The search for extraterrestrial life is targeting Jupiter’s icy moon Europa NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will travel to one of Jupiter’s largest moons to look for evidence of conditions that could support life. by Stephen Ornesarchive page February 19, 2024 We’ve known of Europa’s existence for more than four centuries, but for most of that
Last May, scientists reported that they’d successfully grown plants in moon soil for the first time. At the University of Florida’s Space Plants Lab in Gainesville, a dozen Arabidopsis thaliana plants germinated and grew, each in a few teaspoons of lunar regolith — the dusty material that covers much of the moon. “The first surprise was that
Scientists Grow First Plants in Lunar Soil Read More »
Seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station woke to unwelcome news on the morning of November 15, 2021. NASA, the U.S. space agency, was worried. The station was zooming directly into a suddenly dangerous area littered with trash. A collision could damage the spacecraft. And that could threaten the safety of everyone inside. NASA warned
Space trash could kill satellites, space stations — and astronauts Read More »
The sun hurls giant plasma cannonballs at the Earth. What’s the worst that can happen? In the darkest hours of March 13, 1989, people all across North America noticed something odd overhead. They called friends and neighbors, asking the same question. Have you seen the sky? From New York to Florida, Cuba and Honduras, people
Space weather forecast: Big storms ahead Read More »
Space oddities may help reveal dark matter and other secrets in the Milky Way. Astronomer Warren Brown explains. In April, the European Space Agency released the second massive trove of data from Gaia, a spinning, scanning satellite that for nearly five years has been spying on a billion stars. Its goal is to produce a
Unbound and Out: Boosted by black holes, stars speed off, leaving clues behind Read More »
Frank Borman was probably the first person to barf in space. Borman was part of NASA’s Apollo 8 mission, which lifted off a launch pad in Florida on December 21, 1968. Over the next six days, the mission made history as it circled the moon and returned home. But Borman, who led the mission, became
En route to Mars, astronauts may face big health risks Read More »
If aliens ever sent us a message, scientists hope to pick it up in a remote part of northern California. There, in a clearing nestled amid the volcanoes of the Cascade Range, 42 radio dishes point together at the sky. The dishes, each 20 feet across, form a single, giant scientific instrument called
I wrote about the end of the space shuttle program for Science News for Kids. Here’s the whole story.
The hunt for dark matter is on, and scientists are looking for the mysterious stuff on Earth and in space. I wrote about recent efforts to detect dark matter for the July-August 2009 issue of Discover magazine. Read the article here.
8 Ways Scientists Look at—But Don’t Yet See—Dark Matter Read More »
Just as earthquakes help scientists learn about the interior of our planet, the way a star’s surface oscillates yields clues to its internal structure and other key characteristics. Researchers with the Kepler Asteroseismic Investigation are putting that concept to work on a grand scale, monitoring the surface vibrations of thousands of stars to learn their ages,
A Shaking Star Soon Shares Its Secrets Read More »
