October 2026

Ceres' Water Ice Can Mask Massive Surface Salt Deposits

The dwarf planet Ceres is arguably one of the most overlooked and underappreciated planetary objects in the entire…

Space Outposts Beyond the Moon May Rely on Planetary AI

NASA plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 for the first time since Apollo 17…

New gel fuel could make rocket and satellite propulsion easier to control

A kerosene-based gel developed by Concordia researchers could make rocket and satellite fuels easier to store and control.

The Sky Today on Saturday, October 31: Glimpse the ghostly Phantom Galaxy

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

APOD: 2026 October 31 – Night on a Spooky Planet

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 31 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About…

Scientists smash oxygen nuclei to recreate matter from the Big Bang

Scientists have recreated a primordial state of matter from the dawn of the universe by colliding oxygen nuclei…

Hera Probe Sees Asteroid Pair Separately for First Time

Planetary defense is a growing concern among the scientific community, as efforts have been made to design and…

Watch Sophie Adenot’s second spacewalk live

From the ESA Blogs.

Third spacewalk completed for Sophie Adenot

From the ESA Blogs.

Third spacewalk completed for Sophie Adenot

From the ESA Blogs.

Figuring out where cosmic neutrinos come from is tricky—radio telescopes could help find 'ghost particles' origin

Neutrinos are funny little particles that weigh almost nothing, making them one of the universe's most elusive building…

SpaceX closes out October with 700th Falcon 9 launch to date

The Starlink 15-18 mission will add another 27 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites to SpaceX’s megaconstellation.

SpaceX Completes Three Static Fires in Three Days for Flight 15

In eight days, SpaceX completed all engine testing for Flight 15, some cryo-proof and catch… The post SpaceX…

What Could Split a Black Hole in Two?

We all know that black holes can collide. It has happened since black holes began to form, early…

Queen's University Belfast Students Find Neptune's Elusive Trojan Asteroids

Astronomers at Queen’s University Belfast have led an international team studying new solar system bodies near Neptune, helping…

Armstrong Images

CRAVE

The CERES Radiation Validation Experiment (CRAVE) provides continuous world-class surface radiation measurements and validation of CERES and other…

Tiny photonic chip links telescopes together to view the universe in 'astonishing' detail

A tiny glass chip developed by researchers at Heriot-Watt University has linked two telescopes together to enable them…

Cosmic Origins Announcements, 30 Oct 2026

Cosmic Origins Announcements: COR at AAS249, SIG Seminars, and Farewell Swift!

NASA Releases MAX POWER Key Events for Media, Participants

America’s newest aerospace expo and air show – MAX POWER – is fast approaching, and NASA has announced…

DPS 58: Days 3 and 4

Days 3 and 4 of the 58th Division for Planetary Sciences meeting brought insights from subsurface ice on…

This Ancient Meteorite Hints at Mars' Warm, Wet Past

Ancient Martian meteorites are like time-capsules from the planet's past. They're delivered to us by impacts that launch…

ESI supplying solar array components to missile defense programs

Oct. 30, 2026 – ESI Motion Inc. is proud to announce that it is supplying the Solar Array…

Government Spending on Civil Space Topped $42 Billion in FY2026

Government spending on civil space activities is more than just NASA. A new Aerospace Corporation report details the…

Space Crops and Advanced Tech Wrap Up Week Following Spacewalk

Space crops research wrapped up the week following the completion of the first of two power upgrade spacewalks…

A gamma-ray powerhouse's smoking gun? Gas trail points to microquasar jets

In 2016, a binary star system emitting unusually strong gamma rays was discovered in our galactic neighborhood.

This Gamma-Ray Burst Wasn't Dim, It Was Just Misunderstood

In March 2026, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a GRB with an unusual light signature.

Analysts find looming launch crisis is "more severe" than anticipated

There's no evidence that Starship will launch traditional satellites, either.

The Cosmic Sulfur Depletion Problem Extends to Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS

John W. Noonan et al 2026 ApJL 1007 L42 Hubble Space Telescope observations of 3I/ATLAS show that the…

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Captures Eerie Cat’s Head

Intricate structures within the Cat’s Head Nebula are illuminated in this mid-infrared view from NASA’s James Webb Space…

Turkey aims for first Moon-orbiting mission in 2027

This is the first of a pair of Turkish flights to the Moon.

What happened this month at the European Space Agency? (October 2026)

October was a month of discoveries and milestones. ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover team trained in Spain’s desert, preparing…

NASA Explores Potential Commercial Servicing for Hubble Telescope

NASA issued a Request for Information Oct. 29 to learn more about industry capabilities for in-space servicing to…

2026 Honor Awards Appreciation Program

November 4, 2026 2026 Honor Awards Appreciation Program Wednesday, November 4, 2026 Ceremony: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.

A City Doesn’t Grow at One Speed

Using decades of Landsat and Sentinel-2 images, researchers discover the Urban Pulse to help track the cycles and…

A drive to remember

Perseverance’s record-breaking drive distance is in the spotlight. Plus, Hera is getting close enough to spy its two…

NASA's Voyager 1 conserves power, resolves brief communications pause

NASA's Voyager team is celebrating two recent developments with the Voyager 1 spacecraft: In September, they successfully completed…

Week in images: 26-30 October 2026

Week in images: 26-30 October 2026

JWST reveals a distant galaxy that may let most of its ionizing radiation escape

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have found evidence that a distant, exceptionally blue galaxy may…

NASA's TRACERS first results offer peek into violent magnetic process

NASA's TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission has gathered its first clues to how space…

Artemis III: Paving the Way to Lunar Landings

NASA Human Landing System engineers discuss the Artemis III lunar lander test articles and docking operations that will…

Sentinel-6B enters service

Sentinel-6B enters service

Adrianos Golemis

From the ESA Blogs.

Extraterrestrial detection inspired by firefly communications could distinguish alien signals from pulsars

When we think of extraterrestrial intelligence that might be out there among the stars, we tend to think…

Earth’s “Impenetrable” Space Radiation Shield Was Just Breached From Within

Remember the big solar storm back in May 2024? The one that caused auroras as far south as…

Telesat Stays Quiet on C$2.4B GEO Debt Due in December

Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg told analysts the company was “pretty constrained” in what it could say about refinancing…

New dwarf planet discovered by Rubin?

Astronomers using the Rubin Observatory have discovered a new dwarf planet candidate.

Physicists created a tiny universe and watched time emerge without a clock

Scientists have created a miniature universe in the laboratory that could help answer one of the biggest mysteries…

Could the Taurid meteors bring a risk of airbursts in 2026?

A researcher says the Taurid meteor shower could bring an increased risk of an airburst in 2026.

Ghostly white animals: What’s the cause?

Happy Halloween! They might look ghostly, but white animals are not ghosts.

Ground Qualification Testing Begins for Callisto Reusable Rocket Demonstrator

The French space agency CNES has announced the start of ground qualification testing for the Callisto reusable rocket…

Daylight Time ends Sunday: 7 tips to help you adjust

Daylight Time ends on November 1, 2026. Here are 7 tips from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine…

Hubble reveals a stunning twist in how the universe emerged from darkness

A surprising discovery by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope is challenging a leading explanation for how the…

AI/ML STIG Lecture Series, 2 Nov 2026

Skills and Benchmarks. Speaker: Tousif Islam (UT Austin)

GR SIG Seminar, 30 Oct 2026

FLAG SAG Report Discussion. Speakers: Liz Hays / Henric Krawczynski 12:00pm ET

November’s Night Sky Notes: Light-Day Away

Twin Travelers In 1977, NASA launched twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2, taking advantage of a once-every-175-year planetary…

Laser-generated muons image hidden objects

Artificially produced particles could probe structures that are inaccessible to X-ray radiography

Earth from Space: Champi’s eerie eye

From the ESA Blogs.

Halloween is an astronomy holiday. It’s a cross-quarter day

A cross-quarter day falls between an equinox and a solstice. Halloween is the year's 4th cross-quarter day and…

The Witch Head Nebula rises near Orion on Halloween

The Witch Head Nebula rises near the star Rigel in Orion on Halloween night, but it's too faint…

The Sky Today on Friday, October 30: Mars approaches Leo

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

Europe Begins Funding Offensive In-Space Capabilities

If the best defense is a good offense, then announcements in the European space sector this week are…

Astronauts just gave the International Space Station a powerful upgrade

Two astronauts completed a 7-hour, 11-minute spacewalk to install a new solar array on the International Space Station…

The Sky This Week from October 30 to November 6: The Moon jockeys with Jupiter and Mars

Friday, October 30Take a peek over at Pisces this evening before moonrise to look for its famous Circlet…

APOD: 2026 October 30 – Haunting the Cepheus Flare

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 30 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About…

Vega Island Frozen in Fright

The sight of an icy skull-like visage on the Antarctic island could make one’s blood run cold.

A mysterious star system just 16 light-years away may be hiding habitable planets

Astronomers have solved a 170-year-old planetary mystery in a nearby two-star system, discovering that a mysterious wobble was…

Space station experiment to probe plant disease risks for future moon and Mars missions

As NASA and its partners prepare for longer human missions beyond Earth, University of Florida researchers are investigating…

How You Squeeze Planetary Minerals Changes Everything

Studying the interiors of planets is essential for understanding planetary formation, evolution, and their ability to potentially host…

NASA's new UV space telescope will launch in 2031

Most of us could spend our entire lives looking at the night sky and see very few changes.

Slice of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001

Description This slice of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth, was…

Rare 4.1-billion-year-old Martian meteorite reveals clues to planet's ancient past

Scientists at the University of New Mexico have played a key role in identifying a rare, 4.

It's a Ghost! No, It's a Stellar Crèche!

Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) zeroed in on a wispy-looking…

Argotec Raises €50M To Scale Small Sat Manufacturing

NUO Space S.p.A—the space arm of the Milan-based private equity firm—led the round.

