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Latest by G. Torbet

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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this panorama of a hill nicknamed Bolívar and adjacent sand ridges on Aug. 23, the 3,572nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Curiosity rover investigates salty region of Mars for clues of life

It's an exciting time when a Mars rover reaches an area high in sulfates, and the Curiosity rover recently arrived at one such location on Mount Sharp.
Space News
A gas giant exoplanet [right] with the density of a marshmallow has been detected in orbit around a cool red dwarf star [left] by the NASA-funded NEID radial-velocity instrument on the 3.5-meter WIYN Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The planet, named TOI-3757 b, is the fluffiest gas giant planet ever discovered around this type of star.

Unusual puffy exoplanet has the density of marshmallow

Researchers using the Kitt Peak National Observatory have identified a puffy, low-density marshmallow planet orbiting a cool red dwarf star.
Space News
Two tails of dust ejected from the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system are seen in new images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, documenting the lingering aftermath of the NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact.

Crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid caused it to form twin tails

A few weeks ago NASA's DART mission crashed into an asteroid. Followup observations from Hubble show a surprising finding: the asteroid now has a second tail.
Space News
Artist's impression of asteroid 21 Lutetia.

30,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered — and the search is on for more

There are a whole lot of asteroids out there in our solar system, and looking for potentially dangerous asteroids is an ongoing job.
Space News
This artist’s impression shows the supergiant star Betelgeuse as it was revealed thanks to different state-of-the-art techniques on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), which allowed two independent teams of astronomers to obtain the sharpest ever views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse. They show that the star has a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System and a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface. These discoveries provide important clues to help explain how these mammoths shed material at such a tremendous rate.

Astronomers develop ‘early warning system’ for stars about to go supernova

We can't predict exactly when any given star will go supernova, but now astronomers have come up with a method to spot stars approaching this critical point.
Space News
An illustration of OSIRIS-REx returning its sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth. The sample return capsule will enter Earth’s atmosphere, cross the Western U.S., deploy its parachute, and touch down at the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range in the Great Salt Lake Desert. From there, the capsule will be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where its samples of asteroid Bennu will be curated, distributed, and studied for decades to come.

Here’s how NASA will drop off a sample of an asteroid

NASA has shared details on how exactly the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will deliver its sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth.
Space News
see lucy spacecraft slingshot past earth fly by

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft swings by Earth on its way to Trojan asteroids

This weekend, a few lucky observers were able to see NASA's Lucy spacecraft as it performed an Earth flyby before heading back out into space.
Space News
Artist’s illustration of tidal disruption event AT2019dsg where a supermassive black hole spaghettifies and gobbles down a star. Some of the material is not consumed by the black hole and is flung back out into space.

Something strange is up with this black hole

Astronomers recently discovered a totally mysterious phenomenon, where a black hole is ejecting material years after it ripped apart a star.
Space News
Shells of cosmic dust created by the interaction of binary stars appear like tree rings around Wolf-Rayet 140.

This oddball pair of stars is producing dust shells like clockwork

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted an intriguing object created by a rare pair of stars which are encircled by rings of dust.
Space News
This artist’s impression shows an ultra-hot exoplanet, a planet beyond our Solar System, as it is about to transit in front of its host star. When the light from the star passes through the planet’s atmosphere, it is filtered by the chemical elements and molecules in the gaseous layer. With sensitive instruments, the signatures of those elements and molecules can be observed from Earth. Using the ESPRESSO instrument of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found the heaviest element yet in an exoplanet's atmosphere, barium, in the two ultra-hot Jupiters WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b.

Heaviest element ever discovered in exoplanet atmospheres is a puzzle

Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope have discovered the heaviest element ever in an exoplanet atmosphere.
Space News
nas tess satellite begins exoplanet hunt orbits planet

NASA’s exoplanet hunting satellite is back up and running

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has resumed operations following a technical issue that caused it to be put into safe mode earlier this week.
Space News
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022.

NASA’s four-person Crew-4 mission splashes down safely off Florida coast

The four astronauts of NASA's Crew-4 mission have returned from the International Space Station and splashed down safely off the coast of Florida.
Space News
samsung smart refrigerator deal may 2022 last chance bespoke 4 door french feature

Save $1,100 on Samsung’s smart refrigerator in its rival Amazon sale

This smart refrigerator usually costs $4,224, but right now, you can save a massive $1,125 with the price reduced to $3,099.
Deals
Acer Aspire 3

These Laptops are Under $500 in the October Prime Day Sales

Scoop up a bargain on a new laptop with these Prime Day laptop deals that are available now for under $500.
Deals
The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 seem to float side by side in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Two interacting galaxies are warped by gravitational forces in Hubble image

Hubble snaps a pair of interacting galaxies, close enough to be distorted by tremendous gravitational forces.
Space News
Saturn's geologically active moon, Enceladus.

