The Sky Today on Sunday, June 21: A summertime lineup
Back to Article List Astronomical summer begins with a gorgeous lineup of lights in the evening sky, including…
Why Pluto Might Still Have A Liquid Ocean
Pluto is so cold that nitrogen and methane freeze into solid ice, yet scientists think a liquid ocean…
Artemis missions target South Pole–Aitken basin on the moon
View larger. | This globe map shows the South Pole-Aitken basin (blue) and surrounding regions. Here we see…
SpaceX Is Already Pulling Back From Its High. History Says That Is Not a Good Sign
Quick Read SpaceX surged 19% on its IPO debut, but mega-IPOs over $50 billion have historically delivered a…
‘Pink Planet’ reveals salt clouds unlike anything seen before
Some planets refuse to make life easy for astronomers. GJ504b is one of them. The planet glows faintly…
In September 1999 a NASA spacecraft that had flown 416 million miles to Mars was torn apart in the planet’s atmosphere — not by an explosion or bad luck, but by a units mix-up, one team using imperial pounds where another expected metric newtons, the same mistake that strips a bolt in a home garage.
In September 1999, a NASA spacecraft that had traveled roughly 416 million miles to reach Mars flew too…
In September 2017, after 20 years in space, NASA deliberately flew the Cassini spacecraft into Saturn and let it burn up like a meteor — not because it had failed, but because it had found a possibly habitable ocean on the moon Enceladus that a dead spacecraft could one day contaminate.
In September 2017, after twenty years in space and thirteen years orbiting Saturn, NASA pointed the Cassini spacecraft…
JPL Tests Prototype Rover for Future Moon and Mars Missions – Pasadena Now
Developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain) is used in a…
Arizona astronomers use AI to study meteors
“Modern meteor networks capture a wealth of observational information, and we wanted a framework that could fully take…
Apollo 12 was struck by lightning twice in the first 52 seconds of flight, filling the spacecraft with warning lights and turning Mission Control’s data into nonsense — until a young controller named John Aaron recognised an obscure failure pattern and calmly said: “Try SCE to Aux.”
Apollo 12 had been flying for barely half a minute when it was struck by lightning, and then…
Meteor Activity Outlook for June 20-26, 2026
Nicolas Rossetto captured this long earthgrazing Leonid fireball on November 17, 2025, at 23:47 CET (22:47 UT) from Jouhe,…
Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission and is still flying 49 years later, now so far away that in November 2026 a radio signal will take a full 24 hours to reach it — so when engineers say “good morning” on a Monday, the answer won’t arrive until Wednesday.
Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn, and forty-nine years later, it…