Asteroids venturing near white dwarfs don't break directly into dust, study reveals

When asteroids travel too close to white dwarfs, the dense remnants of stars that have exhausted their nuclear…

Examining the Cat's Head Nebula with the Hubble and JWST

Star formation is a complicated process. It involves metallicity, gas temperature and density, dust grains, and stellar feedback…

Spacewalking astronauts unfurl upgraded solar array to boost space station power

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk successfully installed and unfurled the seventh of…

Halloween Aboard the International Space Station

Although no ghouls, goblins, or trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard…

Blue Origin attempts end of year return and eyes Artemis IV selection

With Blue Origin moving towards a potential return to flight by late 2026, NASA has… The post Blue…

A stellar illusion

Behyar Bakhshandeh from Carlsbad, California The emission nebula IC 1318, also known as the Gamma Cygni Nebula, glows…

A Brief-ish History of METI. Part II: From Interplanetary to Interstellar

The latter half of the 20th century saw a major expansion of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)…

Planetary collisions may help young worlds hold on to their atmospheres

A new study lets some of the air out of a long-held theory that growing, rocky planets will…

Spacewalkers Install Roll-Out Solar Array for Power Generation

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronNASA astronaut Anil Menon and CSA (Canadian Space Agency)…

As it happened: spacewalkers install new solar array

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk are performing a spacewalk to install the…

AMMB STIG Seminar, 2 Nov 2026

M2M Technology Gaps. 11am PT / 2pm ET

Built to take the blast: Students test prototype landing pad to make moon landings safer

As NASA works toward a sustained human presence on the moon, researchers at The University of Alabama in…

No Comets Required? How the Growing Earth May Have Created Its Own Water

Earth may not have needed comets and asteroids to deliver its water after it formed and cooled.

NASA-funded Study Details One of Oldest Mars Meteorites Ever Found

When a rose-colored meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2022, no one knew how old it…

NASA’s TRACERS First Results Offers Peek into Violent Magnetic Process

NASA’s TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission has gathered its first clues to how space…

NASA’s TSIS-2 Mission Aces Vacuum, Vibration Testing

The bright white lights reflect off the metallic hardware of a satellite poised for inspection.

NASA Names Troy Asher Armstrong Flight Research Center Director

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Troy Asher director of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards…

NIH–NASA QuSAFE Challenge

The Quantum-Enabled Predictive Preclinical NAMs for Toxicity and Safety (QuSAFE) Challenge, a collaboration between the National Institutes of…

NASA’s Voyager 1 Conserves Power, Resolves Brief Communications Pause

NASA’s Voyager team is celebrating two recent developments with the Voyager 1 spacecraft: In September, they successfully completed…

Rubin observatory reveals two hidden companions of the Milky Way

Preview data from the recently completed NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile point to a wave of…

Cosmic microwave background offers evidence of gas flowing in galaxy clusters

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint glow in the universe dating back to roughly 380,000 years…

Direct Evidence for Outflow Driven by Wolf–Rayet Stars in the Nearby Galaxy PGC 44685

Qian Huang et al 2026 ApJ 1006 167 Observations of a nearby dwarf galaxy suggest that Wolf–Rayet stars…

Colliding Dwarf Planets Created a 'Cat's Tail' 1,000 Astronomical Units Long

The Beta Pictoris system is only about 63 light years away.

Enormous 'Cat's Tail' tells of cosmic collision 63 light-years away

Sixty-three light-years from Earth, in the small, faint constellation known as Pictor (which is Latin for "painter"), there…

Envía tu nombre a Titán a bordo de la misión Dragonfly de la NASA

Read this release in English here. Puede que nunca llegues a surcar los cielos bajo las nubes o…

Grand Theft Astro: Stars' criminal histories could reshape estimates of their internal magnetic fields

Magnetic fields exist in many stars, including the sun. Yet they remain too poorly understood to be reliably…

Send Your Name to Titan Aboard NASA’s Dragonfly Mission

You may never soar under the clouds or over the organic sands of Saturn’s moon Titan, but your…

NASA’s ISAM State of Play: The Industry Standard for Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing

When companies began approaching NASA’s Langley Research Center, asking to be included in the In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and…

Advice for optimizing the space industry with Laura Crabtree

In this episode, Mike Gruss speaks with Laura Crabtree, the CEO of Epsilon3, who is also a former…

NASA’s Hubble Marks Way for Roman Space Telescope

A sweeping barred galaxy takes center stage in this Oct. 22, 2026, image, but the gravitational lensing at…

Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula Lurks Within Sight of NASA’s Hubble, Webb

Like a spectral form rising out of a cold mist, NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes have…

Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula lurks within sight of Hubble and Webb

The NASA/ESA Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescopes recently stared at an eerie star-forming scene within…

Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula lurks within sight of Hubble and Webb

The NASA/ESA Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescopes recently stared at an eerie star-forming scene within…

Modest gamma-ray flash followed by dazzling afterglow points to powerful stellar jet viewed off-axis

A cosmic explosion that announced itself with a modest flash of gamma rays went on to produce one…

Contractor to Civil Servant: NASA Welcomes Jared Spiers

Jared Spiers had an interest in contributing to NASA’s mission long before becoming a civil servant for the…

Oct. 29, 1998: John Glenn returns to space

John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth when he blasted off in Friendship 7 on Feb.

Exploring the Moon

The Moon being so visible has always inspired explorers, scientists and dreamers.

NASA discovers Jupiter’s invisible shield is more complex than Earth’s

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered that Jupiter uses a surprisingly complex system of powerful plasma waves and multiple…

Virgin Galactic Unveils Apeiron, Delays Commercial Flights to Q2 2027

Virgin Galactic introduced Apeiron to the world on Wednesday, drawing from the ancient Greek concept of the boundless…

Einstein's equations may explain the universe without dark energy

Mathematicians have uncovered what they argue is a fundamental flaw in the standard model of the universe, potentially…

Astronauts Begin Spacewalk to Install Roll-Out Solar Arrays

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk began a spacewalk at 7:57 a.m.

Astronomers Solve the Mystery of the Sun’s Spinning Plasma Jets

The torrent of corona related discoveries keeps coming. Lately we’ve covered a variety of potential solutions to the…

Is this our solar system’s future? Scientists spot disk around dead star

Researchers have discovered a white dwarf surrounded by a debris disk with 2 separate rings.

Spooky ghost lights: Believe in them if you dare

Ghost lights are strange lights seen over swamps or bogs. Here are some popular places known for ghost…

SpaceX no longer needs NASA, and that's a problem for America's space agency

"NASA desperately needs SpaceX, and SpaceX knows it, and Elon knows it."

Algol the Demon Star, named for its strange behavior

What's the scariest star in all the heavens? It's Algol the Demon Star, and you can see it…

Primordial black holes could reveal a hidden fifth dimension

Primordial black holes formed in the early universe might experience an extra dimension of space; a recent study…

Astronauts Suit Up to Prepare for Power Upgrade Spacewalk

NASA is streaming live coverage as two astronauts prepare for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

Seraphim Space Launches Space Academy

Thinking of going back to school? Seraphim Space is taking applications.

The Sky Today on Thursday, October 29: Open cluster Collinder 463

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

UK MOD Awards £15 Million Orbital Warfare Project to Astroscale

Japanese space technology company Astroscale has officially announced that its UK-based subsidiary has been awarded a £15 million…

APOD: 29 October 2026 – The Horns of Venus

APOD Science APOD APOD: 29 October 2026 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

Arnab Strikes India

The first named storm of the North Indian Ocean’s cyclone season made landfall along the coast of Andhra…

Meteors don't just burn up. What really happens is far more violent

Scientists have uncovered seven surprising stages that space rocks go through as they hurtle toward Earth, revealing that…

Caltech Names Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman as NASA JPL Deputy

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman has been named Caltech associate vice president and deputy director of NASA’s Jet…

Moon Habitats May Use Layered Mylar to Block Extreme Heat

Living on the Moon, with either trained astronauts or regular civilians, could become a regular occurrence in the…

Virgin Galactic Flies Next-Gen Space Plane to New Home With New Name

Virgin Galactic is back in the spaceflight spotlight with the unveiling of a shiny new object: an updated…

Untied Launch Alliance announces mid-November return to flight for Vulcan rocket

The anticipated launch will be the first for the heavy-lift rocket since a mid-flight nozzle failure on a…

United Launch Alliance announces mid-November return to flight for Vulcan rocket

The anticipated launch will be the first for the heavy-lift rocket since a mid-flight nozzle failure on a…

NASA's New UV Space Telescope Will Launch in 2031

NASA has committed to launching a new, more powerful UV space telescope.

NASA Welcomes Vietnam as Newest Artemis Accords Signatory

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam became the 78th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, joining a growing coalition…

Could next-gen artificial intelligence help map out future space outposts?

Planning a successful trip can be challenging, especially when your destination is in outer space.

Comparing KSC, Starbase construction timelines to understand the development of Starbase, Louisiana

In the world of spaceflight, launch infrastructure is critical for rocket launches.

NASA nears end of space station solar array upgrade with Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 spacewalks

NASA is two spacewalks away from completing a major, years-long upgrade to the International Space Station that will…

Sun's outer magnetic field mapped in 3D for the first time

A team of researchers has produced the first global, three-dimensional estimates of the sun's magnetic field, including the…

NASA Celebrates a Year of Progress Since First X-59 Flight

One year ago, NASA’s Quesst mission made history with the first flight of the X-59 quiet supersonic research…

The last, best hope for space tourism just rolled onto a runway in Arizona

It has been nearly a year since any space tourism flights occurred.

Artemis III SLS Core Stage Joins Boosters at Kennedy

NASA’s Artemis III SLS (Space Launch System) core stage is integrated alongside the twin solid rocket boosters on…

Betelgeuse Is Disturbed By Its Companion Star

Betelgeuse has a close-orbiting companion that disturbs the red supergiant into an egg-like shape.

Mars rover samples what could be one of the oldest rocks on the Martian surface

The Perseverance rover's "Singita" sample may be more than 3.9 billion years old.

Supersonic waves could explain the strange orbits of hot Jupiters and Neptunes

Using advanced new simulations, a team of astronomers in the U.S.

ESA at Spaceport Norway 2026

From the ESA Blogs.

ESA and Norway pen projects for resilient satellite navigation

On 27 October at Spaceport Norway in Oslo, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed new contracts with three…

Ancient Comets Carried Organic Compounds, But They Didn't Survive Crashing Into Earth

Perhaps the biggest mystery we face is life on Earth started. One hypothesis says that comets, which are…

NASA University Challenge Ignites Trajectory of Drone Entrepreneur

Five years ago, Gavin Gardner was a Michigan State University engineering student researching next-generation drone technology as part…

HEASARC Back Online

We are happy to report that the HEASARC web site and services are back online.

