What do you do after you’ve been to the Moon and back? If you are the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission, you can meet the president of the United States and the Canadian prime minister, and even talk show host Oprah Winfrey. The Artemis II flight in April captured the world’s attention when four
Reflect Orbital aims to redirect sunlight towards the night areas of the Earth.Credit: Jesper Klausen/Scientific Photo Library A risky plan to turn night into day is one step closer to reality. Last week, U.S. officials approved a mission to launch a giant mirror into space, where the device will reflect sunlight onto shadowed parts of
Artist’s impression of an exoplanet orbiting its star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists have discovered a rocky planet that likely has an atmosphere and could support life. In an article published today in Science1Researchers report their observations of helium escaping from the atmosphere of a rocky exoplanet called LHS 1140b. The finding indicates that LHS 1140b has
The Mayan temple of Tikal in Guatemala is about a day’s walk from Xultun, where researchers discovered mathematical formulas scrawled on the walls.Credit: Kryssia Campos/Getty A mathematical formula inscribed on a wall at the Mayan site of Xultún in Guatemala has revealed for the first time the name of an important Mayan mathematician and astronomer.
Researchers found a four-carbon sugar called erythrulose in a cloud of gas and dust at the center of the Milky Way (Spitzer Space Telescope image shown here).Credit: NASA, Caltech, Susan Stolovy (SSC, Caltech) Call it an extra sweet discovery. Astronomers have detected a sugar molecule swirling within a cloud of gas and dust near the
Last September, JWST took this image of a protostellar jet on the outskirts of the Milky Way. From tip to tip, the jet extends about twice the distance from the Sun to its nearest neighboring star system, α Centauri.Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Of the black holes