How we could search for life on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus

When it comes to searching for places beyond Earth where life could thrive in our solar system, some of the most intriguing targets aren't planets but moons.
Space News
X-rays from Chandra have been combined with infrared data from early publicly-released James Webb Space Telescope images.

X-ray data from Chandra gives a new view of Webb’s first images

The Chandra X-ray Observatory provides a new spin on the famous first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Space News
Artist's illustration of CAPSTONE approaching the moon.

Engineers get NASA’s CAPSTONE lunar satellite spin back under control

For the past month, NASA's CAPSTONE satellite has been spinning through space. But now, engineers have managed to get its attitude back under control.
Space News
black and white images combined to make a color image

How the James Webb Space Telescope creates images of ‘invisible’ interstellar objects

NASA doesn't just point a telescope at space and snap a photo. JWST's data needs to be translated from infrared to visible light — then it becomes an image.
Space Features
The InSight Mars lander's final selfie.

Dust storm nearly finishes off Mars lander InSight

NASA's InSight mission is dying a slow death. A recent dust storm hasn't helped.
Space News
mars orbiter mission over roundup mangalyaan 2

Groundbreaking low-cost Indian Mars mission comes to an end

Nearly a decade after its launch, India's Mars Orbiter Mission has run out of fuel and will cease operations.
Space News
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Telescope team-up sees Hubble and Webb working together

Scientists have combined data from two powerful telescopes to illuminate the dust in a distant galaxy pair.
Space News
highlights spacex mission spy satellite nrol 87

How to watch SpaceX’s delayed double satellite launch tonight

SpaceX had been set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, but this plan was derailed by a helium leak. Now, the launch will instead go ahead tonight.
Space News
Surface features of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa are revealed in an image obtained by Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) during the spacecraft’s Sept. 29, 2022, flyby.

See Jupiter’s icy moon Europa up close and personal in Juno image

The Juno spacecraft performed a close flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa last month, and now NASA has released a high resolution image of its icy surface.
Space News
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission is targeting launch Wednesday, Oct. 5, to the International Space Station from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, to the orbital complex for a science expedition mission.

How to watch SpaceX and NASA launch Crew-5 mission today

This week will see four astronauts blast off in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, heading to the International Space Station (ISS). Here's how to watch.
Space News
Orionid meteors appear every year when Earth travels through an area of space littered with debris from Halley’s Comet.

How to watch the Orionid meteor shower this month

Through October you'll have the chance to catch one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, the Orionid meteor shower.
Space News
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 imaged this lonely spiral galaxy called UGC 9391. The galaxy resides 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco near the north celestial pole. Its star-studded spiral arms stand in splendid isolation against a backdrop of distant galaxies, which are only visible as indistinct swirls or smudges thanks to their vast distances from Earth.

This galaxy helps astronomers measure the size of the universe

Trying to measure the size of the universe is no easy task, but this galaxy imaged by Hubble can help.
Space News
This image of the spiral galaxy IC 5332, taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with its MIRI instrument, has been scaled and cropped to match the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s view of the same galaxy.

One galaxy, two views: Webb and Hubble take on the same target

The Hubble and James Webb telescopes are both powerful tools for peering out into the cosmos, but the way they view the universe is quite different.
Space News
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter is seen here in a close-up taken by Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard the Perseverance rover. This image was taken on April 5, the 45th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Some weird debris just fell off the Mars helicopter Ingenuity

Mars helicopter Ingenuity recently completed its 33rd flight, but it had some strange debris along for part of the ride.
Space News
This artist’s impression shows a field of Population III stars as they would have appeared a mere 100 million years after the Big Bang. Astronomers may have discovered the first signs of their ancient chemical remains in the clouds surrounding one of the most distant quasars ever detected.

Hunting for evidence of the first stars that ever existed

Astronomers might have found evidence of the very first stars which existed in the universe.
Space News
artemis i tanking test livestream prelaunch

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket undamaged by hurricane, will launch next month

With hurricane Ian having moved past Florida, NASA has confirmed that its SLS rocket was not damaged and has set a new date for the next launch attempt.
Space News
Researchers have used spectroscopic observations of ultraviolet light from quasars to detect and map the Magellanic Corona, a diffuse halo of hot, supercharged gas surrounding the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. Shown in purple, the corona stretches more than 100,000 light-years from the main mass of stars, gas, and dust that make up the Magellanic Clouds, intermingling with the hotter and more extensive corona that surrounds the Milky Way.

Hubble spots cocoon of gas protecting galaxy for the first time

Research using the Hubble Space Telescope reveals a protective shield which has kept two of our neighboring galaxies safe for billions of years.
Space News
NASA's SOFIA observatory in the air.

NASA’s observatory in an airplane, SOFIA, takes its last flight

NASA's observatory on an airplane, SOFIA, has taken its last flight and will be retiring from service.
Space News
The James Webb Space Telescope.

One of James Webb’s 17 instrument modes isn’t working

NASA announced that one of Webb's seventeen observing modes is not functioning due to a hardware issue which is currently under review.
Space News
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