DPS 58: Days 1 and 2

News from the 58th meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS): discovering a new dwarf planet…

Astronauts Are Go For Thursday’s Power Upgrade Spacewalk

Mission managers have given the go for Thursday’s spacewalk to install a new roll-out solar array on the…

NASA Selects 19 New Citizen Science Proposals in 2026

So far, 2026 has seen a flood of successes for volunteers who do NASA science, exemplifying NASA’s commitment…

On the Eccentricity Distribution and Tidal Evolution of Transiting Brown Dwarfs

Thiago Ferreira and Malena Rice 2026 AJ 172 111 Short-period brown dwarfs appear to have low orbital eccentricities…

NASA systems engineering team details Habitable Worlds Observatory mission architecture

Finding an Earth-like world beyond the solar system is the holy grail of exoplanet research, and the field…

2024 solar storm triggered ultrarelativistic electrons inside Earth's 'impenetrable barrier'

The Earth is surrounded by an invisible barrier that was thought to prevent highly energetic electrons from reaching…

The Rubin Observatory Finds Its First Dwarf Planet Candidate

The Vera Rubin Observatory found a distant Solar System object before its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and…

Webb Sees Turbulent Star Nursery

In this Webb image released on Oct. 22, 2026, we see a turbulent cauldron of star formation filled…

Flexell Space and Satoro Agree to Collaborate on In-Orbit Demonstration of Next-Generation Space Solar Cells

– Two demonstration missions planned aboard SpaceX Falcon 9, one each in 2027 and 2028 – Satoro to…

NASA’s Lucy Reaches Trojan Asteroid Region 5 Years After Launch

Having traveled more than 2.2 billion miles since it launched on Oct.

The Leap Second is History. Long Live the 'Leap Hour'

Time and time-keeping is a hot topic once again, as many of us ‘fall back’ to Standard Time…

Glowing Salt Crystals Tracked Radiation Aboard Artemis I

There weren’t any humans strapped into the bucket seats of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission.

Shield Space Launches UK Space Superiority Coalition

The UK Space Superiority Coalition brings together space companies across the UK in an effort to build a…

Exclusive: Rendezvous Robotics Raises $20M to Develop Self-Assembling Spacecraft

Rendezvous Robotics is developing technology to allow future satellites to launch in pieces that can self-assemble in space.

Oct. 28, 1971: The U.K. launches a satellite

The Prospero satellite, which launched on Oct. 28, 1971, holds the distinction of being the first and only…

HWO SIG Seminar, 28 Oct 2026

Habitable Worlds Observatory SIG Seminar. 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET

Habitable Worlds Observatory SIG Seminar, 28 Oct 2026

Habitable Worlds Observatory SIG Seminar. 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET

Origins of Uranus and Neptune are surprisingly different

A new study suggests that the origins of Uranus and Neptune are quite different, even though the 2…

Graham Farmelo: ‘What’s really striking is Stephen Hawking’s colossal determination and stubbornness’

Andrew Glester talks to Graham Farmelo, author of a new authorized biography of Stephen Hawking

NASA’s Artemis I mission reveals surprising radiation levels near the Moon

NASA’s Artemis I mission has revealed that cosmic radiation near the Moon is higher than in Earth orbit…

Comets probably didn't seed life on Earth after all, new study suggests

The theory that comets delivered the molecular building blocks for life on Earth is a long-standing one, since…

Goblin sharks, ghost crabs and vampire bats, oh my!

Goblin sharks, ghost crabs and vampire bats: how did these spooky-sounding animals get their names? Learn about them…

The Sky Today on Wednesday, October 28: The Moon hangs with Uranus

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

New contracts to modernise Galileo ground segment for next generation

On 27 October 2026, Indra Space celebrated the signature of two contracts with the European Space Agency, European…

Curiosity Blog, Sols 5043-5049: Preparing to Drill at ‘Nazca’

Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Friday, Oct.

APOD: 2026 October 28 – The Mutual Occultation of Ganymede and Io

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 28 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

The Land of the Standing-Up Rocks

A national monument since the 1920s, Chiricahua is America’s newest national park.

NASA Systems Engineering Team Details HWO Mission Architecture

Finding an Earth-like world beyond the solar system is the Holy Grail of exoplanet research, and the field…

Unveiling Starbirth Mysteries

In 1985, the physicist Heinz R. Pagels wrote, "Stars are like animals in the wild.

Dead Planets Orbiting a Dead Star

When a star like our Sun reaches its end, it becomes a kind of zombie star called a…

A brief-ish history of METI. Part I: Early ideas and experiments

Long before modern astronomy, humans looked to the stars and were astounded by what they saw.

Publications

2026 Wang, Z., Roy, S., Maskey, M. and Ramachandran, R., 2026. The exact LCU sampling overhead of collective…

Adventures in Wildfire Smoke Stratospheric Ballooning

The student ballooning team at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities went to work tracking the plume of…

Ukrainian startup, GomSpace test satellite for future communications network

The companies said the experimental spacecraft, launched Oct. 1, could lead to a Ukrainian-controlled satellite network

Autonomous rendezvous system overcomes simulated spacecraft failures in lab tests

There is a problem in low Earth orbit, and it's growing. According to the European Space Agency, there…

NASA Invites Media to Crew Completion of Yearlong Mars Simulation

The four volunteers who lived and worked in a simulated NASA Mars mission for more than a year…

Spacewalk Preps, Robotics Jobs, and Science Duties Fill Tuesday Schedule

Spacewalking tools and a pair of robotics jobs topped Tuesday’s schedule aboard the International Space Station.

The weird science behind Mars’ weirdest cloud

Scientists believe they may finally have an explanation for a bizarre cloud that appears and promptly disappears each…

Massive Stellar Collisions Could Explain Early Supermassive Black Holes

Dense stellar environments were common in the early Universe. These environments fostered more numerous stellar collisions, and some…

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Reveals Its First Dwarf Planet Candidate in Our Solar System

In the outer reaches of our Solar System, beyond the orbit of Pluto, NSF–DOE Vera C.

First light: Hera resolves two asteroids instead of one

The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft for planetary defense has resolved its two target asteroids separately for the…

NASA’s UVEX Space Telescope Successfully Passes Key Milestone

Agency officials have confirmed NASA’s UVEX space telescope after completing a technical and programmatic review known as Key…

NASA’s Neo Surveyor Sunshade

A technician inspects the large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in this image released on…

NASA, Agriculture Department Partner On Space Data Sharing

The MoU is the second this month signed by the space agency to boost collaboration among government agencies.

HEASARC Website Offline for Upgrades

he High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) website is currently offline while we perform necessary upgrades…

HWO UV-VIS Technology Maturation Study

HWO UV-VIS Technology Maturation Study; Phase 1 Proposals Due 20 November 2026

A small star is eating a brown dwarf so slowly that the meal could last billions of years, and the two orbit each other every 87 minutes inside a space that would fit within the Sun

A small red star is pulling gas from a brown dwarf as the pair circles every 87 minutes…

This Oddbal Reflective Lava World is Challenging to Understand

Exoplanets extremely close to their stars are expected to have lost their atmospheres.

Multiband Optical Photometric Variability of the Blazar OJ 287 from 2015 to 2025

Alok C. Gupta et al 2026 ApJS 286 7 Long-term photometric monitoring shows OJ 287 trending bluer when…

These “Ice Giants” Have a Hot Secret

Astrobites reports on a possible piping-hot secret about the so-called "ice giant" planets in our solar system, Uranus…

Perseverance offers clues to protect crews from ultrafine Mars dust

Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging…

Earth may have formed much of its water as the planet grew

Earth may have produced much of its water during the planet's formation, as rocky pebbles reacted with the…

Radio images reveal disturbances from Betelgeuse's mysterious companion that lurks within its shadows

The well-known star Betelgeuse has a mysterious houseguest—and it's shaking the rafters, rattling the pipes and slamming the…

ESA’s INVICTUS Hypersonic Programme Clears First Major Review

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) INVICTUS hypersonic aircraft programme has cleared its first major requirements review and moved…

India works to rebuild its navigation constellation with upcoming launch

Rocket launches this week On Tuesday, Oct. 27, SpaceX will launch the Starlink Group 15-16 mission from Vandenberg…

Webb links interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS to worlds beyond Neptune through similar ice signatures

A Southwest Research Institute–led study used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar…

First light: Hera resolves two asteroids instead of one

The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft for planetary defence has resolved its two target asteroids separately for the…

Hubble Will Give the Roman Space Telescope a Helping Hand

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will use gravitational microlensing to study dark matter.

Dead star and planetary bodies: astronomers spot unique disc of debris that foretells Solar System’s future

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have found a rare disc of debris…

Oct. 27, 1961: The first Saturn rocket launches

Five months after President John F. Kennedy promised that America would put a man on the Moon, NASA…

OSMOS X Tapped to Lead EDF-backed Tactical Capture Consortium

The Europeans are gearing up for a fight in orbit.

A Deep-Mantle Garnet Might Hold the Secret to Ancient Martian Magma

A history of a planet’s volcanic activity is contained in its rocks.

MP Space Raises AUD $23M to Scale Satellite Battery Manufacturing

MP Space’s batteries launched for the first time last week with an undisclosed customer on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-5 mission…

Russian Military Satellite Flies Within Kilometer of American Satellite Supporting Ukrainian Military

This is the first known instance of a satellite conducting a close rendezvous with a non-consenting target, and…

Starliner to Return to Flight by January, Fly Crew in 2028

On September 28, NASA and Boeing provided an update on the Starliner spacecraft’s Return to Flight, progress made…

Craft Prospect kicks off PERSEUS project to advance optical communications for space

Craft Prospect is working with Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (Fraunhofer CAP) and Vector Photonics on a new…

Lake Powell rises more than 10 feet after heavy rains

After heavy rains in October, Lake Powell has risen more than 10 feet.

James Webb discovers a scorching lava planet with a “giant sunscreen”

A scorching lava planet 280 light-years away has surprised astronomers by apparently maintaining a thick atmosphere despite conditions…

Habitable worlds: Better than Earth? Scientists wonder

Some scientists think there are more habitable worlds than Earth out there.

