All articles
-
Missions
Fourteen Years, Twenty Miles: Curiosity's Wheels Show Their Age in New Close-Up
A new MAHLI close-up from Sol 4963 shows Curiosity's aluminum wheels riddled with cracks and holes after nearly 14 years and 20+ miles of driving across Gale Crater — and NASA says that's still within spec.
-
NASA & Agencies
Two New Galileo Satellites Officially Join Europe's Navigation Constellation
SAT 33 and SAT 34 — the final pair of first-generation Galileo satellites — have officially entered service, with SAT 34 cleared on July 23, 2026, as Europe's aging satnav fleet heads toward a heavier, electric-propulsion successor.
-
Astronomy
A House-Sized Asteroid Just Passed Closer to Earth Than the Moon
Newly discovered asteroid 2026 OD3 buzzed past Earth at 0.6 lunar distances on July 25, one of three close flybys this week that underscore how many small asteroids go undetected until days before arrival.
-
Commercial
Intel Unveils 'Starfire,' Its First Space-Grade System-on-Chip for Government Satellites
Intel Government Technologies is entering the orbital computing market with Starfire, an 18A-process SoC aimed at giving satellites the onboard horsepower for AI-driven image analysis and anomaly detection.
-
Science & Discovery
LIGO's Latest Catalog Sorts Black-Hole Mergers Into Four Distinct Families
A new analysis of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's fifth transient catalog finds statistical evidence for four separate black-hole merger populations — including a rare group of black holes built from earlier mergers.
-
NASA & Agencies
ESA Opens Launch Campaign for FLEX, the First Satellite Built to Watch Plants Glow
ESA is preparing FLEX, the first satellite dedicated to measuring the faint fluorescence plants emit during photosynthesis, for a September 2026 Vega-C launch alongside Copernicus Sentinel-3C from Kourou.
-
Science & Discovery
Black Holes With Past Lives: GWTC-4 Reveals a Hidden Population of Second-Generation Mergers
Mining the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA GWTC-4 catalog, an MIT-led team finds that roughly 14% of merging black holes are themselves products of earlier collisions, with a spin-driven transition near 46 solar masses.
-
Missions
The 'Metallic Waves' of Kaiser Crater Are an Optical Trick — Here's the Geology Underneath
Mars Express imaged a shimmering, metallic-looking dune field on the floor of Kaiser Crater. It's an illusion: bright winter hoarfrost draped over 100-meter dark basaltic dunes, with clays and gullies hinting at a wetter past.
-
Astronomy
Reading the Plasma Around M87*: The First Resolved, Dual-Frequency Map of the Giant's Shadow
A SHAO-led team used the Event Horizon Telescope and the GMVA to build the first spatially resolved, dual-frequency spectral map of M87*, tying the famous 2019 ring to the physical state of plasma near the event horizon at a ~30-microarcsecond transition.
-
Stargazing
The Sun Stirs Again: Sunspot AR4494 Fires an M3 Flare as Three Regions Crackle Into Late July
Sunspot AR4494 threw an M3.2 flare on July 26 while regions 4495 and 4496 added C-class pops. Earth's magnetic field stayed quiet, but forecasters put the odds at 45% for another M-flare and 10% for an X-flare over the next 24-48 hours.
-
Science & Discovery
Europa's Ocean May Be Sealed Off: New Model Shows Cracks Freeze Shut Before Water Reaches the Surface
A Nature Astronomy study led by Rutgers' Lujendra Ojha finds that water rising through Europa's ice-shell fractures supercools and clogs with frazil ice, freezing narrow cracks shut within hours - reshaping where Europa Clipper and JUICE should hunt for habitable niches.
-
Missions
Expedition 74 Trio Rides Soyuz MS-28 Home After 241 Days in Orbit
NASA's Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev landed on the Kazakh steppe aboard Soyuz MS-28 on July 26, 2026, ending an eight-month mission as Jessica Meir took command of Expedition 75.
Page 4 of 45