Skip to main content

Latest by G. Torbet

Previous
1...891011121314
Next
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.

NASA has lost communication with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter

NASA has announced that it has lost contact with the helicopter on Mars, though it's not clear how serious this problem is.
Space News
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft carrying four Axiom MIssion 3 astronauts is pictured docked to the space station shortly after an orbital sunrise.

Axiom-3, the first private, all-European mission, arrives at the ISS

The Axiom-3 mission, the first commercial all-European mission to the International Space Station, has arrived safely at its destination.
Space News
Artist's illustration of the SLIM lander touching down on the moon.

Japanese lander touches down on the moon, but suffers power glitch

A Japanese mission has succeeded in landing on the moon, but likely won't last for more than a day due to an issue with its solar cells.
Space News
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features Arp 122, a peculiar galaxy that in fact comprises two galaxies – NGC 6040, the tilted, warped spiral galaxy and LEDA 59642, the round, face-on spiral – that are in the midst of a collision.

Hubble images a pair of galaxies caught in the process of merging

The two galaxies shown in the image, NGC 6040 and LEDA 59642, are so close that they are interacting and have a shared name as a pair, Arp 122.
Space News
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation engineer, Neftali Hernandez, attaches one of the tools developed to help remove two final fasteners that prohibited complete disassembly of the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head that holds the remainder of material collected from asteroid Bennu. Engineers on the team, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, developed new tools that freed the fasteners on Jan. 10.

NASA cracks open its first sample from an asteroid, foiling two sticky screws

NASA returned its first sample of an asteroid to Earth last year, but getting at the full sample proved difficult due to a couple of troublesome fasteners.
Space News
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is pictured docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module.

How to watch the Axiom 3 mission launch on Thursday

This coming Thursday, January 18, will see the third launch to the International Space Station by private company Axiom. Here's how to watch.
Space News
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the apron outside Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility at dawn in Palmdale, California. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to address one of the primary challenges to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter.

NASA shows off its experimental, quiet supersonic aircraft, the X-59

Created along with Lockheed Martin, a new aircraft is designed to reduce the sonic boom created by traveling faster than the speed of sound to a sonic thump.
Space News
Like Kepler-10 b, illustrated above, the exoplanet HD 63433 d is a small, rocky planet in a tight orbit of its star. HD 63433 d is the smallest confirmed exoplanet younger than 500 million years old. It's also the closest discovered Earth-sized planet this young, at about 400 million years old.

Astronomers discover extremely hot exoplanet with ‘lava hemisphere’

An Earth-sized orbits a star similar to our sun, but much, much closer - meaning it has surface temperatures of nearly 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Space News
This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam.

See the dramatic, volcanic moon Io in new Juno images

NASA's Juno spacecraft recently made a close flyby of the solar system's most volcanic body, the Jovian moon of Io.
Space News
Voyager 2 took this image as it approached the planet Uranus on Jan. 14, 1986. The planet's hazy bluish color is due to the methane in its atmosphere, which absorbs red wavelengths of light.

Neptune isn’t really dark blue, new study demonstrates

Most people think of Uranus and Neptune as pale greenish blue and royal blue. But a new study shows the two planets are actually a very similar color.
Space News
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features a richness of spiral galaxies.

Hubble captures a busy frame of four overlapping spiral galaxies

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a host of galaxies all overlapping each other in a complex swirl.
Space News
This is an artist’s impression of the exoplanet WASP 121-b, also known as Tylos. The exoplanet’s appearance is based on Hubble data of the object. Using Hubble observations, another team of scientists had previously reported the detection of heavy metals such as magnesium and iron escaping from the upper atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter exoplanet, marking it as the first of such detection. The exoplanet is orbiting dangerously close to its host star, roughly 2.6% of the distance between Earth and the Sun, placing it on the verge of being ripped apart by its host star's tidal forces. The powerful gravitational forces have altered the planet's shape.

See the weather patterns on a wild, super hot exoplanet

Planet WASP-121 b has a surface temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which researchers predict would lead to some wild weather phenomena.
Space News
This deep dataset from Chandra of the remains of a supernova known as 30 Doradus B (30 Dor B) reveals evidence for more than one supernova explosion in the history of this remnant. Unusual structures in the Chandra data cannot be explained by a single explosion. These images of 30 Dor B also show optical data from the Blanco telescope in Chile, and infrared data from Spitzer. Additional data from Hubble highlights sharp features in the image.

Four telescopes work together to create a gorgeous image of a supernova remnant

A stunning new image of a supernova remnant combines data from four different telescopes to show a colorful, detailed picture of a busy region of space.
Space News
An image from the Quadrantid meteor shower.

How to watch the Quadrantid meteor shower hit its peak tonight

Tonight will see the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower, one of the lesser-known meteor showers of the year. Here's how to watch it in person or online.
Space News
This photo of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble's ultra-sharp vision reveals a phenomenon called ring spokes. Saturn's spokes are transient features that rotate along with the rings. Their ghostly appearance only persists for two or three rotations around Saturn. During active periods, freshly-formed spokes continuously add to the pattern.

