 2020

Warm pasta helps hot, angry neutron stars cool down

Neutron stars are the angry ghosts of giant stars: hot, whirling cores of exotic matter left behind after supernovas. Like thermoses filled with hot noodle soup, it takes eons for them to cool down. But now, researchers think they know how these stars do it: with a giant helping of...

Sep 30, 2020

Elon Musk says SpaceX's 1st Starship trip to Mars could fly in 4 years

SpaceX is almost ready to start building a permanent human settlement on Mars with its massive Starship rocket. The private spaceflight company is on track to launch its first uncrewed mission to Mars in as little as four years from now, SpaceX's founder and CEO Elon Musk said Friday (Oct....

Sep 30, 2020

NASA finds water on the moon's sunlit surface for the first time

Editor's note: You can follow NASA's announcement of water on the moon live here. For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon's sunlit surface. They also found that water is more common on the moon than previously thought, with pockets of ice hiding in shadowy regions...

Sep 30, 2020

Hubble telescope spots a 'Greater Pumpkin' in space for Halloween

As families tuck into their couches to watch Charlie Brown help his friend Linus await the Great Pumpkin this Halloween, they may be surprised to hear that NASA has already discovered a greater pumpkin. Images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show what looks remarkably like a giant jack-o'-lantern in the...

Aug 31, 2020

The moon is rusty, and it’s likely Earth's fault

The moon is turning ever so slightly red, and it's likely Earth's fault. Our planet's atmosphere may be causing the moon to rust, new research finds. Rust, also known as an iron oxide, is a reddish compound that forms when iron is exposed to water and oxygen. Rust is the...

Aug 31, 2020

Laika and her crew: 'Space Dogs' documentary explores Moscow through a stray's eyes

A new film channels the spirit and traces the lineage of Laika, the first creature ever to orbit Earth. Laika, a stray dog scooped off the streets of Moscow, launched on the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2 mission in November 1957, just a month after Sputnik 1's liftoff opened the space...

Aug 31, 2020

Why is space a vacuum?

Space is an almost perfect vacuum, full of cosmic voids. And in short, gravity is to blame. But to really understand the vacuum of our universe, we have to take a moment to understand what a vacuum really is — and what it's not. So, what is a vacuum, and...

Aug 31, 2020

Earth's new minimoon might be a rocket humans launched into space in the 1960s

Earth is getting a small new moon, but it might have been made by people. Astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona first detected the object back in February as a flash of light darting across space. BIG NEWS (thread 1/3). Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon...

Aug 31, 2020

SpaceX pops Starship tank on purpose in explosive pressure test

SpaceX just popped another Starship test tank. The Starship SN7.1 tank was destroyed on purpose Tuesday night (Sept. 22) at SpaceX's South Texas facilities, during a pressure test designed to take the stainless-steel hardware to its bursting point. SpaceX has performed several other such tests, including one this past June...