Space exploration News
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Sydney -
How do you feel about corporate-built, corporate operated settlements on the Moon? This very two dimensional idea is now rattling around as a great new option, with the usual lack of responsible thought and practical considerations.
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Understanding and exploring space is one of the greatest challenges facing humankind. We might not need to work alone though, as new artificial intelligence systems are helping to process vast quantities of information and assist human research.
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One of the most distinguished records in the increasingly-space-bound United States is an astronaut’s cumulative days logged in space.
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Beijing -
China announced the completion of the construction of the world’s largest radio telescope that will boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life.
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Pasadena -
The latest images of Ceres, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, show sections of this mysterious dwarf planet in breathtaking detail.
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NASA will be putting on a light show Wednesday night using a barium and strontium lasers to test the viability of some new rocket tech, and to get a glimpse at naturally occurring ion flows.
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Pasadena -
NASA announced in a press release on July 30th that they had found the closest rocky planet outside our solar system. It's only 21 light years away.
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Aberdeen -
A further clue in the search for life on Mars has emerged after a team of scientists discovered traces of methane in Martian meteorites.
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Pasadena -
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft makes what will be its last close approach to Saturn’s oddly shaped moon, Hyperion, today, Sunday, May 31.
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Pasadena -
Trials have now started on NASA’s next piece of Mars wizardry, a stationary lander scheduled to head off to the Red Planet, March 2016.
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Pasadena -
NASA scientists using instrumentation on board NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover have discovered nitrogen on the Martian surface for the first time.
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Green Bank -
As a planet, Venus, shrouded in thick clouds of carbon dioxide, doesn’t lend itself to visual observation. To lift the veil on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, spacecraft such as NASA’s Magellan probe use radar to penetrate Venus' clouds.
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Greenbelt -
After a stuttering start before repairs to an out-of-focus lens enabled astronomers to realise the Hubble Space Telescope’s full potential, Hubble has returned a multitude of spectacular images, allowing us to see the Universe as never before seen.
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It isn't the rocky cold surface of Mars that could be humanity's next home. A NASA project wants to make Venus's atmosphere humanity's next home.
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Fairfax -
A group of American researchers suggest astronomers could soon discover exoplanets — planets orbiting other stars — so deformed by gravity that they appear stretched out.
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Man's exploration of Mars started on Nov. 5, 1964 with the launch of the ill-fated Mariner 3 spacecraft. When it died after almost nine hours in flight, Mariner 4 was launched on Nov. 28. It was the first spacecraft to successfully make a flyby of Mars.
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Berne -
The projected landing site where the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta comet lander is due to make comet-fall next week now has a name.
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Moscow -
Officials with the Russian Federal Space Agency have announced plans to begin full-scale Moon exploration within the next 15 to 20 years.
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Moscow -
Planetary geologists report evidence that Jupiter’s moon Europa shows signs of plate tectonics, shaping and moulding the moon’s surface similar to geological activity on Earth.
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The European Space Agency's Rosetta Comet mission has chosen five likely landing sites for its Philae's lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The lander is scheduled to descend down to the comet's nucleus in November.
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Arlington -
Hardly a week passes these days without scientists and astronomers reporting on the discovery of a new exoplanet — a planet outwith our solar system.
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Paris -
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) comet-chaser mission, already 10 years in transit, has rendezvoused with its target the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet. The ESA Rosetta probe enters orbit around the comet today, Wednesday.
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Washington -
NASA’s successor to the Mars Curiosity rover will head to the red planet in 2020 carrying a payload of scientific instruments that will explore Mars as never before.
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Pasadena -
Aided by two NASA telescopes, astronomers have made the most precise calculation yet of the size of an exoplanet — a planet outwith our solar system.
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Littleton -
An innovative NASA space mission with the ambitious aim of collecting samples from an asteroid in 2018 was given the green light, Wednesday.
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Leicester -
New research from an international team of astronomers from the UK's University of Leicester and the University of Arizona sheds light on how stars reaching the end of their useful life and collapsing in on themselves become polluted.
