Some of Uranus’ moons might be able to support life. Here’s what a mission might reveal

For sure, it was a far-reaching recommendation: The planet Uranus and its moons should be NASA’s highest-priority new flagship mission for startup in the decade 2023-2032. The proposed mission, known as Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP), would conduct a multiyear orbital tour to yield knowledge of ice giants in general and the Uranus system in … Read more

NASA delays historic Artemis 2 moon mission to April 2026, Artemis 3 lunar landing to mid-2027

We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the first crewed moon mission since the Apollo era lift off. NASA announced today (Dec. 5) that it’s delaying the planned launch of Artemis 2, a flight that will send four people around the moon and back, from September 2025 to April 2026. And Artemis 3, … Read more

A look back at NEOWISE, the NASA mission that cataloged objects around Earth for over a decade

WISE, NEOWISE’s predecessor mission, imaged the entire sky in the mid-infrared range. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/UCLA The NASA project NEOWISE, which has given astronomers a detailed view of near-Earth objects – some of which could strike the Earth – ended its mission and burned on re-entering the atmosphere after over a decade. On a clear night, the … Read more

MAUVE: An Ultraviolet Astrophysics Probe Mission Concept

For the past thirty years, NASA’s Great Observatories – the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes – have revealed some amazing things about the Universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the Universe provided by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided insight into the unseen parts of the … Read more