ESA procures four new Galileo Second Generation satellites

The European Space Agency (ESA) has extended ongoing contracts to build four additional Galileo Second Generation (G2) satellites…

Smithsonian scientists just recreated the first 2 billion years of the Universe

Scientists have created one of the largest and most detailed simulations of the early universe ever made, offering…

Lacerta the Lizard, home to a blazar

Lacerta the Lizard is a small, dim constellation in the autumn sky that contains a blazar, an active…

Hawking, warts and all: a new biography of a scientific icon

Graham Farmelo's biography examines the brilliance and the imperfections of one of the world’s most famous scientists

Why do dolls creep us out? It’s the uncanny valley effect

For many, dolls creep us out. Their lifelike - but not quite human - aspect can trigger the…

The Sky Today on Tuesday, October 27: Follow Kemble’s Cascade

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

How a Johnson Mentor Shapes the Next Generation of NASA Talent

When Rice University student Malvika Bhardwaj asked her mentor Daniel Cohen, a Guidance, Navigation & Control (GN&C) engineer…

APOD: 2026 October 27 – Noctilucent Clouds over Sweden

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 27 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About…

A-81 Reaches South Georgia

The Antarctic iceberg made a relatively quick exit from the Weddell Sea, only to slow at the edge…

Cowboy Space Reveals Big Iron Data Center Rocket

Cowboy Space pulled back the curtain on Big Iron—a launch vehicle whose upper stage is designed to remain…

Asymmetric space waves map pressure on Earth's magnetic shield

The Earth’s magnetic field is responsible for shielding us from harmful space weather, including solar radiation from the…

West Coast Falcon 9 rocket launches 27 Starlink satellites

Liftoff of the Starlink 15-16 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E happened Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 12:25…

27 exoplanet targets for the world's first private space telescope

The Lazuli Space Telescope will be the first private space telescope. It's the brainchild of Eric Schmidt, Google's…

NASA’s Perseverance Views Dust at Neretva Vallis

Description This 360-degree look at Neretva Vallis within Mars’ Jezero Crater was stitched together using 217 images acquired…

A Brief-ish History of METI. Part I: Early Ideas and Experiments

For as long as scientists have conducted SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) experiments, parallel efforts in Messaging Extraterrestrial…

Tinga’s Tale

Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University Oct.

Launch Preview: Falcon 9 and GSLV rockets scheduled to launch

Four rockets are set to launch this week from the United States and India.

NASA’s Perseverance Offers Clues to Protect Crews From Mars Dust

Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging…

NEO Surveyor’s Sunshade Gets Inspected

Description The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is mounted on an assembly ring during inspections…

Solar Cells Inspected on NASA’s NEO Surveyor

Description The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is inspected by a technician at BAE…

Flexell Space Establishes French Subsidiary to Strengthen European Presence

– Paris-based FLEXELL SPACE FRANCE SAS creates a local business hub in Europe– New entity to support ongoing…

NASA SEES Interns Tackle Real-World Challenges in Lunar Exploration

The NASA STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) Internship Program at the University…

A Huge and Powerful New Simulation Helps Explain the Universe's Reionization

Cosmologists have another powerful simulation to work with. Lumina is the one of the largest and most detailed…

Scientists Can Now Spot Hidden Sunspots on the Solar Far Side

Unlike the Moon, the Sun is constantly rotating from our perspective - but we still only see half…

Sunshade for NASA’s NEO Surveyor Mission Ready for Its Day in Sun

Development of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission continues as the spacecraft’s largest component gets closer to how…

Spaceflight Science Foundations (ROSES B.8)

We are seeking virtual panelists and/or external (email) reviewers for Spaceflight Science Foundations (ROSES B.8).

Clouds on a lava planet challenge what astronomers expected

A rocky lava planet once thought to be too extreme to have an atmosphere appears to be wrapped…

NASA Invites Media to Moon Landing Simulation Experience in California

Members of the media are invited to tour a new lunar landing simulator at NASA’s Ames Research Center…

Laser-blasted plasma shows how instabilities could heat the sun's corona

From its visible surface, the sun radiates heat at a relatively cool temperature of 5,800 Kelvin.

Parker Solar Probe Spots Twisted Magnetic Braids Growing in the Solar Wind

The magnetic environment around the Sun is a jumbled mess of chaotic fields and streams of charged particles.

A Merger Solves a Puzzling Paradox in Orion

Some of the Hubble Space Telescope's earliest observations were of the Orion Nebula.

Seeing Red: New Constraints on Origin of JWST’s Little Red Dots

Supercritical accretion of black holes may drive the formation of enigmatic "little red dots."

3D Magnetic Structures of Ellerman Bombs Revealed by SUNRISE III/SCIP

Yusuke Kawabata et al 2026 ApJL 1007 L39 Using a balloon-borne 1-meter telescope, researchers have disentangled the three-dimensional…

Week Begins with Robotics Prep for Spacewalk and Advanced Research

Expedition 75 began the week gearing up for a spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station’s power generation…

NASA’s X-59 Aircraft and Test Pilot

NASA test pilot Mike Lippert poses for a photo ahead of his first time flying the agency’s X-59…

Stellar collisions may have been common when the universe was young

In our solar system's corner of the galaxy, stars rarely collide.

AI/ML STIG Lecture Series, 26 Oct 2026

Retrieval and Memory (RAG and Beyond). Speaker: Kartheik lyer (U of Hawaii, Manoa)

NASA, USDA Sign Agreement Advancing Earth Science, Agriculture

NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding expanding cooperation in Earth…

JWST and ALMA reveal a dusty, rapidly growing black hole in the early universe

A new study reveals a dust-reddened quasar from a time when the universe was less than a billion…

Astranis Upgrades Falcon 9 Launch Contract to Dedicated Mission for Entire Block 4 Production Run of Satellites

SAN FRANCISCO —October 26, 2026—Today, Astranis announced it has upgraded its 4th launch to a dedicated mission aboard…

Oct. 26, 2004: Cassini at Titan

On Oct. 26, 2004, the Cassini spacecraft made its first close pass by Saturn’s planet-size moon, Titan (later…

A New Era for Space Launch? The Coming Falcon 9 Retirement

Falcon 9’s retirement could leave the market up for grabs, as SpaceX finds themselves still in the process…

A 2,700-year-old solar eclipse just revealed something surprising about Earth

A solar eclipse recorded more than 2,700 years ago is revealing surprising secrets about Earth's rotation and the…

FAST and Arecibo point to possible dark galaxy with vast hydrogen reservoir

Astronomers have found a vast reservoir of hydrogen with something conspicuously missing: detectable starlight.

Australia Counters ESA’s Offer for Mission to ISS for Bennell-Pegg

The Australian government has submitted a counteroffer to the European Space Agency (ESA) to secure a flight to…

Galaxies SIG Seminar, 2 Nov 2026

Roman eXtreme Deep Field (RXDF): What it is and What it Will Do. Speaker: Haojing Yan

FCC’s New Part 100 Licensing Framework: What Space Companies Need to Know

In July 2026, the FCC adopted the new Part 100 comms-licensing framework for the authorization of satellite systems…

Ice mission CRISTAL opens its wings

With its solar arrays integrated and key qualification reviews under way, Europe’s new ice-monitoring satellite, CRISTAL, is moving…

The Sky Today on Monday, October 26: Observe the October Hunter’s Moon

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

2026 October 26 – M42: The Great Nebula in Orion

APOD Science APOD 2026 October 26 – M42: The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

APOD: 2026 October 26 – M42: The Great Nebula in Orion

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 26 – M42:… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

Hunting Red Leaves with Satellites

A modern satellite makes it possible to pursue the ancient tradition of leaf-peeping in a whole new way.

Lumina simulation brings the early universe to life on a record-breaking scale

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Nancy Roman Space Telescope are revealing the universe's earliest chapters in…

What’s Happening in Space Policy October 25-November 1, 2026

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of October 25-November 1…

Milky Way's disk grew 'upside down,' with younger stars forming in ever-thinner layers

The Milky Way is home to hundreds of billions of stars arranged in a glorious spiral pattern.

Possible Roberts Road Expansion as SpaceX pushes for Flight 16

As SpaceX prepares to fly Flight 15 in November, with a successful Static Fire test… The post Possible…

How to understand moon phases: 4 tips!

As the moon orbits Earth, we see varying fractions of its day side.

Oct. 25, 1671: Iapetus is discovered

In 1669, French-Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini arrived at the still-under-construction Paris Observatory as its new director.

Three giant black holes discovered in a galaxy from the dawn of time

Astronomers have discovered three actively feeding black holes inside a single galaxy more than 12.

Hunter’s Moon falls on October 25-26, with Saturn nearby

The 2026 October full moon is the Hunter's Moon. It falls around October 25-26.

Pentagon UAP files part 7: Silent black triangles

The 7th batch of the Pentagon UAP files was released on October 23, 2026.

Is the Mars Grand Canyon still tectonically active?

Researchers said the red planet is still tectonically active today.

APOD: 2026 October 25 – Dark Matter in a Simulated Universe

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 25 – Dark… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

Rare Lunar Meteorites Could Fill Gaps In Moon’s Evolution

Almost all meteorites come from asteroids, not the Moon or Mars.

The Sky Today on Sunday, October 25: Dione crosses Saturn

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

Astronomers may have discovered the first moon beyond our Solar System

Astronomers have uncovered evidence of a bizarre, potentially historic discovery: the first moon ever detected beyond our Solar…

How flare ribbons reveal hidden solar explosions on the sun

Many topics in astronomy and astrophysics are esoteric. There's not much of a relationship between something like the…

Oct. 24, 1601: The death of Tycho Brahe

In Astronomy’s 2022 list of the 20 greatest astronomers of all time, Associate Editor Michael Bakich ranked Tycho…

NASA’s asteroid Bennu samples reveal a 4.5-billion-year-old secret

Tiny samples from asteroid Bennu are rewriting scientists' understanding of how our Solar System formed.

Astronomers uncover a mysterious magnetic web above the Sun

The Sun’s seemingly peaceful regions are hiding a surprisingly complex magnetic world.

NASA adopting Apollo's urgency to build a moon base and land astronauts within 2 years

NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar…

The Sky Today on Saturday, October 24: Mercury stands still

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

APOD: 2026 October 24 – Rosetta’s Selfie

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 24 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About…

NASA Artemis Update: SLS Stacking, Sortie Suit, Dual 2028 Paths

NASA released its October Artemis Update on Friday, covering the near-term status of the Space… The post NASA…

White Dwarfs Are Actually…Yellow, Green, Pink, and Purple?

The universe hosts a myriad of star types, including supergiants, giants, main sequence, red dwarfs, brown dwarfs, white…

NASA updates lander plans for Moon landings, finally solves long-festering Orion issue

"We have the mandate, we have the resources, and the support from our stakeholders."

