Space

A total solar eclipse will darken U.S. skies on April 8, 2024. Heres what to know about the rare event.

Excitement is growing across the U.S. as a long-awaited total solar eclipse finally arrives today. Here’s where you can see theApril 8 solar eclipseand how and when to watch it. When is the total solar eclipse? The 2024total solar eclipsebegins on Mexico’s Pacific Coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT, on Monday, April 8. It then travels across parts of the …

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4 asteroids will zoom past Earth on Groundhog Day — including one the size of the Empire State Building

Four asteroids will zoom past Earth on Friday — including one space rock as big as a skyscraper that will pass within 1.7 million miles of our planet, scientists say. Don’t worry: There’s no chance of the big one hitting us, since it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object …

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See the 19 spiral galaxies NASA captured on the smallest scales ever observed past the Milky Way

A “treasure trove” of stunning new images showing 19 spiral galaxies have been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the European Space Agency said on Monday. The images reveal “stars, gas, and dust on the smallest scales ever observed beyond our own galaxy,” the Milky Way, the agency said. According to the agency, researchers are analyzing the new images …

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SpaceX launches Northrop Grumman cargo ship to space station

SpaceX launched its third flight in less than three days Tuesday, firing off a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida carrying more than four tons of science gear, equipment and crew supplies, including ice cream, fresh fruit and cheese, on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9, using a first stage booster making its 10th flight, thundered …

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Japanese flight controllers re-establish contact with tipped-over SLIM moon lander

Japanese flight controllers re-established contact with the robotic SLIM lunar lander Saturday, eight days after the spacecraft tipped over and lost power as it was touching down on Jan. 19, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced Sunday. An engine malfunction moments before landing caused the Smart Landing for Investigating (the) Moon, or SLIM, spacecraft to drift to one side during …

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Virgin Galactic launches 4 space tourists to the edge of space and back

Virgin Galactic’s winged rocketplane carried a two-man crew and four passengers to the edge of space and back Friday, chalking up the company’s 11th sub-orbital spaceflight and its sixth commercial mission. With veteran pilots C.J. Sturckow and Nicola Pecile at the controls, the Unity spacecraft was carried aloft from New Mexico’s Spaceport America by Virgin Galactic’s twin-fuselage ferry ship Eve, …

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Japans powered-down "Moon Sniper" lunar lander achieves major goals, despite engine malfunction

One of two engines powering a Japanese moon lander during itsdescent to the lunar surfaceJan. 19 suffered a malfunction of some sort just 160 feet above the lunar surface that sharply reduced its power, the Japanese space agency said Thursday. The spacecraft touched down at a safe, lower-than-expected velocity, but it was moving too fast sideways because of the unbalanced …

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NASAs Mars helicopter, first to fly on another world, ends marathon mission with rotor damage

Designed to fly just five times over 30 days, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter lasted nearly three years, soaring across the surface of Mars and logging 72 flights before a hard or tilted landing that damaged one or more rotors forced flight controllers to finally bring the marathon mission to a close. Just as the Wright brothers “unlocked the skies on Earth…we …

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