Space

A new study offers a radically different explanation for one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s most puzzling discoveries, proposing that the mysterious objects known as Little Red Dots are neither galaxies nor standard black holes but something stranger still: hierarchically nested supermassive stars. The model, published by Pau Amaro Seoane and accepted for publication […]

A fast-moving wildfire swept through NASA’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) in Robledo de Chavela, Spain, on Friday, July 24, forcing the complete evacuation of the facility and temporarily knocking one of the agency’s three global deep-space communications nodes offline. All 90 personnel at the site, located about 65 kilometers (37 miles) west of […]

Peering Inside the Ring: New Spectral Maps Reveal M87’s Black Hole in Unprecedented Detail The iconic ring of light around the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87 is not a uniform glow. A new study combining data from two global networks of radio telescopes has mapped how the ring’s radiation changes with […]

Struck by Lightning Mid-Flight, a Chinese Rocket Still Delivered Its Satellite to Orbit A Long March 3B rocket climbing out of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on July 23 was hit by a lightning strike approximately 30 seconds after liftoff. Amateur footage from a nearby viewing area captured the moment and quickly spread across Chinese […]

Mars Express Spots Dunes That Look Like Liquid Metal Rolling Across an Ancient Crater An image from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter shows what appears to be a pool of liquid metal frozen mid-ripple across the floor of an ancient impact basin. The metallic sheen is an optical illusion, but the geology behind […]

NASA’s CAPSTONE 02 Will Test Robotic Docking and Autonomous Navigation Around the Moon Featured image: Artist’s rendering of two CAPSTONE 02 spacecraft performing rendezvous operations in cislunar orbit. Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center NASA has greenlit CAPSTONE 02, a two-spacecraft technology demonstration mission that will test the autonomous navigation, rendezvous, and robotic docking techniques needed to […]

DARPA’s Twin-Armed Robot Heads to Geosynchronous Orbit to Service Satellites in Flight Featured image: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral carrying Northrop Grumman’s Mission Robotic Vehicle. Credit: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now The most capable robotic satellite servicer ever built is now on its way to geosynchronous orbit. Northrop Grumman’s Mission Robotic Vehicle […]

Gravitational Wave Data Reveals Most Luminous Red Novae Don’t End in Neutron Star Mergers For the first time, astronomers have used gravitational wave observations to put hard numbers on what happens when stars in a binary system tear each other apart in spectacular fashion. The answer is surprising: the vast majority of these events produce […]

Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation constellation has grown stronger with the official entry into service of two new satellites, leaving only four first-generation spacecraft remaining to be launched. SAT 33 and SAT 34, launched together on an Ariane 6 rocket on December 17 last year, received their operational authorization from the EU Space Programme Security Accreditation […]

The European Union has ordered a 24-hour delay on the release of certain satellite imagery from its Copernicus Earth observation program over the Gulf of Oman, acceding to a U.S. request tied to the ongoing conflict with Iran. The decision, signed July 13 by Council President Kaja Kallas and confirmed in a July 20 Council […]