Tag: Solar System

NASA’s daredevil solar spacecraft survives 2nd close flyby of our sun

NeRD

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed its second close flyby of the sun, the space agency announced earlier this week. The car-sized spacecraft swooped within 8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun‘s surface at a whopping 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), matching the historic record it set during its encounter on Christmas Eve last year. During this approach, which occurred on Saturday (March 22), the Parker Solar Probe once again operated autonomously, with its four science instruments programmed to collect science data about solar…

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Watch the sun set over the moon in epic video from private Blue Ghost lunar lander

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Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander made the most of its last few hours of life on the moon. The solar-powered Blue Ghost shut down on Sunday evening (March 16), shortly after the sun set over its lunar locale. The lander watched our star’s descent and disappearance over the cratered horizon, capturing the oncoming, killing darkness in a poignant video that Firefly shared with the world today (March 18). “These are the first high-definition images taken of the sun going down and then going into darkness at the horizon [on…

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Farewell, Blue Ghost! Private moon lander goes dark to end record-breaking commercial lunar mission

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The historic mission of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is over. The solar-powered Blue Ghost went dark on Sunday evening (March 16) after the sun set on its lunar locale, bringing an end to a highly successful two weeks of surface operations on the moon. “We battle-tested every system on the lander and simulated every mission scenario we could think of to get to this point,” Blue Ghost Chief Engineer Will Coogan said in a Firefly statement today (March 17) that announced the end of the mission. “But what…

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The 1st private mission to Venus comes together ahead of possible 2026 launch (photos)

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Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley report progress in installing a heat shield on the first private spacecraft targeted for Venus. Rocket Lab of Long Beach, California, is leading the effort, along with their partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. NASA’s Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) was invented at the NASA Ames center. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program, part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, supported the development of the heat shield for Rocket Lab’s Venus mission. You…

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World’s largest iceberg runs aground in South Atlantic after 1,200-mile journey (satellite photos)

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Earth’s largest iceberg has run aground off the coast of South Georgia Island, a common rendezvous spot for large icebergs, new satellite images show. Measuring 1,240 square miles (3,460 square kilometers), the Antarctic iceberg A-23A has come to a grinding halt after a long and winding journey across the Scotia Sea, also known as “iceberg alley.” Satellite images taken at the beginning of March show the iceberg parked on a shallow underwater shelf off the coast of South Georgia Island, which is a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic…

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Life on Mars? It probably looks like something you’d find in your stomach

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. María Rosa Pino Otín is a Professor and researcher of Microbiology, Universidad San Jorge We often forget how wonderful it is that life exists, and what a special and unique phenomenon it is. As far as we know, ours is the only planet capable of supporting life, and it seems to have arisen in the form of something like today’s single-celled prokaryotic organisms. However, scientists have not given up hope…

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Scientists discover Earth’s oldest impact crater in Australia

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Geologists have discovered the world’s oldest known impact crater; it sits in the heart of Western Australia’s ancient Pilbara region. An analysis of rock layers in the region suggests a crater at least 62 miles (100 kilometers) wide was carved after a large space rock struck Earth roughly 3.47 billion years ago, when our planet was almost completely covered in water. The discovery pushes back the record for the oldest impact crater on Earth by more than 1 billion years — the previous record holder, the Yarrabubba impact structure, also…

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Touch down on the moon with private Blue Ghost lander in this amazing video

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Blue Ghost had its eyes wide open during its epic moon landing last weekend. On Sunday (March 2), Blue Ghost — built and operated by the Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace — became just the second private spacecraft ever to soft-land on the moon, coming to rest in the near side’s Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) region. We can now relive Blue Ghost’s historic descent, thanks to stunning footage captured by the lander. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander captured this shot of its own shadow on the moon just after…

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See Earth shine like a Blue Marble in this stunning photo by Japan’s private Resilience moon lander

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The private Resilience moon lander now has a target touchdown date. The Tokyo-based company ispace, which built and operates Resilience, announced Monday (March 3) that it’s eyeing June 5 for the spacecraft’s lunar touchdown attempt. The current plan calls for Resilience to land that day at 3:24 p.m. EST (2024 GMT) near the center of Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”), a basaltic plain in the moon‘s northern reaches. But that’s not set in stone. An image of Earth taken by the private Resilience lunar lander on Feb. 18, 2025. (Image…

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Sunrise on the moon! Private Blue Ghost lander captures amazing shot after historic lunar touchdown (photo)

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Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has captured a gorgeous shot of sunrise on the moon as it begins its workday on the lunar surface. Blue Ghost aced its lunar landing attempt on Sunday (March 2), setting down close to Mons Latreille, a solitary lunar peak in the vast basin Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crises”) in the northeastern region of the moon’s near side. And the spacecraft is already getting to work, starting up its science payloads and capturing amazing images of its surroundings and the distant Earth from the lunar…

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