Hubble snaps an image of dark spokes in Saturn’s rings

The Hubble Space Telescope is investigating something strange about the beautiful rings around Saturn.
Space News
Curiosity rover

See the passing of a day on Mars with the Curiosity rover

On a quiet day the Curiosity rover captured the view around it using its forward and rear cameras, showing the progression of a Martian day.
Space News
This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft to pass within 1,000 miles of volcanic moon Io

NASA's Juno spacecraft, current in orbit around Jupiter, will soon be making a close flyby of one of the planet's most dramatic moons, Io.
Space News
The billion stars in galaxy UGC 8091 resemble a sparkling snow globe in this festive Hubble Space Telescope image from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). The dwarf galaxy is approximately 7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is considered an "irregular galaxy" because it does not have an orderly spiral or elliptical appearance. Instead, the stars that make up this celestial gathering look more like a brightly shining tangle of string lights than a galaxy.

Hubble gets festive with a string of cosmic Christmas lights

Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope are getting into the festive spirit with a holiday image showing a dwarf irregular galaxy called UGC 8091.
Space News
The Running Chicken Nebula comprises several clouds, all of which we can see in this vast image from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal site. This 1.5-billion pixel image spans an area in the sky of about 25 full Moons. The clouds shown in wispy pink plumes are full of gas and dust, illuminated by the young and hot stars within them.

See a festive cosmic chicken captured by the VLT Survey Telescope

A new image from the VLT Survey Telescope shows a beautiful region called the Running Chicken Nebula, which makes for a striking festive scene.
Space News
This illustration depicts the distribution of diazenylium molecule radiation (false colours) in the Whirlpool Galaxy, compared with an optical image. The reddish areas in the photograph represent luminous gas nebulae containing hot, massive stars traversing dark zones of gas and dust in the spiral arms. The presence of diazenylium in these dark regions suggests particularly cold and dense gas clouds.

Scientists investigate star formation in the famous Whirlpool Galaxy

Scientists are turning to the beautiful and famous Whirlpool Galaxy to detect areas where stars could eventually be born.
Space News
This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The Webb image exquisitely captures Uranus’s seasonal north polar cap, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap. Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings are also visible in this image, including the elusive Zeta ring—the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet.

James Webb captures a unique view of Uranus’s ring system

A festive new image from the James Webb Space Telescope has been released, showing the stunning rings of Uranus.
Space News
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is pictured approaching the space station above the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2023.

How to watch a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft depart the ISS this week

This week, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft will depart from the International Space Station after a brief one-month stay. Here's how to watch.
Space News
Astronaut Loral O’Hara sets up an exercise cycle.

In a gym 250 miles above Earth, astronauts sweat for science

With the demands of gravity absent, astronauts must spend hours per day exercising to maintain the muscles they'll still need back on Earth.
Space Features
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the upper right – on Dec. 14. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares, and which is colorized in teal.

Sun emits most powerful solar flare observed in six years

This week, the sun let out a powerful solar flare - the most powerful since 2017, and among the most powerful recorded to date.
Space News
An interacting galaxy system known as Arp-Madore 2105-332, that lies about 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Microscopium.

Hubble captures a formation of galaxies neatly lined up

A new Hubble image shows both an interacting galaxy system, and a string of galaxies which happen to line up in a neat procession.
Space News
Water from the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus sprays from huge fissures out into space.

Key ingredient for life found at Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus

Researchers have found a key ingredient for life in the plumes of water which spew from Enceladus's surface.
Space News
Artist’s illustration of one of the Voyager spacecraft.

Computer glitch hampers Voyager 1’s communication system

The nearly 50 year old spacecraft has experienced a glitch which means it is no longer sending science data back to Earth.
Space News
The central portion of the star cluster IC 348. Astronomers combed the cluster in search of tiny, free-floating brown dwarfs.

James Webb spots tiniest known brown dwarf in stunning star cluster

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a stunning view of a star cluster that contains one of the smallest brown dwarfs ever identified.
Space News
Over 100 meteors are recorded in this composite image taken during the peak of the Geminid meteor shower in 2014.

How to watch the Geminid Meteor Shower this week

This week will see the peak of one of the year's best meteors showers, the Geminids. Here's how to watch either in person or online.
Space News
A new high-definition image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) unveils intricate details of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), and shows the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded. The most noticeable colors in Webb’s newest image are clumps of bright orange and light pink that make up the inner shell of the supernova remnant. These tiny knots of gas, comprised of sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself, are only detectable by NIRCam’s exquisite resolution, and give researchers a hint at how the dying star shattered like glass when it exploded.

James Webb provides a second view of an exploded star

A beautiful supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A, was recently imaged by the James Webb telescope. See how the observation compares to a previous MIRI image.
Space News
This illustration, updated as of June 2020, depicts NASA’s Psyche spacecraft.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft sends back its first image of a star field

NASA has shared the first images taken by its Psyche mission, which launched in October to study a strange metal asteroid located in the main belt.
Space News
NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio checks tomato plants growing inside the International Space Station for the XROOTS space botany study on Oct. 14, 2022.

Missing tomato recovered after being lost on the ISS for 8 months

Astronauts on board the the International Space Station have finally located a single tomato that was lost somewhere in the station for eight months.
Space News
Hubble orbiting more than 300 miles above Earth as seen from the space shuttle.

Hubble Space Telescope is back up and running following gyro problem

The Hubble Space Telescope is back to full operations following several weeks in safe mode due to a problem with one of its components.
Space News
The Hubble Space Telescope orbits Earth.

NASA will try bringing the Hubble telescope back online on Friday

The Hubble Space Telescope recently suffered a glitch that made it go into safe mode. On Friday, NASA will attempt to get the telescope up and running again.
Space News
Previous
1...891011121314
Next