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Georgina Torbet

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She specializes in current and future exploration of Mars. She has previously written about science, technology, and security topics for websites like SlashGear, Engadget, and Futurism. She has a master's degree in neuroscience and a PhD in psychology.

This artist's rendering shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collecting a sample from the asteroid Bennu using a mechanical arm to touch the asteroid's surface.

OSIRIS-REx mission returns asteroid sample to Earth in NASA first

The OSIRIS-REx mission released its capsule containing a sample taken from the asteroid Bennu early this morning, and it landed in the Utah desert.
Space News
NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio poses for a portrait while working inside the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory module.

How to watch record-setting NASA astronaut return to Earth this week

This Wednesday, record-breaking NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will return to Earth from the International Space Station. Here's how to watch.
Space News
This artist’s concept shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending towards asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid’s surface.

Here’s the first image of OSIRIS-REx as it approaches Earth with asteroid sample

This weekend will see the landing of NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, and telescopes on the ground have been able to track it.
Space News
Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured a picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

James Webb spots carbon dioxide on Europa, supporting theory of habitability

Europa is one of the most likely places in the solar system to support life beyond Earth, and now new findings could make that possibility more likely.
Space News
Shrouded in permanent darkness, the interior of Shackleton crater near the moon’s south pole is revealed in this stunning mosaic. The crater itself was captured by ShadowCam, a NASA instrument designed to peer into the shadowy parts of the lunar surface that has been orbiting the moon for almost a year on the South Korean spacecraft Danuri. The surrounding areas were imaged by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Portions of three of the 13 potential landing regions for astronauts during Artemis III can be seen in this image.

Here’s where NASA will land astronauts on the moon

A new image of the moon's far side shows the region selected for the landing of NASA's Artemis III mission, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface.
Space News
An illustration shows a spacecraft from NASA's DART mission approaching the asteroid it was intended to redirect.

Is that asteroid a problem? Meet the planetary defense squad that decides

Earth is surrounded by potential threats like asteroids and comets, but a team of NASA scientists is always on the lookout.
Space Features
Combined observations from NASA’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and Hubble’s WFC3 (Wide Field Camera 3) show spiral galaxy NGC 5584, which resides 72 million light-years away from Earth. Among NGC 5584’s glowing stars are pulsating stars called Cepheid variables and Type Ia supernova, a special class of exploding stars. Astronomers use Cepheid variables and Type Ia supernovae as reliable distance markers to measure the universe’s expansion rate.

New James Webb data shows that the crisis in cosmology persists

In the last few decades, one big question has created a crisis in the field of cosmology: How fast is the universe expanding?
Space News
Galactic Center X-ray

Five new images from Chandra reveal cosmic objects in X-ray wavelength

A series of five new images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show the beauty of space as seen in the X-ray wavelength.
Space News
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s high resolution, near-infrared look at Herbig-Haro 211 reveals exquisite detail of the outflow of a young star, an infantile analogue of our Sun. Herbig-Haro objects are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from newborn stars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds.

James Webb captures the stunning outflows from an infant star

A gorgeous new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a dramatic sight created by the outbursts of energy coming from a very young star.
Space News
Artist's impression of Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe.

Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe work together on a puzzle about our sun

The sun's corona, or its outer atmosphere, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, and it's still not clear exactly what that should be the case.
Space News
This illustration shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light years from Earth.

James Webb sees evidence of an ocean-covered ‘Hycean’ exoplanet

James Webb has once again peered into the atmosphere of an exoplanet, and this time it has identified indications that the planet could be covered in ocean.
Space News
This bottom up view shows the Soyuz MS-24 rocket’s first stage boosters as the spacecraft stands at its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

How to watch three astronauts launch to the ISS on Friday

On Friday, September 15, a crew of three astronauts will be launching on a Russian Soyuz rocket headed for the International Space Station. Here's how to watch.
Space News
Swift J0230 occurred over 500 million light-years away in a galaxy named 2MASX J02301709+2836050, captured here by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii.

Swift Observatory spots a black hole snacking on a nearby star

The Swift Observatory caught a new phenomenon: a black hole snacking on a star -- not totally destroying it, but pulling off material and nibbling away at it.
Space News
Scientists have used the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) in a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun’s atmosphere that has been almost impossible to image until now. By covering the Sun’s bright disc with an ‘occulter’ inside the instrument, EUI can detect the million-times fainter ultraviolet light coming from the surrounding corona.

Scientists ‘hack’ Solar Orbiter’s camera to get a better look at the sun

The instrument team for the Solar Orbiter's ultraviolet camera have found a new way to make use of the instrument to help it peer into the sun's atmosphere.
Space News
The Indian Space Research Organization's lunar lander for the Chanrayaan-3 mission.

India’s Chandrayaan 3 lander may have detected its first moonquake

India's Chandrayaan 3 only recently made its historic lunar landing, but it is already collecting intriguing new data about the moon.
Space News
This colorful image of the globular star cluster Terzan 12 is a spectacular example of how dust in space affects starlight coming from background objects.

See the sparkling Terzan 12 globular cluster in new Hubble image

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a stunning field of thousands of stars, part of a globular star cluster called Terzan 12.
Space News
Technicians at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory lower the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument into the belly of the Perseverance rover.

