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Latest by G. Torbet

China's Zhurong Mars rover, captured by a wireless camera.

China’s Zhurong rover has its mission extended, will continue exploring Mars

Chinese rover Zhurong will continue exploring Mars for some time to come, as it has just had its mission extended.
This jewel-bright image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 1385, a spiral galaxy 68 million light-years from Earth, which lies in the constellation Fornax. The image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, which is often referred to as Hubble’s workhorse camera thanks to its reliability and versatility. It was installed in 2009 when astronauts last visited Hubble, and 12 years later it remains remarkably productive.

Hubble captures a beautiful galaxy located in a cosmic crucible

A beautiful image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxy NGC 1385, located in a constellation with a fiery name: Fornax, which means furnace.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon cargo capsule soars upward after lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 3, 2021, during the company's 22nd Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA to the International Space Station.

How to watch SpaceX launch its 23rd resupply mission to the ISS next week

Next week, SpaceX is scheduled to send another cargo delivery to the International Space Station, and we've got the details on how you can watch along at home.
mars 2020 perseverance rover

NASA’s Perseverance rover spots Mars’ teeny tiny moon, Deimos

NASA's Perseverance rover recently captured an image of Mars' tiny moon, Deimos, hovering overhead in the Martian sky.
The International Space Station’s solar arrays provide power for the orbiting laboratory. NASA will install a total of six new roll out solar arrays in front of the existing arrays at 1A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B to augment the power. During the Aug. 24 spacewalk, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and astronaut Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will install the modification kit on the 4A power channel, where the next new roll out solar array will be installed in 2022.

How to watch astronauts upgrade the ISS power system

As part of ongoing upgrades to the International Space Station's power system, two astronauts will take a stroll outside the station.
An illustration of Saturn and its "fuzzy" core.

Saturn’s rings are jiggling, delightfully enough, due to its wobbly core

Our solar system is full of wonders, like the beauty of Saturn's rings. But these rings aren't static -- recent research shows that they are gently jiggling.
China's "Heavenly Palace' space station

Chinese astronauts perform second spacewalk from new space station

Chinese astronauts completed a spacewalk yesterday, Friday, August 20, to install equipment outside China's new space station.
2020 was a big year for the moon heres recap

Once in a blue moon: Catch a true Blue Moon tonight

A Blue Moon is a genuine astronomical event, and you can catch a true Blue Moon tonight, on Sunday, August 22.
A self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater.

Take a tour of Mars’ Gale Crater with the Curiosity rover

NASA has shared an incredible video touring of the surface of Mars, as captured by the Curiosity rover.
The Redwire Regolith Print facility suite, consisting of Redwire's Additive Manufacturing Facility, and the print heads, plates and lunar regolith simulant feedstock that launches to the International Space Station.

NASA is testing a 3D printer that uses moon dust to print in space

When the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft arrived at ISS this week, it carried a 3D printer that uses moon dust to make solid material.
Spin qubit device being connected to circuit board in preparation for measurement.

Researchers create ‘missing jigsaw piece’ in development of quantum computing

Researchers say they have made a massive leap forward and found the "missing jigsaw piece" to improve the architecture of quantum computing chips.
This mosaic of Bennu was created using observations made by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that was in close proximity to the asteroid for over two years.

There’s a slim chance asteroid Bennu will collide with Earth in 2300

NASA researchers predict there is a very small chance that asteroid Bennu, which is 500 meters wide, could collide with Earth in the future.
An image of Phobos from March 23, 2008, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

To find evidence of life on Mars, we should look to its moon Phobos

A new study suggests if there ever was life on Mars, evidence of it could be preserved on the Martian moon Phobos.
Nestled among the vast clouds of star-forming regions like this one lie potential clues about the formation of our own solar system. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features AFGL 5180, a beautiful stellar nursery located in the constellation of Gemini (the Twins).

Hubble captures a dusty nursery where new baby stars are being born

The recently-fixed Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the dusty birthplace of stars.
The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission captured this view of Venus on 10 August 2021 as the spacecraft passed the planet for a gravity assist manoeuvre.

See views of Venus flybys captured during two close encounters

Venus has been a hotspot in the solar system this week, as two different missions have captured footage of their flybys of the planet.
Artist's impression of Dragonfly in flight over Titan.

The Dragonfly rotorcraft will search Saturn’s moon Titan for signs of life

NASA is sending a rotorcraft called Dragonfly to explore Titan, the moon of Saturn, in the hopes of sniffing out signs of life there.
Ingenuity captured the Perseverance rover in an image taken during its 11th flight at Mars on Aug. 4.

Mars explorer Ingenuity helicopter spots Perseverance rover from above

Helicopter Ingenuity continues zipping around above the Mars surface, recently completing its eleventh flight and taking photos of its rover buddy Perseverance.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.

Things going badly for Boeing Starliner, launch delayed indefinitely

Boeing and NASA have announced they are calling off the planned orbital test flight of the Starliner spacecraft, with the craft returning to a Boeing facility.
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft is grabbed by the ISS's robotic arm.

