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What’s the recipe for a habitable exoplanet?
What combination of ingredients produce a planet that can support life? NASA has just awarded $7.7 million to Rice University for a new 5-year research program, in hopes of answering that question.
September 24, 2018
MarCO: Tiny cube satellites headed to Mars
These boxy satellites, small enough to fit in a backpack, are currently trailing thousands of miles behind the InSight spacecraft on their way to Mars.
September 24, 2018
A new way to launch rockets without fuel?
Conventional rockets - with their onboard fuel - are expensive and dangerous. A new "quantized inertia" concept might make rocket launches cheaper and safer. The concept has just received $1.3 million in new funding.
September 21, 2018
Here’s what closed Sunspot Solar Observatory
Federal court documents this week revealed an FBI investigation of a janitor suspected of using Sunspot Solar Observatory's internet connection to send and receive child pornography.
September 20, 2018
Were the 2 Magellanic Clouds once 3?
A new study suggests that the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - small satellite galaxies to our Milky Way - might have once had a 3rd companion.
September 20, 2018
Life imitates art? Astronomers find Star Trek planet Vulcan
In recent decades, astronomers and Trekkies had fun speculating on what might serve as Spock's home star. Many settled on 40 Eridani A, about 16 light-years away. Now a Vulcan-esque planet has been found for this star!
September 19, 2018
Dry ice frosts a Mars crater
The white markings here are bright residual carbon dioxide ice deposits - dry ice - on the south-facing rim of a pit crater on Mars.
September 18, 2018
TESS planet-hunter achieves 1st light
Launched last April, TESS is successor to the Kepler mission, which discovered a substantial fraction of all known exoplanets orbiting distant suns. This 1st-light image from TESS is cause for celebration. Ahoy! New worlds ahead!
September 17, 2018
Report calls for direct images of Earth-like exoplanets
A congressionally-mandated report recommends that NASA lead efforts to directly image possibly Earth-like exoplanets, using upcoming technologies. A major goal is finding habitable - maybe even inhabited - worlds.
September 16, 2018
Mars is closest to the sun today
On September 16, 2018, Mars reaches perihelion, its closest point to the sun in its 2-year orbit. Mars' brightness in July and August - and a recent global dust storm on the planet - are both linked to this event.
September 16, 2018