Perseverance rover’s Mars oxygen machine comes to the end of its mission

MOXIE is a small box inside the rover which takes in carbon dioxide and converts it into oxygen. After 16 successful runs, the experiment has been concluded.
Space News
SpaceX's Starship spacecraft during a test in June 2023.

SpaceX Starship grounded by FAA until 63 fixes are made

The FAA has completed its investigation in the explosive test flight of the Starship in April and made a list of 63 corrective steps required before it can fly.
Space News
A team of legged rovers explores a rugged surface.

This team of legged robots could be the future of Mars exploration

We've sent wheeled rovers and even helicopters to Mars, but to explore its hidden depths, it will take robotic legwork.
Space Features
Aditya-L1 ready for launch.

India will launch its first solar probe, Aditya-L1, this weekend

Following the success of its historic recent moon landing, India's space agency is launching its first solar probe this weekend.
Space News
Expedition 69 Flight Engineers (from left) Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos and Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, both from NASA, are pictured in the SpaceX pressure suits they will wear when they return to Earth aboard the company’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in September.

How to watch the Crew-6 astronauts return to Earth this weekend

Following a six month stay in space, four astronauts are readying to return home from the International Space Station this Sunday. Here's how to watch.
Space News
Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Exterior to that is diffuse emission and two faint outer rings. In this image blue represents light at 1.5 microns (F150W), cyan 1.64 and 2.0 microns (F164N, F200W), yellow 3.23 microns (F323N), orange 4.05 microns (F405N), and red 4.44 microns (F444W).

James Webb telescope captures stunning view of a famous supernova remnant

The James Webb Space Telescope has provided one of the most detailed views yet of the stunning supernova remnant SN 1987A, created from a destructive explosion.
Space News
The graceful winding arms of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 stretch across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Unlike the menagerie of weird and wonderful spiral galaxies with ragged or disrupted spiral arms, grand-design spiral galaxies boast prominent, well-developed spiral arms like the ones showcased in this image. This galactic portrait is a composite image that integrates data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).

James Webb captures the magnificent Whirlpool Galaxy in two wavelengths

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the Whirlpool Galaxy, a galaxy so picturesque it is designated a grand-design spiral galaxy.
Space News
Moonrise over the Syr Darya river in Baikonur, Kazakhstan on Nov. 13, 2016.

Tonight is your chance to observe a rare blue supermoon

Just in time for the end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, tonight will see a rare astronomical phenomenon called a blue supermoon.
Space News
Artist's illustration of TEMPO.

Pollution-tracking NASA satellite shares its first images of air quality

NASA has shared the first images from it's air pollution tracking satellite, TEMPO, which measures pollution by observing wavelengths of light.
Space News
Neptune observed with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

Neptune has a dark spot of its own, and it has been imaged from Earth

Jupiter isn't the only planet with a giant spot - Neptune has one too.
Space News
The galaxy ESO 300-16 looms over this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble captures a sparkling cloud galaxy located right next door

An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shared this week by NASA shows a nearby galaxy to us, ESO 300-16.
Space News
A rocket is launched to the International Space Station at 3:27 a.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 26, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Crew-7 astronauts launch on mission to the International Space Station

At 3:27 a.m. today, Saturday August 26, four astronauts of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission launched on a journey to the International Space Station .
Space News
xrism launch livestream artist impression of pillars 1

How to watch the XRISM X-ray mission launch on Sunday

On Sunday, August 27, a joint European and Japanese X-ray mission called XRISM will launch to uncover the mysteries of the high-energy universe.
Space News
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023. After performing a preflight "wiggle check" with its rotors, the helicopter takes off, hovers at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters), and rotates to the left, before touching back down. The mission conducted the short pop-up flight to check Ingenuity's navigation system.

See Ingenuity helicopter take to the air in video captured by Perseverance rover

NASA has released a video taken by the Perseverance rover on Mars showing its companion, the helicopter Ingenuity, in flight.
Space News
A Russian Soyuz rocket launches the Luna-25 mission.

Russian spacecraft crashes into the moon, ending lunar landing hopes

A Russian spacecraft has crashed into the moon. The plan had been for the Luna-25 spacecraft to land on the moon's surface in the area around the south pole.
Space News
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: View from the Lander Imager (LI) Camera-1 on August 17, 2023 just after the separation of the Lander Module from the Propulsion Module.

Indian spacecraft snaps images of the moon’s surface ahead of landing attempt

An Indian spacecraft which is approaching the moon's south pole recently snapped images of the lunar surface.
Space News
neptune moons dance avoidance

Clouds on Neptune might be created by the sun, strangely enough

Researchers used Hubble to observe Neptune's clouds to investigate a mystery: why sometimes the planet had plentiful clouds and at other times had barely any.
Space News
The lenticular galaxy NGC 6684 bathes this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in a pale light. Captured with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, this galaxy is around 44 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pavo. Pavo – the Latin name for peacock – is a constellation in the southern sky and one of four constellations collectively known as the Southern Birds.

Hubble images our ghostly neighborhood galaxy NGC 6684

A program called Every Known Nearby Galaxy is using Hubble to observe every galaxy located within 10 megaparsecs of Earth that has not yet been imaged.
Space News
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