How to watch Northrop Grumman launch its 16th cargo mission to the ISS this week

This Tuesday, August 10, an uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft will be launched on a resupply mission to the ISS, and you can watch along live at home.
Artist impression of Solar Orbiter during its second flyby of the planet. The spacecraft will make numerous gravity assist flybys at Venus to bring it closer to the Sun and to tilt its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives.

Two different spacecraft will be swinging by Venus this week

Venus enters the spotlight as the planet hosts two different craft performing flybys to gain a gravitational boost on their way to other destinations.
This artist’s impression shows L 98-59b, one of the planets in the L 98-59 system 35 light-years away. The system contains four confirmed rocky planets with a potential fifth, the furthest from the star, being unconfirmed. In 2021, astronomers used data from the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument on ESO’s VLT to measure the mass of L 98-59b, finding it to be half that of Venus. This makes it the lightest planet measured to date using the radial velocity technique.

This tiny exoplanet 35 light-years away is half the mass of Venus

Of the roughly 4,200 exoplanets discovered thus far, most are larger than Earth. But the recently identified planet L 98-59b is just half the mass of Venus.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough growing lettuce in the Veggie vegetable-production system on the International Space Station.

Why growing delicious food in space is more than just a matter of taste

Growing food in space is essential for long-term missions. But the benefits aren't only practical, as experiments on the International Space Station will show.
Mars Dune Alpha Conceptual Render: Visualization on Mars.

NASA wants you to live in a simulated Mars environment for a year

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to live on Mars, now is your chance to find out. NASA is recruiting crew members for a simulation Mars mission.
The black hole in V404 Cygni is actively pulling material away from a companion star — with about half the mass of the Sun — into a disk around the invisible object. A burst of X-rays from the black hole detected in 2015 created the high-energy rings from a phenomenon known as light echoes, where light bounces off of dust clouds in between the system and Earth. In these images, X-rays from Chandra are shown, along with optical data from the Pan-STARRS telescope that depict the stars in the field of view. Each of the concentric rings is created by the burst of X-rays reflecting off dust clouds at different distances. The rings are shown incomplete, with gaps at the upper left, upper right, and middle areas. These gaps show the edges of Chandra's field of view during the observations, or the sections of the field Chandra did not observe.

This black hole is creating enormous glowing X-ray rings

Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory are investigating an unusual black hole which is surrounded by enormous X-ray rings.
juno jump jupiter shadow pia13746 43 1

NASA’s Juno spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, is 10 years old this week

This week marked a special birthday celebration for Juno, NASA's spacecraft which is currently in orbit around Jupiter.
SpaceX's Starship is stacked for the first time on 6 August 2021.

Musk’s ‘dream come true’: See the SpaceX Starship stacked for the first time

This week, SpaceX's Starship was stacked on top of the enormous Super Heavy booster, with the prototype loaded into place for the first time.
Boeing's Starliner capsule atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday, August 5.

Boeing is working on fixing its troubled Starliner capsule

After canceling the planned test flight of its new crew capsule, the Starliner, Boeing says it is working on fixing the issue which led to the cancellation.
This image taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, 2021, shows the hole drilled in a Martian rock in preparation for the rover’s first attempt to collect a sample.

Perseverance rover has problems collecting its first Mars sample

NASA had aimed to collect its first sample of Martian rock using the Perseverance rover yesterday, but the sampling attempt didn't go as planned.
Short-period planets, or those with orbits shorter than one day, are rare. Potential lava world TOI 1807 b, illustrated here, is the youngest example yet discovered.

Teenage ‘lava world’ is the youngest exoplanet of its type discovered so far

NASA's exoplanet-hunter TESS recently discovered four "teenage" exoplanets, including one dramatic lava world that orbits ultra-close to its star.
Illustration showing NEA Scout with the solar sail deployed as it flies by its asteroid destination.

This tiny satellite will use a solar sail to investigate an asteroid

Following the success of Bill Nye's solar sail craft, LightSail 2, NASA plans to launch its own solar sail craft to investigate near-Earth asteroids.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

How to watch the ISS relocate a Crew Dragon to make room for a Starliner

It's a busy time at the International Space Station, with preparations beginning this week for the orbital test flight of the Boeing Starliner.
China's Zhurong rover visits its parachute and backshell.

China’s Zhurong rover visits its parachute and backshell on Mars

China's Zhurong rover is exploring the surface of Mars and recently stopped by the site of its parachute and backshell.
This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revisits the Veil Nebula, which was featured in a previous Hubble image release. In this image, new processing techniques have been applied, bringing out fine details of the nebula’s delicate threads and filaments of ionized gas.

Hubble is once again working to ‘further our understanding of the universe’

After switching to backup hardware, the Hubble Space Telescope is back up and running following a computer error last month.
The Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module undergoes final processing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in preparation for its launch to the International Space Station on a Proton rocket.

How to watch Russia launch a new module for the ISS this week

The ISS will soon be receiving an upgrade, with the largest module ever launched to the station set to be sent into orbit this week. Here's how to watch.