Space, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2022

How did the Milky Way form?

The exact origins of the Milky Way are shrouded in mystery. But astronomers believe that our home galaxy started out more than 13 billion years ago, and that it was much smaller than its present-day size. How did it grow so much to reach its current size? For that, we...

Nov 30, 2022

Orion capsule bounces off atmosphere to complete hottest and fastest reentry ever, capping off NASA's Artemis 1 mission

NASA's Orion capsule has survived the hottest and fastest reentry ever performed by a spacecraft by intentionally skipping off the atmosphere before splashing down off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The uncrewed capsule, which launched Nov. 16 atop the 30-story Space Launch System mega moon rocket as part of...

Nov 30, 2022

Uncontrollable coolant leak on Russian ISS capsule puts future missions in jeopardy

An uncontrolled coolant leak on a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station had damaged the crew capsule, Russia's space agency Roscosmos has said in a statement. On Wednesday (Dec. 14) at 7:45 p.m. EST (0045 GMT on Dec. 15), a violent coolant leak on Russia's Soyuz MS-22...

Oct 31, 2022

Lopsided star cluster may disprove Newton and Einstein, controversial new study claims

Astronomers observing star clusters in our galaxy have found evidence that controversially challenges Newton's laws of gravity and could upend our understanding of the universe. The puzzling finding could support a controversial idea that does away entirely with dark matter. The researchers found this evidence by observing open star clusters,...

Sep 30, 2022

NASA's asteroid-deflection mission is a smashing success, shortens space rock's orbit by a stunning 32 minutes

A spacecraft that smashed into a small asteroid two weeks ago has redirected the space rock's orbit around its larger partner by a stunning 32 minutes — even better than NASA engineers has predicted. The results are great news for humanity's first test of its planetary defense system. On Sept....

Sep 30, 2022

The last partial solar eclipse of 2022 is today, here’s what you need to know

The moon's dark shadow will pass in front of the sun on Tuesday (Oct. 25) in a partial solar eclipse visible from most of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the western parts of Asia. The solar eclipse will begin in the U.K. at 10:08 a.m. BST (9:08 a.m....

Sep 30, 2022

Stunning (and spooky) photos of the final solar eclipse of 2022

On Tuesday (Oct. 25), the moon's shadow appeared to creep over the face of the sun during the last solar eclipse of 2022. Though the eclipse was just partial, with most viewers seeing between 40% and 60% of the sun's surface obscured by the moon at the eclipse's peak, the...

Sep 30, 2022

Gigantic radiation storms have been pummeling Earth for at least 10,000 years and could strike again, tree ring analysis reveals

A series of sudden and colossal spikes in radiation levels across Earth's history could have come from a series of unknown, unpredictable and potentially catastrophic cosmic events, a new study has revealed. Named Miyake events after the lead author of the first study to describe them, the spikes occur roughly...

Sep 30, 2022

Adorable 'smiling' sun could batter Earth with geomagnetic storms this weekend

They say that when you smile, the world smiles with you. And when the sun smiles, the world gets bathed in plasma barf. Such is the unfortunate subtext of an adorable new image of our closest star, which seems to be smiling down upon us with a joyful chibi grin....

Aug 31, 2022

NASA scrubs second Artemis 1 launch attempt

NASA has called off the maiden launch of its 'mega moon rocket', a brand new spacecraft built for exploration and colonization of the solar system, for the second time this week. A crowd of 400,000 people turned up to watch the Artemis 1 rocket scheduled launch from the Kennedy Space...

Jul 31, 2022

Huge, potentially disruptive sunspot will swing round to face Earth this weekend

A huge sunspot on the far side of the sun is set to face Earth this weekend, potentially lashing our planet with a geomagnetic storm. The spot is so big it's changing the way the sun vibrates, according to spaceweather.com. If the dark spot hurls a blob of plasma at...

Jul 31, 2022

Is Earth getting closer to the sun, or farther away?

The sun moves in such a predictable way across the sky that you might never suspect that its relationship with Earth is changing all the time. In fact, the average distance between Earth and the sun is not static year over year. So do we know if Earth is getting...

Jul 31, 2022

'STEVE' descends on North America after surprise solar storm

In the dark of Sunday night and Monday morning (Aug. 7 and 8), a surprise solar storm slammed into Earth, showering our planet in a rapid stream of charged particles from the sun. The resulting clash of solar and terrestrial particles in Earth's atmosphere caused stunning auroras to appear at...

Jul 31, 2022

Europa's icy shell may be made from pure underwater snow

The shell of Jupiter's famous ice moon may be formed, in part, by pure underwater snow that floats up instead of falling down. A new study, published in the August issue of the journal Astrobiology, finds that Europa's icy crust might be built partially by frazil ice, a fluffy accumulation...

Jul 31, 2022

NASA calls off Artemis 1 moon rocket launch over engine cooling issue

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An engine cooling issue on NASA's giant new rocket for deep-space exploration forced the agency to call off the booster's much-anticipated launch debut early Monday (Aug. 29). NASA had mostly fueled its first Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket to launch the Artemis 1 moon mission on...