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Latest by G. Torbet

Engineers work on NASA’s Voyager 2 at JPL in March 1977, ahead of the spacecraft’s launch that August. The probe carries 10 science instruments, some of which have been turned off over the years to save power.

NASA turns off another of Voyager 2’s instruments to save power

The Voyager spacecraft, launched in the 1970s, has turned off its plasma science instrument to save power for exploring interstellar space.
Rosette Nebula Captured with DECam

See the stunning Rosette Nebula in all its glorious colors

The Dark Energy Camera has snapped a stunning image of a rose-like nebula located 5,000 light-years away.
Artist’s impression of a sub-Earth-mass planet orbiting Barnard’s star

There’s a tiny exoplanet orbiting our neighbor, known as Barnard’s star

At just six light-years from Earth, Barnard's star is close by and has long been of interest to researchers searching for exoplanets. Now, they've found one.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov onboard, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

SpaceX Crew-9 mission launches to ISS carrying two astronauts

A much-delayed SpaceX Crew Dragon mission launched with just two crew members due to issues with the test flight of the Boeing Starliner.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks photographed in March 2024.

How to spot the ‘comet of the century’ in October

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is passing by the sun and will soon pass by Earth, and could be a spectacularly bright object by mid-October.
The Lobster Nebula seen with ESO’s VISTA telescope.

See the wonders of the Milky Way in this new infrared map

The European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope has collected more than 500 terabytes of data on our galaxy.
The newly-discovered GS-NDG-9422 galaxy appears as a faint blur in this James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image. It could help astronomers better understand galaxy evolution in the early Universe.

‘That’s weird’: This galaxy could help astronomers understand the earliest stars

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted a weird galaxy that originated just a billion years after the Big Bang.
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See SpaceX’s Starship rocket get stacked ahead of its fifth test flight

SpaceX has shared images of it Starship rocket, which is stacked and ready for a launch on its fifth flight test.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft atop, is vertical at the launch pad of Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, ahead of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 launch to the International Space Station.

SpaceX Crew-9 launch delayed again because of Tropical Storm Helene

As Florida braces for the arrival of Tropical Storm Helene, the launch of NASA's Crew-9 mission from the Kennedy Space Center has once again been delayed.
Europa Clipper.

Europa Clipper overcomes transistor issue and is ready for launch next month

This May, engineers working on NASA's Europa Clipper discovered a problem with the spacecraft and had to scramble to get it for launch.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague smiles and gives two thumbs up during the crew equipment interface test at SpaceX’s Dragon refurbishing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Why the SpaceX Crew-9 launch has been delayed again

The SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which will see just two astronauts head to the International Space Station, has been delayed once again.
The two ‘phantoms’ of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), which will fly to the Moon on NASA's first Artemis I mission, occupy two of passenger seats (Seat #3 and Seat #4) in the Orion capsule.

How scientists are keeping the Orion spacecraft safe from radiation

NASA's Orion spacecraft will need to protect astronauts from dangerous radiation when they visit the moon in the upcoming Artemis missions.
This composite image of Arp 107, created with data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) and MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument), reveals a wealth of information about the star formation taking place in these two galaxies and how they collided hundreds of million years ago. The near-infrared data, shown in white, show older stars, which shine brightly in both galaxies, as well as the tenuous gas bridge that runs between them. The vibrant background galaxies are also brightly illuminated at these wavelengths.

James Webb image shows two galaxies in the process of colliding

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope captures one of the universe's most dramatic events: the colliding of two galaxies.
Seville from Copernicus Sentinel-2C

See the first images from Europe’s Sentinel-2C satellite looking down on Earth

Earlier this month, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its newest Earth-observation satellite, known as Copernicus Sentinel-2C.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Starliner astronauts speak of ‘tough times’ watching their spacecraft depart without them

Two NASA astronauts have spoken publicly for the first time since the Boeing Starliner departed from the International Space Station without them.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the very outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Known as the Extreme Outer Galaxy, this region is located more than 58 000 light-years from the Galactic centre.

James Webb trains its sights on the Extreme Outer Galaxy

A gorgeous new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a bustling region of star formation at the distant edge of the Milky Way.
Screenshot of Polaris Dawn space walk.

Polaris Dawn astronauts make history by completing first private spacewalk

Two private astronauts have completed the first-ever commercial spacewalk, marking the first time that civilian astronauts have stepped out into space.
Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC): This elongated cloud has formed as a result of wind encountering the Arsia Mons mountains. It forms almost every day during a specific season, from early morning until noon.

