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Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
This site is maintained by the Mars Communications Team atNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Mars Communications Manager: Claire Powell NASA Official: Debra Hernandez Site Manager: Melody Ho Editor: Jane Platt CL#: 19-6952
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Scientists reveal never-before-seen map of the Milky Way’s central engine (image)
The Milky Way is our home galaxy, but how well do we actually know it? As part of a NASA-funded project, a team led by Villanova University researchers has obtained a never-before-seen view of the central engine at the heart of our galaxy. The new map of this central region of the Milky Way, which…
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Astronomers reveal one of the most detailed pictures of an exploded star ever taken
This billowing mass of dust filaments and gas tendrils stretching across 100 light-years of space like delicate lace is the Vela supernova remnant — scattered ashes of a star that exploded about 11,000 years ago. The image was acquired by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-Meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo…
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How radar helps us see what’s in space
Photo: pixabay For most of our history, astronomy has been a strictly spectator sport. We observed and studied the light and other radiation that objects in the cosmos happened to be sending in our direction. These days, we are exploring the Solar System using spacecraft to fly-by, orbit or even land on other planets and…
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Hubble Space Telescope Captures Beautiful New Images of Jupiter
The many large storms and small white clouds seen in the new Hubble images, taken on January 5 and 6, 2024, are evidence for a lot of activity going on in Jupiter’s atmosphere right now. Jupiter is revisited by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in these images, taken on January 5-6, 2024, capturing both sides…
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James Webb Space Telescope spots the icy building blocks of life swirling around infant stars
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have identified several of the icy building blocks of life in the gas and dust swirling around two infant stars, or “protostars.” The molecules spotted range from relatively simple molecules like methane to complex compounds like acetic acid and ethanol. Complex organic molecules (COMs) in solid, icy form had…
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James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe
Astronomers have used the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes to confirm one of the most troubling conundrums in all of physics — that the universe appears to be expanding at bafflingly different speeds depending on where we look. This problem, known as the Hubble Tension, has the potential to alter or even upend cosmology…
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JWST helps spot smallest free-floating brown dwarf
An image of star cluster IC 348, captured by Webb’s NIRCam. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and K. Luhman (Penn State University) and C. Alves de Oliveira (European Space Agency) “One basic question you’ll find in every astronomy textbook is: What are the smallest stars [to exist in the universe]? That’s what we’re trying to…
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13 Things Space Tourists Should Know Before Traveling to Space, According to Astronauts
For most of human spaceflight history, those lucky enough to reach the stars were professional astronauts hired and trained by government agencies around the world. But since the early 2000s, when seven intrepid travelers paid millions to spend a few days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), space tourism has begun to take off. We’re…
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Live Updates: SpaceX Prepares to Launch Third Starship Flight
March 14, 2024, 9:15 a.m. ET Editing spaceflight news Starship on the launch tower, as a pair of jet planes pass by.Chandan Khanna/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images For its third test flight, Starship aims to fly part of the way around the Earth, starting from SpaceX’s launch site in Boca Chica Village, Texas, and splashing…