Universe Today

Over the course of a brief two-hour opportunity, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a rare close look at Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter that’s thought to harbor a hidden ocean — and perhaps an extraterrestrial strain of marine life. Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, but this week brought the best opportunity to look … Continue reading "Mysterious Europa Gets an Extreme Closeup From NASA’s Juno Probe" The post Mysterious Europa Gets an Extreme Closeup From NASA’s Juno Probe appeared first on Universe Today....

It only takes a quick look at the Moon to see its impact-beaten surface. There are craters everywhere. Some of those impact sites apparently date back to the same time some very large asteroids were whacking Earth. One of them formed Chixculub Crater under the Yucatan Peninsula. That impact set in motion catastrophic events that … Continue reading "The Moon was Pummeled by Asteroids at the Same Time the Dinosaurs Died. Coincidence?" The post The Moon was Pummeled by Asteroids at the Same Time the Dinosaurs Died. Coincidence? appeared first on Universe Today....

What happens when you whack a little asteroid with an even littler spacecraft? People around the world watched on the 26th of September when the DART mission smashed into the side of Dimorphos. This tiny worldlet is a companion asteroid to Didymos. It was the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a … Continue reading "DART Impact Seen by Hubble and Webb" The post DART Impact Seen by Hubble and Webb appeared first on Universe Today....

NASA and SpaceX say they’ll conduct a feasibility study into a plan to reboost the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope to a more sustainable orbit, potentially at little or no cost to NASA. The plan could follow the model set by last year’s Inspiration4 mission, an orbital trip that was facilitated by SpaceX and paid for … Continue reading "NASA and SpaceX Will Study Low-Cost Plan to Give Hubble a Boost" The post NASA and SpaceX Will Study Low-Cost Plan to Give Hubble a Boost appeared first on Universe Today....

The ESA just released a video that shows the DART mission impacting the double-asteroid system of Didymos and Dimorphos. The post The First Telescope Images of DART's Impact are Starting to Arrive appeared first on Universe Today....

LEAP (Legged Exploration of the Aristarchus Plateau) is a mission concept study, funded by ESA, to explore challenging lunar terrains using ANYmal, developed at ETH Zürich and its spin-off ANYbotics. Credit: ETH Zürich/Robotics Systems Labs (RSL) The post Robots Might Jump Around to Explore the Moon appeared first on Universe Today....

Scientists at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) have devised an ingenious way to combat the growing problem of space debris. The team fitted a drag sail to a Long March 2 rocket and successfully launched it in July this year. Rocket launches often leave discarded booster stages in low-earth orbit, adding to the … Continue reading "China uses drag sail to clear up space junk successfully.  " The post China uses drag sail to clear up space junk successfully.   appeared first on Universe Today....

A NASA scientist is finding newly formed lakes in Alaska that are belching greenhouse gases at a high rate. The main one is methane, a gas many people use in their natural gas-fueled grills. She’s tracking these emissions in one of Earth’s most remote regions—the Arctic. It has millions of lakes, many of them hundreds … Continue reading "Alaska Has New Lakes. Unfortunately, They’re Releasing a lot of Methane" The post Alaska Has New Lakes. Unfortunately, They’re Releasing a lot of Methane appeared first on Universe Today....

Jupiter's upper atmosphere should be pretty cold, but it is surprisingly quite hot. The post Jupiter’s Atmosphere is Surprisingly Hot appeared first on Universe Today....