Check out this incredible cloud atlas of Mars

Researchers recently presented a stunning cloud atlas of Mars: a database containing 20 years' worth of images of clouds and storms observed on the red planet.
The Polaris Dawn Crew Dragon spacecraft as it will look in orbit.

SpaceX’s delayed Polaris Dawn mission to launch tonight

The historic SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which includes the first-ever commercial spacewalk, will launch tonight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
BepiColumbo says goodbye to Mercury.

See the gorgeous images of Mercury taken by BepiColombo

The European Space Agency's BepiColombo spacecraft recently made a close flyby of Mercury, and it snapped some stunning pictures along the way.
NASA and Boeing welcomed Starliner back to Earth following the uncrewed spacecraft’s successful landing at 10:01 p.m. MDT Sept. 6, 2024, at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

Boeing Starliner lands safely back on Earth without its crew

After an unexpected three months spent in orbit, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft has returned safely to Earth.
Boeing Space's Starliner docked at the International Space Station in June 2024.

How to watch the uncrewed Starliner depart the space station and land in the desert

The troubled Boeing Starliner will depart from the International Space Station (ISS) tonight, traveling back to Earth without its crew. Here's how to watch.
The third Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, Sentinel-2C, has launched aboard the final Vega rocket, flight VV24, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 5 September at 03:50 CEST (4 September 22:50 local time).

Europe’s Vega rocket makes its final flight

Europe has launched its Vega rocket for the last time, on a mission to carry the Earth-observation Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite into orbit.
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Astronaut captures a meteor exploding in the atmosphere over Earth

An incredible new video taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station shows a meteor exploding as it hits the planet's atmosphere.
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft docked at the space station.

Boeing Starliner to depart space station tomorrow without its crew

Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft is set to depart from the International Space Station on Friday, September 6.
An artist’s concept of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on the Moon’s South Pole.

Intuitive Machines to carry NASA experiments to the moon in 2027

Intuitive Machines, which managed the first lunar landing by a commercial entity, will be returning to the moon with more NASA payloads in 2027.
The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive it is warping the fabric of space-time and distorting the appearance of galaxies behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies and can also make them appear in an image multiple times, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope saw here.

James Webb spots another pair of galaxies forming a question mark

Webb has stumbled across a question mark-shaped galaxy, and the reasons for its uniqueness reveal how the telescope looks at some of the most distant galaxies.
This image shows a small portion of the field observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) for the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. It is filled with galaxies. The light from some of them has traveled for over 13 billion years to reach the telescope.

James Webb is explaining the puzzle of some of the earliest galaxies

Webb has been causing bafflement in the field of cosmology. But the problem isn't that the universe is broken — it's that early black holes were playing tricks.
New NASA Sonifications Listen to the Universe's Past

Celebrate Chandra’s 25th anniversary by listening to the sounds of space

NASA has released a new set of sonifications from some historic images taken by the venerable Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Illustration of the highest-resolution detections ever made from the surface of Earth

Event Horizon Telescope can now take images of black holes that are 50% sharper

The Event Horizon Telescope, which took the first-ever image of a black hole, has made the highest-ever resolution observations taken from the Earth's surface.
This image of our own Moon was taken during Juice’s lunar-Earth flyby on 19 August 2024. The main aim of JANUS’s observations during the lunar-Earth flyby was to evaluate how well the instrument is performing, not to make scientific measurements.

Juice spacecraft snaps images of the Earth and moon as it passes by

The European Space Agency's Juice spacecraft recently made a flyby of both Earth and the moon on its way to Jupiter, and it took some gorgeous images.
Spaceflight participant Anna Menon tests a portable ultrasound device as part of the TRISH-sponsored research complement for Polaris Dawn.

Here are the experiments that will be conducted on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission

Several institutions are sending experiments into orbit as part of the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, including investigations into human health in space.
Crews moved the cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter out of NASA Marshall’s Building 4708 to the agency’s Pegasus barge on August 21. The barge will ferry the adapter first to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where it will pick up additional SLS hardware for future Artemis missions, and then travel to NASA Kennedy. In Florida, teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems will prepare the adapter for stacking and launch.

Another piece of NASA’s mega moon rocket ships out

NASA is continuing work on another key piece of space infrastructure: its Space Launch System.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose on June 13, 2024 for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

Starliner astronauts to return to Earth in SpaceX Dragon next year

Two NASA astronauts stuck in orbit for over two months after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft developed a fault will return to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon craft.