Skip to main content

Latest by G. Torbet

Illustration showing the front of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft in orbit above Earth with its deployable solar panels extended.

Sentinel-6 spacecraft becomes official ocean-monitoring satellite

We have a new tool for monitoring Earth's oceans: The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity hits 23rd flight, can’t be stopped

The tiny Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to power through its flights, exceeding all expectations.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei poses for a photo on Feb. 10, 2022, while configuring the Combustion Integrated Rack in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module of the International Space Station to support a pair of fire safety experiments.

How to watch record-breaking astronaut return to Earth this week

This week, record-breaking NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will be returning from the ISS along with two of his Russian colleagues. Here's how to watch.
The Sun as seen by Solar Orbiter in extreme ultraviolet light from a distance of roughly 75 million kilometers. An image of Earth is also included for scale, at the 2 o’clock position.

Solar Orbiter image shows the boiling, roiling face of the sun

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has taken an incredible high-resolution image of the sun, showing its full face and its outer atmosphere or corona.
An odd radio circles (ORC) captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

Astronomers spot a vast, mysterious circle in space

Astronomers have spotted an enormous and mysterious object more than a million light-years across, called an odd radio circle.
James Webb Space Telescope illustration.

James Webb’s MIRI instrument has both a heater and a cooler

The long process of getting the James Webb Space Telescope ready for science operations continues, with the ongoing alignment of three of its instruments.
Illustration of NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft.

NASA will survey the entire sky with its SPHEREx observatory

NASA is ramping up plans for a new sky survey tool that could help unravel some of the biggest mysteries about the origin of the universe.
Sally Ride aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.

The legacy of Sally Ride: America’s first woman in space

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, didn't fit NASA's archetype for a female astronaut -- and that's precisely why she was such a pioneer.
The heart of NGC 1097, a barred spiral galaxy that lies about 48 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Fornax.

Hubble used two instruments to image this beautiful galaxy

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope is a stunner: The beautiful galaxy NCG 1097, as capturing using two of Hubble's instruments.
NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of Jupiter’s southern hemisphere during the spacecraft’s 39th close flyby of the planet on Jan. 12, 2022.

See Jupiter’s moons Io and Europa in this stunning Juno image

NASA has released a stunning image of the planet Jupiter, captured by its Juno mission and processed by a citizen scientist.
This artist’s conception shows the fully unfolded James Webb Space Telescope in space.

James Webb begins aligning 3 of its instruments

With James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors aligned with its first instrument, now the team need to work on aligning the other three instruments,
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft onboard from Launch Complex 39A, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The IXPE spacecraft is the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, such as black holes and neutron stars. Launch occurred at 1 a.m. EST.

SpaceX sets new record with Falcon 9 booster flying for 12th time

SpaceX set a new record for reuse of a rocket booster this week when it used a Falcon 9 booster for its 12th mission.
iss cosmonauts ukrainian yellow fokie2rxoaq8yjz

Russian cosmonauts arrive at ISS in Ukrainian colors

Three Russian cosmonauts caused a stir yesterday when they arrived at the International Space Station wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
Gaia’s sky mapper image showing the James Webb Space Telescope. The reddish colour is artificial, chosen just for illustrative reasons. The frame shows a few relatively bright stars, several faint stars, a few disturbances – and a spacecraft. It is marked by the green arrow.

Image of James Webb snapped by the Gaia observatory

The Gaia observatory was recently able to snap a picture of the James Webb observatory in its orbit at L2.
ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover

European Space Agency suspends joint Mars mission with Russia

A joint mission to Mars between the European Space Agency Russia has been suspended due to Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover looks back at its wheel tracks on March 17, 2022, the 381th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Perseverance rover heading for the Jezero delta at top speed

NASA's Perseverance rover is taking a road trip across Mars, heading for a new and exciting location.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher.

NASA’s massive new moon rocket arrives at launch pad

NASA's next-generation rocket system, designed to carry spacecraft to the moon as part of the Artemis mission, has arrived at its launch pad for the first time.
SEAQUE will be hosted on the International Space Station by the Nanoracks Bishop airlock. The blue-and-gold brackets attached to the side of the airlock are for external payloads. The technology demonstration will be installed at one of those sites.

Experiment into quantum communications is heading to the ISS

A tiny, milk-carton sized experiment soon to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) could represent the future of communications.
NASA spacewalker Kayla Barron is pictured during a six-hour and 32 minute spacewalk on Dec. 2, 2021, to replace a failed antenna system on the International Space Station's Port-1 truss structure.

