Deep Space

A collection of 56 posts

Deep Space

Psyche Nails Mars Gravity Assist, Puts Instruments to the Test Ahead of 2029 Asteroid Arrival

NASA's Psyche spacecraft completed a successful flyby of Mars, using the planet's gravity to speed itself toward a metal-rich asteroid in the main belt. The May 15 maneuver placed the spacecraft on the trajectory needed to rendezvous with its target in the summer of 2029,

Launch

Roman Space Telescope Set for August 30 Falcon Heavy Launch, Eight Months Ahead of Schedule

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to lift off at 7:20 a.m. on August 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The 42-foot-long observatory is designed to image more than 50 times as much sky in

Deep Space

Juno Measures Europa's Ice Shell at 29 Kilometers, Deepening the Case for a Thick Crust

NASA's Juno spacecraft has produced the first measurement able to distinguish between competing models of Europa's ice shell, placing the average thickness of the moon's cold, conductive ice at 29 kilometers in the region observed. The result, drawn from a single flyby, pushes a

Deep Space

Sun Holds 55 Percent More Silver Than Earlier Estimates, Uppsala Study Finds

Researchers at Uppsala University have determined that the Sun contains 55 percent more silver than previous calculations indicated. The revised estimate, produced with a more realistic model of the solar atmosphere, resolves a long-standing mismatch between the silver measured in the Sun and the amount found in ancient meteorites.

Deep Space

NASA Puts $2.1 Billion Price on Nuclear Mars Spacecraft, Science Payload Not Included

NASA is spending more than $2.1 billion to develop a nuclear-powered spacecraft intended for Mars, according to reporting this week. The figure covers the spacecraft alone and does not include the cost of the science mission it would carry, meaning the true program cost is substantially higher than

Launch

NASA Sets August 30 Launch for Roman Space Telescope on Falcon Heavy

NASA has opened media accreditation for the launches of its Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the SpaceX Crew-13 mission, both targeting liftoff in the coming months. The Roman observatory is slated to launch no earlier than 7:20 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, aboard a SpaceX

Deep Space

Helium Escape Reveals Atmosphere on Rocky Habitable-Zone Planet 48 Light-Years Away

Astronomers have detected helium escaping from LHS 1140 b, a rocky super-Earth orbiting within the habitable zone of a small red star about 48 light-years away. The signal is the first clear evidence of an atmosphere around a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star. It

Deep Space

China's Tianwen-2 Reaches Earth's Quasi-Moon, Captures First Images of Kamo'oalewa

China's Tianwen-2 probe has reached Kamo'oalewa, the most stable of Earth's known quasi-satellites, capturing the first-ever images of the asteroid from a distance of about 20 kilometers on July 2, 2026. The rendezvous marks the end of a 400-day journey

Deep Space

Tianwen-2 Reaches Asteroid 2016H03 After Billion-Kilometer Cruise

China's Tianwen-2 probe has arrived at asteroid 2016H03, closing out a journey of more than 1 billion kilometers over roughly 400 days, China's state space administration announced. The spacecraft is now close enough to begin investigating the asteroid, the first step toward its central goal

Deep Space

Japan's Veteran Hayabusa2 Enters Planetary Defense Role With Asteroid Flyby

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft executed a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, July 5, in a mission framed as a test of technology that could help protect Earth from asteroid impacts. The maneuver opens a new phase for a probe that had already completed its primary science

Launch

Robotic Servicer Launches to Raise Orbit of NASA's Swift Observatory

A Katalyst Space commercial robotic spacecraft called LINK is set to launch no earlier than Friday, July 3, from Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, tasked with raising the orbit of NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory satellite. If successful, it will be the first time

Deep Space

Vera Rubin Observatory Opens Decade-Long Survey With World's Largest Digital Camera

The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile officially began its Legacy Survey of Space and Time on June 30, 2026, launching a 10-year imaging campaign of the southern sky. The survey aims to create the most comprehensive, cinematic record of the universe in history, capturing everything from

Deep Space

Hayabusa2 Targets July 5 Flyby of Asteroid Torifune in One of the Closest Encounters Ever Attempted