NASA is Full Steam Ahead on Artemis III, IV and V

NASA officials projected confidence today in their plans to launch the Artemis III earth-orbital test flight in mid-2027…

NASA, Partners Accelerate Lander Development for 2028 Moon Missions

As NASA returns humans to the lunar surface and establishes a long-term presence on our closest celestial neighbor…

NASA’s Artemis III Mission to Test Future Moon Lander Operations

Before astronauts return to the lunar surface, NASA will first conduct one of the most ambitious and complex…

27 Exoplanet Targets for the World's First Private Space Telescope

Get ready for the age of private space telescopes. The Lazuli Space Telescope will launch in a few…

NASA’s Swift Mission Ends Ahead of Re-Entry

NASA’s Swift has concluded operations, leaving behind a legacy of innovation and a treasure trove of science observations.

NASA’s Swift Mission Ends, Leaves Behind Scientific Bonanza

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has ended its science mission now that the spacecraft is orbiting less than…

NASA Outlines the Details of Artemis III and IV Missions

NASA is still on track to return US astronauts to the Moon in 2028.

The Largest Canyon in the Solar System is Still Tectonically Active

Scientists at Imperial College London and Columbia University have found that the largest canyon system in the solar…

Announcing the winners of Astronomy Magazine’s 2026 Astrophotography Contest

Astronomy magazine is proud to announce the winners of its 2026 Astrophotography Contest, presented by Celestron — the…

NASA Shares Artemis Acceleration Plans for Moon Missions

In an update Friday, Oct. 23, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other agency leaders provided the agency’s path…

Replay: Satellite Mission Management at the Edge

Explore how emerging technologies and commercial capabilities are transforming satellite operations

Everyday Mylar turned into a promising insulator for lunar habitats

Establishing a long-term presence on the moon will require solving challenges that are easy to overlook on Earth.

Stellar collision may explain why Orion Nebula's planet-forming disks appear younger than its stars

The Orion Nebula is a large star-forming region visible to the naked eye.

RS-25 Engine Tests at NASA Stennis

Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi tested RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct.

Space Industry Access to Capital

How it Works. The initiative leverages privately managed investment funds, known as Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs), that…

NASA’s Dragonfly Completes First Simulated Flight

Separated from its protective backshell, NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft autonomously speeds over the sand dunes of Titan.

Black holes spinning near maximum rate could split in two, calculations suggest

Two black holes can collide and merge into one. But could the opposite happen: could a single black…

Saudi Arabia Joins the Search for Alien Civilizations

Saudi Arabia is joining the search for alien signals coming from the cosmos.

NASA, Virginia Launch Power Partnership for Energy Security

NASA is helping to foster long-term energy security in Virginia. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is…

ALMA spots 'dragon egg' that may represent the earliest stages of massive star formation

Astronomers identified an exceptionally tiny core that may represent an early stage in the formation of a massive…

Advanced Research, Spacewalk Preps End Week as NASA Announces Artemis Status

The Expedition 75 crew worked on a 3D bioprinter and a levitation furnace at the end of the…

Magnetic Field Reversals and Extinctions: The Correlation Won't Go Away.

Scientists have wondered about a connection between Earth's geomagnetic reversals, or pole flips, and mass extinctions.

Radio Observations of the Unusual Tidal Disruption Event AT 2022wtn: A Fast and Highly Energetic Outflow

Gavin Farley et al 2026 ApJ 1006 139 Astronomers continue to find tidal disruption events with diverse properties…

Anybody Home? Black Hole Occupation Fraction Helps Clarify Galactic History

Most galaxies are expected to contain at least one massive black hole, but how robust is this prediction?…

Artemis I: Crystals of experimental detectors record radiation doses near the moon

Do cosmic radiation doses near the moon differ significantly from those received by astronauts in low Earth orbit?…

Pedal to the metal: NASA's Psyche heads toward asteroid belt

With a successful Mars gravity assist in its rearview mirror, NASA's Psyche spacecraft has fired up its thrusters…

NASA's Hubble charts path for Roman with gravitational lenses

A sweeping barred spiral galaxy marks the spot in this image, but the real treasure is the gravitational…

Sudden changes and slow burns

A mission to a Martian moon launches, what the upcoming U.S.

CHAPEA 2: Audio Log 4

The CHAPEA 2 crew shares final reflections from inside their simulated Mars mission, and principal investigator Grace Douglas…

Week in images: 19-23 October 2026

Week in images: 19-23 October 2026

Exclusive: DoD Taps Orbital Operations for Cryogenic Spacecraft Demo

The Long Beach, CA, startup has won up to $35M from the DoD under a prototype Other Transaction…

Oct. 23, 1893: Birth of Ernest Opik

Born Oct. 23, 1893, in Estonia, Ernest Opik was based at the Astronomical Observatory in Tartu from 1921-1944.

Inside Starburst’s First Flight, and Portal’s New Bothell Office

“I feel like 80% success now,” CEO Jeff Thurnburg said. “But honestly, to get this far this fast…

Information for Proposers

Through an open, competitive solicitation process, we provide grants to universities, corporations, and other institutions to explore new…

ESA Director “Not Sure” Themis Will Make Its First Flight in 2026

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Director of Space Transportation, Géraldine Naja, said on 22 October that she was…

Rocket Report: SpaceX says no thanks to military launches; Spanish rocket nearly ready

"We believe Canada should be able to reach orbit on its own terms."

JWST Reveals a Lopsided Alien World with Blistering Evening Winds

Typically, when we think of exoplanets, we think of neat spheres floating directly in front of their star…

Olbers’ paradox asks ‘Why is the night sky dark?’

Olbers' paradox asks why is space dark if the universe is filled with stars.

1st photo of Earth from space, 80 years ago

On October 24, 1946 — 80 years ago — a movie camera on board a V-2 rocket captured…

The Sky Today on Friday, October 23: Nab Neptune near the Moon

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

Earth from Space: The pink city

Image: This image shows a detailed view of the city of Toulouse in southwest France, with its terracotta…

A mineral from the inside of planets reveals a surprising lesson: How you push matters

In the deepest region of the Earth's mantle, just above the core, much of the material consists of…

Spot the craters

Image: A patch on the Moon with red circles represented craters identified by an ESA-developed artificial intelligence model.

European MNOs Join Forces to Explore Joint MSS Spectrum Bid

Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Orange, and Vodafone plan to establish ground network infrastructure across Europe, and partner with an…

The Sky This Week from October 23 to 30: Gaze at the Full Hunter’s Moon

Friday, October 23The Moon passes 5° north of Neptune at 11 P.M.

APOD: 2026 October 23 – Andromeda in Southern Spring

APODScienceAPODAPOD: 2026 October 23 –…Today’s APODArchiveSubmissionsIndexSearchCalendarRSSEducationAboutDiscuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a…

El Niño Then and Now

A 35-year satellite altimetry record lets scientists hold this year’s El Niño up against its strongest predecessors.

NASA Safety Panel Concerned About Artemis IV, Future Access to LEO

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel will soon open a formal recommendation that NASA re-examine plans for the Artemis…

Nearly 3,000 exploding stars challenge our understanding of the Universe

A massive analysis of 2,884 exploding stars has uncovered new evidence that dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating…

Autonomous triangular modules could build tomorrow's mega-observatories

Private companies are getting better at launching more mass into space with larger rockets.

Advancing Astronomy at MIT with X-ray Reverberation Mapping

Professor Erin Kara of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research is helping advance our understanding of…

ISS receives new cargo from Dragon as Crew-12 hands over to Crew-13

Expedition 75 aboard the International Space Station gained four new crew members at the beginning… The post ISS…

Latest estimate for Starship launches required to support a Moon landing? 22.

"We need to keep our eyes on numerous required fuelings for the lander."

NASA Invites Media to 2026 von Braun Space Exploration Symposium

Members of the media are invited to join NASA at the 2026 von Braun Space Exploration Symposium from…

Spiral’s Edge

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image released on Oct. 16, 2026, features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC…

Even the Rubin's Test Camera Produces Stunning Images

The Vera Rubin Observatory's Commissioning Camera operated for about 7 weeks in 2024, before the observatory released its…

NASA’s Mike Lippert Takes Controls of X-59 for First Time

NASA test pilot Mike Lippert put months of simulator training and ground preparation into practice, completing his first…

Moon’s South Pole Not the Only Compelling Location for Human Exploration

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies four locations on the Moon…

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Enters Final Commissioning Phase

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission has now entered the science commissioning phase, having successfully completed a…

Two Disks in One: How Accretion Disks Drive Black Hole Jets

SMBH jets are driven by thick, hot accretion disks with powerful magnetic fields.

Realizing Rapid Reduced-cost high Risk Research (R5)

Rapid, Low-Cost, High-Capability CubeSats for Technology Demonstrations NASA’s Realizing Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research project, or R5, is a…

Rethinking networks in space with Aalyria’s Brian Barritt

In this episode, SpaceNews’ Mike Gruss talks with the CEO of Aalyria Brian Barritt about how networks are…

New Evidence for an Old Prediction: Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes

Theory says that during some SMBH mergers, the merger remnant receives a recoil kick from gravitational waves.

Webb captures stars in the early stages of life in a nearby stellar nursery

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope continues to reveal hidden parts of the cosmos with its advanced suite…

Busy Station Day with Bioprinting, Spacesuit Check, Robotics, and Photography

The Expedition 75 crew had a busy day on Thursday bioprinting blood vessels and trying on a spacesuit…

ROSES-25 D.3 AGIGO: Swift, Fermi, and TESS Second Opportunities

ROSES-25 D.3 AGIGO: Swift, Fermi, and TESS Observatories Second Opportunities; Phase-1 Proposals Due 28 January 2027

Current ROSES Remains Open, Next ROSES in Late 2026

Current ROSES Remains Open, Next ROSES to be Released in Late 2026.

NASA’s Hubble Charts Path for Roman with Gravitational Lenses

This observation is one of many gravitational lensing images taken by Hubble in preparation for science with the…

Supermassive black holes ejected from galactic centers? Quasar survey supports decade-old prediction

By analyzing data on around 100,000 quasars, or extremely luminous galactic nuclei, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)…

Pedal to the Metal: NASA’s Psyche Heads Toward Asteroid Belt

With a successful Mars gravity assist in its rearview mirror, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has fired up its thrusters…

Titania’s Deuterium Abundance and the Origin of Its Water

Stephen C. Tegler et al 2026 Planet. Sci. J. 7 191 Laboratory measurements of vacuum-prepared samples of water…

Seagull Nebula Through the Eyes of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Commissioning Camera

Two years ago this month, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s engineering test camera, named the LSST Commissioning Camera…

From Dusk, Towards Dawn: Venus Slides Past the Sun This Weekend

Where have all the planets gone? Late October 2026 sees a decided dearth of planets in the dusk…

Autonomous Triangular Modules Could Build Tomorrow’s Mega-Observatories

Private companies are getting better and better at launching more and more mass into space with larger and…

Black hole observations uncover evidence of solar storm–like magnetic eruptions

Technion researchers have presented evidence for the existence of solar-storm-like outbursts near supermassive black holes, which can be…

ESA Provides New Details on Failed Space Rider Drop Test

The European Space Agency (ESA) has provided new details about the failed Space Rider drop test, confirming that…

New study traces van Gogh's famed 'Starry Night' to an actual night sky from 1889

Scientists doubling as art detectives have traced Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" to a celestial scene that…

Supernova Explosions First Aided, Then Later Impeded, the Epoch of Reionization

The Epoch of Reionization is when radiation from early galaxies and their stars reionized neutral hydrogen and let…

There should be black holes in our neighborhood. Can we find them?