How to watch two NASA astronauts perform a spacewalk on Tuesday

This week, two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) will be performing a spacewalk. Here's how to watch along from home.
Smaller than a penny, the flower-like rock artifact on the left was imaged by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the end of its robotic arm. The image was taken on Feb. 24, 2022, the 3,396th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Curiosity spies a Martian ‘flower’ formed out of rock

NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Mars, has discovered an intriguing rock formation in the shape of a flower.
This artist’s impression shows a close-up view of Proxima d, a planet candidate recently found orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System.

If these nearby stars hosted an exoplanet, here’s what it might be like

Astronomers from ETH Zurich have predicted that an Earth-like planet could exist orbiting the nearest sun-like stars to Earth.
An energetic outburst from an infant star streaks across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This stellar tantrum – produced by an extremely young star in the earliest phase of formation – consists of an incandescent jet of gas travelling at supersonic speeds. As the jet collides with material surrounding the still-forming star, the shock heats this material and causes it to glow. The result is the colorfully wispy structures, which astronomers refer to as Herbig–Haro objects, billowing across the lower right of this image.

A baby star’s energetic outburst captured by Hubble

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the dramatic and energetic jets given off by a young star, called a Herbig-Haro object.
Artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb researcher reveals how it will investigate the early universe

A researcher working with the James Webb Space Telescope has shared information about how it will look back in time at some of the earliest stars and galaxies.
ESA research fellow Alexandre Meurisse and Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow producing oxygen and metal out of simulated moondust inside ESA's Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory.

Building the first experimental payload to make oxygen on the moon

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it has chosen a team to make oxygen on the moon.
Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida drove Crawler Transporter-2 on March 11, 2022 to the doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Soon, it will go inside the VAB where it will carry the Artemis I Moon rocket to launch pad 39B.

See the giant crawler that will carry NASA’s mega moon rocket to the pad

NASA is transporting a huge rocket to its launch pad using a massive crawling vehicle called the Crawler Transporter-2.
In this illustration, NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter stands on the Red Planet's surface as NASA's Perseverance rover (partially visible on the left) rolls away. Ingenuity arrived at Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, attached to the belly of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity powers through its 21st flight

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to perform beyond all expectations, having recently completed its 21st flight.
Researchers from the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division (ARES) group careful handle a sample tube containing a lunar sample at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA will be opening a pristine 50-year-old lunar sample

NASA will be opening a very special time capsule soon: One of the last unopened lunar samples from the Apollo missions to the moon 50 years ago.
The twin galaxies NGC 4496A and NGC 4496B dominate the frame in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Both galaxies lie in the constellation Virgo, but despite appearing side-by-side in this image they are at vastly different distances from both Earth and one another. NGC 4496A is 47 million light-years from Earth while NGC 4496B is 212 million light-years away. The enormous distances between the two galaxies mean that the two are not interacting, and only appear to overlap because of a chance alignment.

Hubble images two galaxies aligned but light-years apart

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows two galaxies which appear to be overlapping but are actually light-years apart.
This artist’s impression shows what the system might look like; it’s composed of an oblate star with a disc around it (a Be “vampire” star; foreground) and B-type star that has been stripped of its atmosphere (background).

‘Closest black hole’ isn’t actually a black hole, but a stellar vampire

In 2020, astronomers announced they had found the closest black hole ever. But new research suggests that the object in question in not actually a black hole.
A view from the "Kimberley" formation on Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity rover. The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed.

Scientists want to farm oxygen from the Martian soil

One of the dangers humans face when exploring Mars is the toxic chemicals in the soil. However, these chemicals could also be key to producing usable oxygen.
An artist’s conception illustrates the aftermath of a "kilonova," a powerful event that happens when two neutron stars merge.

Chandra investigates an X-ray mystery from epic kilonova

For the first time, astronomers are studying the aftermath of a kilonova - an epic burst of energy which occurs when two neutron star collide.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Left Navigation Camera (Navcam) to acquire an image on Feb 24, 2022 (sol 361) of target Sid, a higher standing boulder seen here just above the rover’s arm. Scientists plan to sample this rock before the rover heads to the delta for the mission’s next science campaign.

Mars rover Perseverance is heading for the Jezero delta

The Perseverance rover will soon be packing up and heading off to a new and exciting location: The Jezero delta.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity gears up for flight number 21 today

Mars's tiniest aerial explorer, the NASA helicopter Ingenuity, is getting ready to make its 21st flight, on its way back to reunite with the Perseverance rover.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun.

Telescopes turn on Parker Solar Probe’s latest approach to the sun

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has made another swing around the sun. And this time it was watched by both other spacecraft and by ground-based telescopes.