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Mars One, a not-for-profit foundation working to establish the world's first human settlement on the planet Mars, has partnered with Uwingu, a company with the primary mission of creating a personal connection between the world and space exploration.
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NASA hopes to launch a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, the solar system's most likely heavenly body to hold alien life, by 2025.
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Warwick -
The European Space Agency announced Wednesday that a new space-based observatory to search for planets orbiting alien stars will form the third plank of the ESA’s medium-class (M-class) science missions.
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Tucson -
NASA and the Planetary Society have issued a global invitation to individuals to have their names etched on a microchip that will be on board a spacecraft launching in 2016. The spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu two years later.
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Space exploration Image
Dunes in an ancient Martian valley, Mawrth Vallis, remarkably similar in shape to the Star Trek logo, appear to march across the surface of Mars. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Europa, Jupiter's ice covered satellite, as seen by the Galileo spacecraft. Europa is about 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) in diameter, or about the size of Earth's moon. The image was taken on September 7, 1996, at a range of 677,000 kilometers. Wikimedia Commons
The range of Hasselblad cameras used on Apollo missions to the moon. The Hasselblad to be auctioned, used on the Apollo 15 mission is similar to that shown bottom right. NASA/Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Comparing the size of the James Webb Space Telescope due for launch in 2018 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wikimedia Commons - Bobarino
An artist’s impression of a stretched rocky planet in orbit around a red dwarf star. So close to the star, there is a difference in the strength of the gravitational field on each side of the planet, stretching it significantly. Royal Astronomical Society - Shivam Sikroria.
This rendering shows the size of GJ 1214b and another, larger exoplanet compared to Earth and Neptune. Researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on the alien world of GJ 1214b. NASA & ESA
Artist's impression of the stationary NASA Mars lander, known by the acronym InSight, studying the interior of Mars. The InSight mission (for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is scheduled to launch in March 2016, landing on Mars 6 months later. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Valles Marineris on Mars ESA DLR Mars Express
When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrives at asteroid Bennu, it will study the asteroid from a distance before swooping down and grabbing a sample. On board of the craft will be the names of everybody participating in the "Messages to Bennu!" campaign. NASA/University of Arizona
An image provided by NASA of the lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) NASA Ames
Envisat image features a cloud-free France acquired this image on 15 August 2009. European Space Agency
A false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole. The eye of a hurricane-like storm appears dark red while the fast-moving hexagonal jet stream framing it is a yellowish green. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
Ariane 5 solid booster is the main workhorse of the European Space Agency Tom Page
An artist's impression of exoplanet GJ 1214b. Researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world. NASA, ESA, & G. Bacon/STScI, STScI-PRC14-06
Panorama of the Swann Range of hills on lunar surface taken by Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin with the Hasselblad camera that is to be auctioned. NASA
Panoramic View From 'Rocknest' Position of Curiosity Mars Rover:
A mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera on NASA Mars rover Curiosity while the rover was working at a site called "Rocknest" in October & November 2012. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
Happier days: A Sea Launch platform launch in 2009 putting an Italian SIRCAL satellite into geostationary orbit Wikimedia Commons - via jurvetson on Flickr
The ESA's Gaia satellite will measure the positions of a very large number of stars with unprecedented accuracy. The distances and motions of stars in the Milky Way will be determined with extraordinary precision, allowing astronomers to determine our Galaxy's 3-dimensional structure, space velocities of its constituent stars and, from these data, further our understanding of our Galaxy's origin and evolution. European Space Agency - ESA Gaia Project
Artist's impression of possible wandering exoplanet designated CFBDSIR2149 European Southern Observatory
NASA's Dawn spacecraft viewed this Cerean crater, which is covered in ridges and steep slopes, called scarps on Dec. 23, 2015. Such likely resulted when the crater partly collapsed during its formation. The curvilinear nature of the scarps resembles those on the floor of Rheasilvia, the giant impact crater on Vesta, which Dawn orbited from 2011 to 2012.
The 20-mile-wide (32-kilometer-wide) crater is located just west of the larger, named crater Dantu at northern mid-latitudes on Ceres. NASA/JPL
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