Scientific estimates show that there should be between about 100 million and 1 billion stellar-mass black holes in…

Curtain-like plasma structures explain solar jets' apparent spinning in simulations

An international team of scientists from the University of Sheffield and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, led by…

350th ESA Council: Media information session

Watch the replay of the media information session where ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair…

Mars’ moon Phobos is destined to become a ring

Phobos, it seems, is not long for this universe — at least on the large cosmic timescale.

Are 'mega-Earths' real? Stellar activity may explain these oversized rocky worlds

A new study suggests that some of the heaviest rocky planets ever reported may not be as heavy…

Xona Raises $250M Series D to Scale Commercial GPS Constellation

Xona’s long-term plan is to build a ~258-sat constellation to offer an upgraded commercial alternative to government GPS…

Oct. 22, 2137 B.C.E.: An eclipse darkens skies over ancient China

The earliest solar eclipse for which we have a record appears in the ancient Chinese text Shujing, traditionally…

National Academies Rank Nonpolar Moon Sites

A new report from the National Academies ranks the top four non-polar sites for future crewed lunar missions.

Resilience takes centre stage at the NAVISP Industry Days

Resilience, maritime and drone applications, and alternative navigation technologies were on the menu of the sixth edition of…

MMX Lifts Off on Mission to Explore Moons of Mars

The five-year mission will return samples from Mars’ moon Phobos and answer long-standing questions about the moon’s origin.

Why does anything exist? New theory emerges

Why does anything exist? A new theory suggests a forgotten particle might have shifted the balance between matter…

Help a lost lunar rover find its way in new ESA competition

A small rover is alone on the Moon, with no signal and no idea of its position.

DGCE SIG Seminar, 22 Oct 2026

Pioneering Emission Mapping of the CGM with Aspera: The Path to Launch. Speaker: Dr. Carlos J.

TDAMM SIG Seminar, 22 Oct 2026

The UltraViolet EXplorer (UVEX). Speakers: Dan Weisz (UCB) and Suvi Gezari (UMD)

NASA’s Curiosity rover reveals a spectacular new view of Mars with a mystery on the horizon

NASA’s Curiosity rover has revealed a spectacular new view of mysterious, wind-carved cliffs on Mars that may hold…

Lucy mission to Trojan asteroids: 5 years of discoveries

NASA’s Lucy mission is now less than a year from reaching the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter.

Cassiopeia and Perseus on October evenings

Cassiopeia and Perseus are neighbors in the autumn sky. Use Cassiopeia's distinctive W or M shape to locate…

ESA Open Days 2026

ESA Open Days 2026 welcomed over 23 000 visitors across its six establishments, giving the public the opportunity…

ESA Council approves appointment of two new directors

The European Space Agency Council has approved the appointment of two new directors: Andrzej Banasiak as Director of…

Earth’s gravity and magnetism have unexpected effects on the human genome and mitochondria

Findings could have implications for space travel and for treating neurodegenerative diseases

Stars brewing in a nebulous cauldron

Image: Stars brewing in a nebulous cauldron

The Sky Today on Thursday, October 22: Iapetus at superior conjunction

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

Moon crane to take a load off lunar landers

From the ESA Blogs.

APOD: 2026 October 22 – The First Green Star, WD J1330+6435

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 22 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

Fires Char New Guinea

Emissions on both sides of the island are unusually high as human-set fires spread in a landscape parched…

Faster to Science: A Letter to the Science Community

NASA Science wants to deliver science faster, so we’re changing how we compete and select missions.

How Flare Ribbons Reveal Hidden Solar Explosions on the Sun

Solar flaring is complex behaviour triggered by reconnection, when magnetic field lines break and then snap back to…

Space in the 2026 elections

A space advocate’s guide to the U.S. midterm elections

NASA Conducts RS-25 Engine Test in Support of Future Artemis Missions

NASA tested RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct. 21 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis…

NASA in the 21st Century Symposium

NASA in the 21st Century History, Change, and Institutional Adaptation NASA History Office SymposiumNovember 16–17, 2027James Webb Auditorium…

Webb Captures Stars in the Early Stages of Life in a Nearby Stellar Nursery

This Webb infrared image, released on October 6th, 2026, shows the star-forming region NGC 7129, about 3,300 light-years…

China readies first commercial resupply craft, first booster reflight, and next landing attempt

As its launch cadence continues to grow, China is stepping further towards reusable rockets as… The post China…

NASA JPL Looks to Next 90 Years of Innovation, Exploration

Interstellar probes. Lunar drones. Helicopters on Mars. When a group of Caltech graduate students and enthusiasts began conducting…

NASA's CASALS instrument bridges gaps in 3D maps of Earth's surface

A team of researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a new instrument designed to…

Current ROSES Remains Open, Next ROSES in Late 2026

Current ROSES Remains Open, Next ROSES to be Released in Late 2026.

There Should Be Black Holes in our Neighbourhood. Can We Find Them?

Stellar-mass black holes should be in our neighbourhood within about 50 light years of the Solar System.

ROSES-25 D.3 AGIGO: Swift, Fermi, and TESS Second Opportunities

ROSES-25 D.3 AGIGO: Swift, Fermi, and TESS Observatories Second Opportunities; Phase-1 Proposals Due 28 January 2027

A Stubborn Question Answered: New Research Reveals How the Milky Way's Disk Formed

Figuring out how the Milky Way's thin and thick disks formed is a tough question in astronomy.

Momentum October 2026

If ever there were a case for playing the long game, space exploration is it.

Hubble observations challenge supernova winds' role in cosmic reionization

An international team of researchers, including members from the University of Michigan, has revealed surprising results that could…

The coastwide Atlantic sturgeon abundance index has risen steadily since 2013, while the Hudson’s own Atlantic juvenile index has declined in recent years.

ASMFC's 2024 update finds the coastwide Atlantic sturgeon index rising since 2013, while New York's Hudson juvenile index…

SpaceX will attempt to reach weekly Starship launches by early 2027

"We have had significant constructive engagement with the FAA."

Neutrinos May Be The Key To Why We Are Surrounded By Matter

In the early Universe, neutrinos interacted strongly with other matter before some of them "decoupled.

Reexamined Viking 2 signal reveals possible marsquake from region active decades later

Earthquakes and the seismic waves they generate provide some of the best clues to Earth's interior.

NASA to Conduct NCAA Flyover, Engage Fans at University of Alabama

As part of the agency’s Inspiration Tour, NASA will conduct a flyover at the University of Alabama vs.

Spacesuits, Lunar Agriculture, and Breathing Research Top Wednesday’s Schedule

Spacesuit checks topped Wednesday’s task list aboard the International Space Station as two astronauts prepare for a spacewalk…

How Inversion and NASA Plan to Unlock Interplanetary Aerocapture

Using a planet’s atmosphere to secure a satellite’s place in orbit, a process known as “aerocapture”, has been…

It’s a Beautiful Day in the (Solar) Neighborhood

Get to know your neighbors with a new database of nearby star clusters, stellar associations, and substellar objects.

Four Cold Giant Planets Discovered by High-Cadence Microlensing Surveys

Cheongho Han et al 2026 AJ 172 110 Four giant planets with masses of 0.2–2.

Japan launches sample-return mission to Mars’s moon Phobos

The Martian Moons eXploration mission will aim to return 10 g of material back to Earth

Tracks Along the Longest Drive on Another World

Written by Vandi Verma, Chief Engineer for Robotic Operations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Oct.

Solar Orbiter Traces Giant Magnetic Switchbacks Directly Back to the Sun

There has been a torrent of solar physics data lately, largely thanks to new spacecraft that have begun…

How to log in to The Planetary Society Member Community

A guide to accessing the Member Community website and app.

TechnoMile Recognized as a 2026 Inc. Power Partner Award Winner

TechnoMile, the leading AI solution that unifies growth, contracts, compliance, and security workflows, has been named a 2026…

Under Extreme Pressure on Ice Giants, Water Ice Gets Weird

On Earth, water ice is simply water ice. But under extreme pressure, it takes on an unusual asymmetric…

Science on the Space Station with NASA Astronaut Jessica Watkins

NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Jessica Watkins works inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox…

Global Satcom Services Revenues to Reach $145 Billion by 2035

Paris, France | October 2026 – Global satellite services revenues are forecast to grow 44% to reach $145…

Airbus Ships First Lightweight Vulcain Aft Bay for Ariane 6 Block 2

Airbus Netherlands has delivered the first lightweight Vulcain Aft Bay for Ariane 6 as part of the rocket’s…

Space Nuclear Power Corporation Awarded DARPA Agreement for Ground Test of Autonomous Nuclear Reactor Controller

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — October 21, 2026 — Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes) announced today that the Defense…

Astronomers uncover the engine behind the most powerful stellar flares in the Kepler field

A new study led by researchers at the Konkoly Observatory of the HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and…

Oct. 21, 1897: Yerkes Observatory is dedicated

In 1892, George Ellery Hale, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Chicago, convinced the university president…

Wallops Airfield Operations

The Airfield Operations Office oversees the daily operations, safety, and regulatory compliance of NASA’s airfield at Wallops Flight…

A train was delayed by a solar storm. But something didn't add up.

Scientists have cracked a 178-year-old mystery surrounding a train delayed by a solar storm, revealing that the famous…

NASA’s CASALS Instrument Bridges Gaps in 3D Maps of Earth’s Surface

From orbit, today’s space-based laser instruments measure Earth’s forests and terrain one narrow line at a time.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Send AI Compute Module to the Moon

Hewlett Packard Enterprise ($HPE) is taking remote working to a whole new level.

