Jul 25 Watch 6:03 Life on Mars? Watery new discovery raises tantalizing possibilities By Miles O'Brien Scientists have finally found for the first time a large watery reservoir beneath the southern ice cap of Mars. Radar suggests it is more than 12 miles wide and similar in some ways to lakes found beneath the Greenland and… Continue watching
Jul 25 Mars has a giant hidden lake. Could there be life in it? By Lee Billings, Scientific American Deep beneath the frigid surface of its southern ice cap, Mars holds a lake of liquid water nearly three times larger than the island of Manhattan. Continue reading
Jul 21 Who owns the moon? A space lawyer answers By Frans von der Dunk, The Conversation Since the beginning of the space race, the United States knew that for many people around the world the sight of a U.S. flag on the Moon would raise major political issues. Continue reading
Jul 20 NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will ‘shake’ hands with sun, thanks to small push from Venus By Anna Kusmer With the Parker Solar Probe, NASA must strike the perfect balance between flying close enough to collect data but not so close that it burns up. Here’s what the mission will take. Continue reading
Jun 27 ‘Oumuamua, the first known interstellar visitor, is just a comet By Nola Taylor Redd, Scientific American Oumuamua is almost certainly a comet, albeit one fittingly alien from those we find orbiting the sun, according to a new study published Wednesday. Continue reading
Jun 27 Hayabusa2, a Japanese spacecraft, arrives at Ryugu asteroid to retrieve minerals By Jeremy Hsu, Scientific American If all goes according to plan, two spacecraft will commence close encounters with two asteroids by the end of August, in order to retrieve organic materials dating back to the solar system’s birth. Continue reading
Jun 24 Will launching plants into orbit yield new medicines? By Eric Boodman, STAT A team of biologists and chemists hopes that this alien environment might prod these floral cosmonauts into producing new and improved molecules for drugs. Continue reading
Jun 21 Why a U.S. ‘Space Force’ is ‘premature’ but ‘inevitable’ By Nsikan Akpan What would a space force look like? Why now? Will NASA play a role? Three experts, including a retired Air Force Lieutenant General, explain the rationale behind President Trump's announcement. Continue reading
Jun 20 The science behind the summer solstice By Stephen Schneider, The Conversation The summer solstice brings the longest day and shortest night of the year for 88 percent of Earth’s people. Continue reading
Jun 13 NASA Rover knocked out as giant dust storm engulfs Mars By Amel Ahmed, KQED Flight controllers tried late Tuesday night to contact Opportunity, but the rover did not respond. The storm has been growing since the end of May and now covers one-quarter of the planet. Continue reading