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft is on course to fly within about 1 kilometer of the near-Earth asteroid Torifune on July 5, in what mission scientists describe as one of the closest asteroid encounters ever attempted by a spacecraft of its class. The maneuver extends the mission of a

Deep Space

Webb Detects Water in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS With 30 Times More Heavy Hydrogen Than Solar System Comets

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, released June 22, 2026, reveal that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS contains water with an unusually high concentration of deuterium and an anomalously low level of carbon-13. The deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in the comet is more than 30 times higher

Deep Space

NASA Advances DAPHNE Twin-Satellite Mission to Study How Earth Weather Disrupts Space

NASA has selected the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer, known as DAPHNE, to enter Phase B of development, a heliophysics mission designed to investigate how turbulence in Earth's lower atmosphere ripples upward to disrupt the space environment. By detailing how terrestrial and solar forces collide, the mission aims to

Markets

NASA Bets Mars Atmospheric Mission on Relativity Space's Unproven Terran R

NASA announced a public-private partnership with Relativity Space to deliver an atmospheric-science payload to Mars, with the agency providing instruments and the company supplying the spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations. The deal hands a NASA planetary science mission to a company whose only rocket, Terran 1, never reached

Deep Space

Methane Detection in Comet 3I/ATLAS Points to Origin Beyond Our Solar System

James Webb Space Telescope data has confirmed the presence of methane in Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever detected passing through our solar system. The chemical finding indicates the comet formed in a fundamentally different environment than comets native to this solar system. 3I/ATLAS joins a short

Deep Space

NASA's Roman Space Telescope Reaches Final Assembly Eight Months Ahead of Schedule

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has entered final preparation for launch while running eight months ahead of its original development timeline, marking a rare acceleration for a flagship space observatory. The shift represents a significant departure from recent history, when the James Webb Space Telescope slipped 14

Deep Space

NASA's Mars Atmosphere Mission Finds Unexpected Discovery in Final Data Before Shutdown

NASA announced it has concluded the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN mission) after having lost contact with the spacecraft for six months. However, analysis of the probe's final transmissions revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon at Mars. The discovery underscores how extended planetary missions continue producing scientific

Deep Space

Astronomers End 50-Year Quest, Confirm Black Hole Winds From Sagittarius A*

Astronomers at Northwestern University have detected powerful winds streaming from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole anchoring the Milky Way's center. The discovery, announced June 5, 2026, confirms a half-century of theoretical predictions that all active black holes should generate outflows capable of reshaping their host galaxies.

Deep Space

NASA Ends MAVEN Mission After 11 Years and Six Months of Silence

NASA officially declared the MAVEN orbiter dead on June 3, 2026, ending a decade-plus mission that transformed understanding of Mars' habitability. Contact with the spacecraft was lost in late 2025 during a pass over the Martian far side, and six months of intensive recovery efforts failed to restore

Deep Space

Astronomers Map Magnetic Fields on Distant Planets by Tracking Supersonic Winds

An international team has detected magnetic fields on exoplanets for the first time, using wind measurements from seven "hot Jupiter" worlds to reveal how these planets retain their atmospheres against extreme stellar bombardment. The discovery, published in early June 2026, provides astronomers with a new method to assess

Deep Space

Universe's Accelerating Expansion May Not Need Dark Energy, Mathematicians Argue

A team of mathematicians has published research challenging one of cosmology's central pillars: the existence of dark energy. The scientists argue that mathematical errors in how the cosmic microwave background is interpreted could fully account for observed cosmic expansion without invoking the mysterious force that has dominated astrophysics

Deep Space

Meteor Explodes Over Massachusetts with Force of 300 Tons of TNT

A meteor traveling at 75,000 miles per hour broke apart above northeastern Massachusetts on May 31, releasing energy equivalent to 300 tons of TNT. The explosion occurred at 40 miles altitude around 2 p.m. EDT, generating shock waves powerful enough to rattle windows and trigger audible booms across

Deep Space

James Webb Discovers Supermassive Black Hole That Predates Its Own Galaxy

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected a 50-million-solar-mass black hole in a galaxy more than 13 billion light-years away that appears to have formed before the galaxy itself, upending a foundational assumption in cosmology about how the universe assembled itself in the first billion years