CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The private Athena lunar lander is on its way to the moon. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off shortly after sunset this evening (Feb. 26), carrying Athena and NASA’s ride-along Lunar Trailblazer orbiter aloft against a darkening sky here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Athena — which was built … Read more
NASA will soon launch a new telescope which it says will create the “most colourful” map of the cosmos ever made. The SPHEREx telescope is relatively small but will provide a humongous amount of knowledge in its short two-year mission. It is an infrared telescope designed to take spectroscopic images – ones that measure individual … Read more
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander – which is already circling the moon – will touch down on the lunar surface on Sunday, March 2! But before that EarthSky will get an exclusive insider look at the mission and the lander. At 12:15 p.m. CST (18:15 UTC) on Thursday, February 27, Firefly’s future … Read more
Researchers study enigmatic asteroid Kamo’oalewa, as China’s first asteroid sample return mission moves toward launch. China is about to get in to the asteroid sample return game. The CNSA (China National Space Administration) has recently announced that its Tianwen-2 mission has arrived at the Xichang Space Center. The mission will launch this May, on a … Read more
Astronomers have been forced to reassess the origins of mysterious, rapid radio wave blasts called “fast radio bursts” (FRBs). This rethink was brought about by an FRB first detected last year, which has been traced back to the “cosmic graveyard” of a massive “dead” galaxy filled with ancient stars located 2 billion light-years from Earth. … Read more
Across south-west Australia, Aboriginal peoples have long built lizard traps by propping up rocks on granite outcrops. Now, it’s been found that these traps are not just culturally important but ecologically important too, providing reptiles with habitat and vital shade. “Granite outcrops are ancient, biodiverse, and culturally significant ecosystems that are at risk from contemporary … Read more
EarthSky’s Kelly Kizer Whitt said, “In January 2025, I was hiking in Haleakala National Park in Hawaii when I saw my 1st and 2nd-ever fogbows.” A fogbow is also a white rainbow or ghost rainbow. Watch Kelly’s video here or on YouTube. A fogbow, or white rainbow Have you ever seen a white rainbow? These … Read more
According to Darwin, life on Earth may have first appeared in warm little ponds. This simple idea is also a cornerstone in our search for the origin of life. The ponds were rich in important chemicals, and when lightning struck, somehow, it all got going. If the idea is correct, the same thing may have … Read more
The MAPP rover will hold three of MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative’s payloads. (Credit: Lunar Outpost) Editor’s note: This article was first published March 29, 2024, and has been updated. After becoming the first commercial operator to land a spacecraft on the Moon last year, Intuitive Machines is preparing its follow-up mission, IM-2, for launch later … Read more
There’s more evidence, if it was required, that Mars once hosted cool water in large volumes, which would have been an environment well-suited for microbial life to evolve on the Red Planet. Two new pieces of research released this week dovetail nicely with a third which describes a new method to detect fossils of microbial … Read more