Solstar provides Wi-Fi connectivity for NASA proximity operations demonstration

SAN FRANCISCO – Wi-Fi technology from Solstar Space connected NASA’s R5-S10 cubesat with Momentus’ Vigoride-7 orbital service vehicle…

Surprising colors of white dwarf stars revealed for 1st time

Astronomers in the U.K. have found that the true colors of white dwarf stars can vary greatly.

Astronauts’ hearts just passed a surprising test for Mars

A new study tracking 13 astronauts suggests that the human heart may be surprisingly well equipped for a…

Summer of Quantum: Building momentum for space-based QKD

Glasgow, UK | 21 October 2026 – The pace of development in quantum technologies continues to accelerate, and…

NASA OSBP Engagement 2027 L.I.F.T.

Leveraging Industry and Supply Chains for Future Technology The NASA Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) is committed…

Euclid was mapping the universe. Then it found a comet

The Euclid space telescope made an accidental comet discovery as it searched the universe for evidence of dark…

Mars’s Most Mysterious Cloud Might Be Defying Textbook Cloud Physics

It may not be as obvious, but just like Earth, Mars has seasons.

Cosmic chronicles: the impact of celestial instabilities on human history

Emma Chapman reviews Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: How the Solar System Shaped Human History – And May…

Pegasus is a baseball diamond! Just in time for the World Series

The Great Square of Pegasus is tilted to look like a baseball diamond in October, as if to…

Auriga the Charioteer and bright Capella on October evenings

Auriga the Charioteer is a north circumpolar constellation, best viewed on autumn and winter evenings.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover just shattered the all-time off-world driving record

NASA’s Perseverance rover has shattered a historic space exploration record, traveling farther across another world than any vehicle…

It’s official! Chiricahua is now the 64th US national park

On October 20, 2026, Chiricahua National Park in the southeastern corner of Arizona became the U.S.

SpaceX turns a profit after a string of losses as its satellite and computer leasing businesses soar

SpaceX reported a bigger quarterly profit than expected Tuesday as its satellite communications operations and its business of…

Finding Our Way: Inside the Galileo Project: 2 - The people behind the signal

At its heart, Galileo is a story about people: engineers, operators and programme leaders working across Europe, united…

Finding Our Way: Inside the Galileo Project: 3 - A symphony of precision

Galileo is a system in perfect synchronisation: satellites orbiting above, atomic clocks setting the tempo, and ground stations…

Finding Our Way: Inside the Galileo Project: 1 – A European vision

It started with a bold idea: Europe should find its own way.

Astronomers propose solution for ‘little red dot’ mystery

Recently observed objects could be black holes that grew extremely quickly during an early stage of their lives

The Sky Today on Wednesday, October 21: Catch early-morning Orionids

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

APOD: 2026 October 21 – New Ghosts Revealed in Cassiopeia

APODScienceAPODAPOD: 2026 October 21 – New…Today’s APODArchiveSubmissionsIndexSearchCalendarRSSEducationAboutDiscuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day…

Extratropical Cyclone Whips Past Iceland

The powerful low-pressure system formed over the North Atlantic out of the remnants of Hurricane Isaias.

SpaceX’s AI Revenue Leads Q3 Earnings

With its first full quarter as a public company under its belt, SpaceX blew past expectations Tuesday with…

A magnetar can be born when two neutron stars touch

All neutron stars have intense magnetic fields. The typical magnetic field of a neutron star is about 100,000…

Rare solar radiation storm gives scientists clearest picture yet of flight risks

The most comprehensive data set ever collected from Earth's atmosphere during a solar radiation event has highlighted the…

Scientists Use Ancient Rains to Map the Possible Origin Life on Mars

Billions of years ago, rain may have helped shape where the chemistry of life could begin on Mars.

Making SpaceX and Tesla a single company has "a lot of merit," Musk says

"I do think there's a lot of merit to combining the companies."

'Terror of kings': Why the 1066 appearance of Halley's Comet terrified the medieval world

A sequence on the Bayeux Tapestry shows King Harold alongside a crowd gazing at the sky, beneath the…

SpaceX launches Starlink 15-15 mission following a trio of scrubs

SpaceX succeeded in its fourth attempt to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Using eyedrops in space—wearable patch offers a new approach

Applying eyedrops is difficult in space, where there is almost no gravity.

NASA Ames Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel

Ames Unitary Plan Wind TunnelHomeAeronauticsNASA Ames Unitary Plan Wind…Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel…Test PlanningCapabilities11×11-ft Transonic Test Section9×7-ft Supersonic Test…

Blood Vessel Printing, Cancer Research, and Spacewalk Preps Keep Crew Busy

Expedition 75 spent Tuesday advancing human health on and off the Earth with 3D bioprinting, cancer research, and…

CT Chamaeleontis b

CT Chamaeleontis b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a K-type star.

NASA to Conduct Low-Altitude Flights Over Texas Farmland

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Oct. 15, 2026, and has been updated to correct the…

Water as we've never known it: Physicists test water beyond Earth-like conditions

Water isn't always as it seems. Under extreme conditions, such as those found on other planets, it has…

NASA Study Refines Projections for Thwaites Glacier

Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier could contribute more to sea level rise by the end of the century than some…

JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration Mission is on its Way to Mars and Phobos

JAXA successfully launched its Martian Moon eXplorer on its way to Mars and Phobos.

Aurora supercomputer powers two of the largest cosmological simulations to date

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have completed two of the largest cosmological…

Langley Partnership FAQs

Learn more about partnering with NASA Langley.

Does anyone actually want to win the medium-lift race in the United States?

Ars Technica is here to help with a guide to the medium-lift space race.

NASA Prepares ROSES-27 to Advance American Science and Leadership in Space

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate plans to release Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences 2027 (ROSES-27) no later…

The Orionid meteor shower is coming. Here's how and when to watch

The Orionids—one of two major meteor showers caused by remnants from Halley's Comet—will peak this week, though a…

A pulsar's apparent slowdown reveals a rare stellar trio

Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars, the extremely dense cores left behind when massive stars explode.

NASA’s SR-1 Freedom Advances with Progress on Nuclear Power Module

Destined for Mars and beyond, NASA’s Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom will be humanity’s first fission-powered spacecraft to travel…

The Gas Near Sagittarius A-star is Enriched in Metals, Probably from Supernovae Explosions

The region near Sagittarius A-star, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, is enriched in metals, although only modestly.

Launch Preview: H3, Falcon 9, Electron, and others to launch during busy week

Nine rockets are set to launch this week from California, Florida, New Zealand, Japan, and… The post Launch…

Astronauts on the Moon could shelter from radiation, micrometeoroids and extreme temperatures inside a lava tube, and NASA is sending a suite called GIMLI to scan beneath the Marius Hills Pit to see whether the pit opens into one

Underground caverns could offer lunar explorers their first true shelter, if a buried tunnel system actually exists beneath…

Understanding celestial coordinates

Just as we use latitude and longitude to know the precise position of something on Earth’s surface, it’s…

Hot plasma may explain how rapidly feeding black holes launch powerful jets

Some supermassive black holes rapidly consume surrounding matter while simultaneously firing powerful streams of plasma into space at…

Congress Seeks Answers On Starlink Disruptions in Ukraine

“The United States government has a fundamental obligation to protect American personnel serving overseas,” the senators wrote.

JWST tours Orion’s hidden stellar nursery

Few sights thrill backyard observers as much as the Orion Nebula (M42).

Amendment 80: D.3 AGIGO: Swift, Fermi, and TESS Observatories Second Opportunities in ROSES-25

The Neil Gehrels Observatory, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Observatory, and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) General Investigator programs…

NASA Experimental Mars Helicopter Blade Designs Target Longer Flights

NASA researchers are developing the future of flight on Mars, laying the groundwork for helicopters with the ability…

Megaparsec-Scale Neutral Hydrogen Flows in the Neighborhood of Hickson Compact Group 100

Qingzheng Yu et al 2026 ApJL 1007 L32 Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, astronomers have discovered…

Featured Image: Examining Galactic Filaments

The center of our galaxy is known to host hundreds of radio-emitting filaments, but the energy source for…

Two NASA Commercial Satellite Communication Demonstrations Launch

Two NASA-funded demonstrations have successfully launched into low Earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Bandwagon-5 rideshare.

A Magnetar Can Be Born When Two Neutron Stars Touch

Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields a thousand times stronger than normal.

NASA Provides Progress Update on Moon Base Rovers

As NASA works to build the Moon Base, crewed and robotic lunar rovers will play a crucial role…

Space Rider Test Model Lost Following Failed Drop Test

A full-scale drop test of the European Space Agency’s Space Rider spaceplane ended abruptly after the test model’s…

Webb Captures Stellar Jets

An image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released on Oct.

NASA Welcomes Uzbekistan as Newest Artemis Accords Signatory

The Republic of Uzbekistan became the 77th signatory of the Artemis Accords during a ceremony in Samarkand on…

The Moon is Still Shrinking as it Cools. That Could Create a Hazard for Lunar Mission.

The Moon is slowly cooling and slowly shrinking. A study of its scarp faults calculates the rate of…

Encore: A Year In Mars Dune Alpha

To prepare for the day when humans travel to Mars, NASA is conducting a one-year experiment in a…

Giant canyon on Mars is still tectonically active today

Scientists at Columbia University and Imperial College London have found that the largest canyon system in the solar…

NASA Small Business Subcontracting Program – Firefly

Firefly Small Business Subcontracting Program Firefly Aerospace is a Texas-based space and defense technology company delivering launch, lander…

Oct. 20, 2018: BepiColombo launches

BepiColombo, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launched Oct.

AnySignal to Deliver Space-to-Earth Communications for Three Reflect Orbital Missions

LOS ANGELES — October 20, 2026 AnySignal, a leading provider of software-defined radios and space-based networking, today announced…

State Department Taps Trio for $5M Space Diplomacy Push

At last week’s second annual US Space Forum, the US Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna launched…

Astronomers uncover new secrets of the Universe’s first five minutes

Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in understanding the Universe’s earliest moments, measuring the amount of helium formed…

Reaction Dynamics Targets 2031 for Borealis Medium-Lift Launch

In the contest to build up commercial launch capabilities in Canada, Quebec-based startup Reaction Dynamics has entered a…

The sun may have stripped away meters of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS brought material from another planetary system within reach of our telescopes, but reading its…

Lunar Link complete and ready for a new adventure

ESA’s Lunar Link telecommunications element has completed its final major integration and testing campaign at Thales Alenia Space…

JWST Tracks Shifting Water Clouds and Churning Gases on the Coldest Known Brown Dwarf

When picturing a star, typically people think of giant balls of burning gas in the sky that emit…

New clues to how infectious fungus Candida auris resists antifungals

Scientists have identified new resistance mechanisms used by the fungus Candida auris, paving the way for advances in…

Lucy mission marks 5 years of discoveries

On Oct. 16, 2021, NASA's Lucy spacecraft began its journey to the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids with an…

French MPs propose symbolic €1 budget line for VORTEX spaceplane

French lawmakers have proposed allocating a symbolic €1 for Dassault Aviation’s VORTEX spaceplane programme in an effort to…

AGN SIG Vision Series Seminar, 20 Oct 2026

AGN Science with the Roman EXtreme Deep Field (RXDF) and Other Large Surveys in the Roman Era.

