outer space

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Pentagon: Nothing to See Here About Extraterrestrials

DOD reviewed decades' worth of UFO probes, found no evidence of alien technology, cover-ups

(Newser) - For at least two years, the Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office has been reviewing nearly eight decades of government probes into alleged sightings of UFOs (also called UAPs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena) and other alleged extraterrestrial happenings, and on Friday, the office released a lengthy, 60-page-plus report on...

NASA Watched 'Helplessly' as 2 Satellites Got Perilously Close

Space agency's TIMED spacecraft, defunct Russian satellite came within 65 feet of each other last week

(Newser) - Last week, a NASA satellite "almost got clobbered high above Earth." That's the scoop from Space.com , which reports on a near collision last Wednesday between the space agency's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) research spacecraft, which has been in space studying data since...

NASA Hits the Jackpot on Its 'Rubble Return Goal'

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned double the expected samples from asteroid Bennu

(Newser) - NASA finally has counted up all the asteroid samples returned by a spacecraft last fall—and it's double the rubble return goal. Officials reported Thursday that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected 4.29 ounces of dust and pebbles from asteroid Bennu. That's just over half a cup and the...

Scientists Envision a Massive Space Umbrella

Idea is to protect us from the sun's solar radiation

(Newser) - Sometimes, proposals to keep the Earth cool are too complicated for non-scientists to understand. And sometimes, they're like this one: "the equivalent of a giant beach umbrella, floating in outer space." That's from the New York Times in its coverage of a proposal being floated by...

Asteroid Size of Empire State Building Is About to Fly By Earth

2008 OS7 will come within 1.7M miles of our planet on Friday, though experts assure that it won't hit us

(Newser) - An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. But it's not on a collision course with us, as it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon, per the AP . NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object...

Gravitational Wave Detector Will Be a 'Game-Changer'

2035 LISA mission will hunt for ripples in space-time

(Newser) - As part of his theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein predicated a body accelerating in space would create radiating ripples in space-time. He was, of course, correct. But he was wrong about one thing. Einstein believed gravitational waves, even those caused by the collision of massive objects, would be too...

NASA Needs Your Help Unraveling Cosmic Mysteries

Agency calls for citizen scientists to catalog pulses of gamma rays as discoveries continue

(Newser) - NASA needs your help to identify massive explosions in space. The space agency is calling on citizen scientists to become "burst chasers" by joining a project to interpret gamma-ray bursts across the universe and "decode what the universe is saying," according to a release . Huge amounts of...

This City Wants Space Aliens to Come Visit

Coded message sent to TRAPPIST-1 solar system welcoming ETs to Lexington, Kentucky

(Newser) - If you've never visited Lexington, the Kentucky city wants your business—especially if you're from out of this world. That's why the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau (aka VisitLEX) beamed a message in October to the TRAPPIST-1 solar system, described by VisitLEX as "home to the...

'We Are on Our Way to the Moon!'
Historic Moon Mission
Might Be in Peril
UPDATED

Historic Moon Mission Might Be in Peril

Private company's spacecraft develops fuel leak en route to first landing in more than 50 years

(Newser) - Updated throughout. The first US moon landing in more than 50 years was in jeopardy Monday after a private company's newly launched spacecraft developed a "critical" fuel leak. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology raced to orient its lander toward the sun so the solar panel could collect sunlight, as battery...

Tomato Mysteriously Lost in Space Turns Up 8 Months Later

Astronaut Frank Rubio, who'd been accused of eating it, is vindicated

(Newser) - In late March, astronauts aboard the International Space Station successfully harvested a batch of space-grown tomatoes, and each astronaut was given a plastic baggie with a sample. One of those tomato bags ended up floating away, with the tiny tomato still inside, and now, nearly nine months later, the missing...

Strange Object in Space: a Lost Tool Bag

You may be able to spot it with a good pair of binoculars, near the International Space Station

(Newser) - It may not be as exciting as spotting a comet in space, but it's definitely ... weirder. With a good pair of binoculars, you might be able to spot a tool bag lost by astronauts, reports Space.com . It seems that astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara were doing...

'Cosmic Beast' in Night Sky Blows Our Black Hole Away

Oldest black hole ever discovered formed just 470M years after the Big Bang

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered the oldest black hole yet, a cosmic beast formed a mere 470 million years after the Big Bang. The findings, published Monday, confirm what until now were theories that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe, per the AP . NASA's James Webb Space...

'Transitory' Visitors to Night Sky Are Coming Tonight

Southern Taurids meteor shower is at its peak, meaning you might even see a fireball

(Newser) - If you happen to see a fireball whizzing through the night sky on Monday, it's not a Don't Look Up moment (ie, no need to panic): It's simply the peak of the Southern Taurids meteor shower, which has been active since September, per NPR . Shooting stars—meteors...

Coming in June, a Comet That Will Delight 'Star Wars' Fans

The unique shape of Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks resembles the Millennium Falcon

(Newser) - A comet uniquely shaped like Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, is due to swerve near Earth this spring, and if the weather cooperates, Star Wars fans won't have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to catch a glimpse of it. Per NBC News , Comet 12/P...

Not Quite a Star, Not Quite a Planet, but Hotter Than the Sun

Scientists discover brown dwarf that's up to 90 times the size of Jupiter, nearly 14K degrees

(Newser) - Israeli researchers have stumbled on a celestial object that "is seriously confronting our notions of what's possible in the universe." That's per Science Alert , which reports on the discovery of a sweltering brown dwarf —an object that falls somewhere between planet and star, but which...

Virgin Galactic Space Tourist Bought His Ticket in 2005

The price has gone up since then

(Newser) - Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, including a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean. The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after...

Break Out the Lawn Chairs— It's Strawberry Moon Time

Saturday night, just before midnight, is when last full moon of spring will be at its peak

(Newser) - The last full moon of spring has arrived. CBS News reports that the so-called strawberry moon will grace the skies this weekend, with peak illumination on Saturday at 11:42pm ET, per NASA . Space.com notes that this particular incarnation of the moon often gives off a "warmer" light...

Spacecraft Starts Long Trip to Explore Jupiter's Moons

Mission seeks to determine whether underground oceans could support life

(Newser) - A European spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a decadelong quest to explore Jupiter and three of its icy moons that could hold buried oceans. The journey began with a perfect liftoff by the Ariane rocket from French Guiana on the coast of South America. But there were tense minutes later...

Scientists Do 180 Away From 'Weird' Theories on 'Oumuamua

They're going back to positing that interstellar visitor was a comet, albeit with gas, dust trapped

(Newser) - Was it an asteroid , a comet , a chunk of a distant planet , or an alien artifact ? All of these possibilities have been floated since the mysterious 'Oumuamua, our first known interstellar visitor, sped through our solar system in 2017. A 2021 study suggested what was previously thought to...

Here's Visual Proof That Our Asteroid Slam Worked

DART's collision with Dimorphos asteroid confirmed by 6.2K-mile-long debris trail

(Newser) - Astronomers know for certain that NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into a distant asteroid in a test of whether Earth-threatening space rocks might be diverted, because that asteroid is spewing a whole lot of rock and dust. Two days after the Sept. 26 Double Asteroid Redirection Test, a telescope in...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>
Most Read on Newser