Orionid meteor shower 2026: All you need to know

The Orionid meteor shower is here! Find out where and when to look up with our charts and…

Near miss: Indonesia probes crash of suspected Chinese rocket fragment

Indonesian authorities were investigating Tuesday after a car-sized piece of debris, possibly from a Chinese rocket according to…

Japan launches spacecraft to mysterious moons of Mars in a bold mission to bring home soil samples

A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on a quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring…

MetOp-SG-B1 weather satellite arrives at Europe’s Spaceport

Following a 10-day voyage across the Atlantic from Bordeaux in France, the MetOp Second Generation-B1 weather satellite, has…

New brain for Galileo

Twelve Galileo Second Generation (G2) satellites will join the current fleet in the coming years.

The Sky Today on Tuesday, October 20: Lovely spiral NGC 7331

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

See brightest star, Sirius, in your morning sky

Out late at night or before dawn? Look for the sky's brightest star, Sirius, a brilliant beauty.

MMX lifts off to Mars’s moon Phobos

Image: MMX lifts off to Mars’s moon Phobos

NASA reveals 16 stunning galaxies hiding cosmic chaos

NASA's stunning new gallery of 16 galaxies reveals colossal black hole jets, explosive star formation, and spectacular cosmic…

Falcon 9 launches Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Florida

Following on from the successful Transporter 18 mission at the beginning of the month, SpaceX’s… The post Falcon…

APOD: 2026 October 20 – An Anticrepuscular Rainbow Fan

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 20 – An… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

The Human Fingerprint on Earth’s Water Cycle

Human activities have become intertwined with how water is distributed across the continents.

NASA solves a strange mystery hidden inside asteroid Bennu’s boulders

NASA scientists have finally uncovered why asteroid Bennu loses heat so quickly despite being covered in massive boulders.

Curiosity Blog, Sols 5036-5042: Watching the Clouds Go By

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University Earth planning date: Friday, Oct.

JAXA’s MMX Enroute to Mars To Return Samples of Phobos

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launch the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission this afternoon EDT.

Planetary 'twins' Uranus and Neptune may have different origin stories

By indirectly probing the depths of Uranus and Neptune's atmospheres, an international team of scientists has revealed a…

Who speaks for Mars? Scientists call for ethical debate before terraforming begins

Transforming Mars into a more Earth-like world could irreversibly destroy scientific evidence about the planet's history and the…

The Chemistry in Stellar Nurseries is Complex, and a New 3D Model Highlights It

Young stars form in molecular clouds, and once they're turned on, they begin to shape their natal clouds…

Webb Captures This Golden Galaxy Cluster in All it's Glory

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features the brilliant golden galaxies belonging to the…

Japan sends MMX toward the martian moons

Rocket launches this week On Monday, Oct. 19, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched its Martian…

Cosmic 'hamburger' offers rare edge-on view of where giant planets may take shape

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) were surprised to discover the earliest phases of giant planet…

Webb reveals metal-rich gas around Milky Way's central black hole

The gas orbiting Sagittarius A (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way…

The ESA's Euclid Space Telescope Has Discovered A New Comet

The ESA's Euclid space telescope was launched in July, 2026, and its mission is to observe billions of…

REGISTRATION STILL OPEN: 2026 Cosmic Origins Early Career Workshop

DON'T MISS OUT! REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN: 2026 Cosmic Origins Early Career Workshop

Japan to launch world-first mission to moon of Mars

Japanese scientists will launch a spacecraft on Tuesday that aims to be the first to retrieve samples from…

NASA Improves Shock, Vibration Analysis

Rockets vibrate, shake, and flex intensely as they climb into space, and spacecraft packed with delicate scientific instruments…

Auroral structure could be caused by bouncing electrons

The aurora is among nature's most visually striking phenomena. It occurs when charged particles from the sun are…

Software

Research teams at NASA’s Glenn Research Center are involved in developing theory and software to predict the noise…

Experimental Facilities

Research teams at the NASA Glenn Research Center perform experiments in world-class facilities such as the 9- by…

NASA’s Simulated Mars Crew Marks One Year Inside Habitat

The four crew members in NASA’s simulated Mars mission have spent the past year living and working in…

New Observations Show How Black Holes Stir Up Material Surrounding A Galaxy

Supermassive black holes power tremendous jets that extend far beyond their galaxy.

Achievement Unlocked: Microblazar Confirmed

Researchers have confirmed the existence of the first microblazar. Unlike blazars, which are extragalctic and powered by supermassive…

Acoustics Research

Glenn Research CenterHomeGlenn Expertise: Transforming…Acoustics ResearchGlenn HomeAbout GlennOverviewLeadershipDoing Business with GlennHistoryMedia ResourcesCenter NewsletterContactExpertise and FacilitiesAeronauticsFacilitiesResearchSpace ExplorationEngage With UsCommunity…

Instrumentation

To measure airflow and sound, research teams at the NASA Glenn Research Center use special instrumentation like particle…

Instrumentation

To measure airflow and sound, research teams at the NASA Glenn Research Center use special instrumentation like particle…

UARX Space troubleshoots anomalies on maiden OTV Flight

SAN FRANCISCO –Spanish startup UARX Space is remedying anomalies identified during the maiden flight of OSSIE-D, an orbital…

Spacewalk Preps and Advanced Biomedical Research Begin Week

Spacewalk preparations kicked off the week aboard the International Space Station as two astronauts get ready to install…

Martian Dawn

NASA’s Curiosity captures the dawn on Mars – as well as elongated ridges formed by wind erosion, or…

Tree-Ring Structure of Galactic Bar Resonance in N-Body Simulations

Rimpei Chiba et al 2026 ApJ 1006 132 Even in a noisy environment with fluctuations in pattern speed…

Not All Black Holes Who Wander Are Lost

Astrobites reports on a new diagnostic tool used to understand how the neighborhood a black hole grows up…

Japanese MMX mission launches to study Martian moons

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is flying a planetary probe to Mars’s moon Phobos,… The post Japanese…

Celebrating BepiColombo, three words at a time

Video: 00:03:32 BepiColombo launched on 20 October 2018. This year, the anniversary is special.

US political uncertainty complicates long-term Artemis commitments, Polish minister says

Political and budgetary uncertainty in the United States poses a risk to long-term planning for space exploration programmes…

PLD Space begins system-level testing of Miura 5 as first three vehicles take shape

PLD Space has entered a new phase ahead of the first demonstration flight of its… The post PLD…

Enigmatic Mercury will remain a puzzle until someone sends a lander

Mercury remains one of our solar system's most elusive and difficult planets to study.

A Mars-velous decade: Celebrating ten years of TGO

Ten years after arriving at Mars, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has grown far beyond its original…

Exclusive: EraDrive Lands $13M DoD Award For Autonomy Module

EraDrive won a $13M DoD award, under which the Space Force will buy an undisclosed number of the…

Oct. 19, 2017: The discovery of ‘Oumuamua

Sometime around the year 1837, a strange object passed an invisible cosmic mile marker: 1,000 astronomical units from…

WarpWare Closes Pre-Seed to Bring Agentic Tools to Flight Software

CO-based WarpWare closed its $1.2M pre-seed round today to expand what it calls an AI-enabled engineering platform for…

Euclid discovers new comet

The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet, in images taken between…

AMMB STIG Seminar, 19 Oct 2026

The MegaWave Radio Surveyor Mission Concept. Speaker: Joe Lazio

Astronomers discover a ghostly green star unlike any known before

Astronomers have uncovered a surprising rainbow of dead stars, including the first known star that would appear genuinely…

AI/ML STIG Lecture Series, 19 Oct 2026

Fine-Tuning, Reinforcement Learning, and Self-Learning. Speaker: Moritz Münchmeyer, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Cosmic Origins Second Early Career Workshop, Oct 2026

Cosmic Origins Second Early Career Workshop. 20-22 October 2026

A hamburger with a tail

Dave Doctor from Las Cruces, New Mexico The Hamburger Galaxy (NGC 3628) is an edge-on spiral in Leo…

Sentinel-3C captures Hurricane Rachel

Image: Demonstrating that the visible channels of Sentinel-3C’s sea and land surface temperature radiometer are working as expected…

Space materials lab marks 10 years of innovation

Space materials lab marks 10 years of innovation

Science and technology for the Moon

Returning to the Moon is about more than reaching the surface.

The Sky Today on Monday, October 19: Feast your eyes on the Southern Fish

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

A historical society with pilot's help bought Neil Armstrong's boyhood home and will offer tours

Ken Schreiber was 9 when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon in 1969—a moment he…

APOD: 2026 October 19 – Treble Clef: Unusual X-ray Hot Radio Source

APODScienceAPODAPOD: 2026 October 19 –…Today’s APODArchiveSubmissionsIndexSearchCalendarRSSEducationAboutDiscuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a…

Autumn Paints Poland’s Bieszczady Mountains

Fall color covers the forested slopes of Bieszczady National Park, while patches of polonina, a type of high-mountain…

New dinosaur species identified from fossil stashed in drawer for a century

Researchers identified a new dinosaur species from a fossil on Isle of Wight in the UK.

What’s Happening in Space Policy October 18-24, 2026

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 18-24, 2026 and any insight…

Japan to launch historic round-trip mission to Mars moon

Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars' moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins…

SpaceX launches Starfall reentry capsule, 31 customer payloads on Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission

This will be the second launch of SpaceX’s uncrewed reentry capsule, Starfall.

SpaceX working through Starship Flight 15 and 16 milestones

SpaceX is advancing toward its next two Starship missions as the company looks to close… The post SpaceX…

Japan's MMX mission aims to swipe soil samples from Mars's moon Phobos

A Japanese space mission is about to launch towards Mars.

Oct. 18, 1977: The enigma of Chiron

On Oct. 18, 1977, Charles Kowal was at the 1.2-meter Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory in California –…

Two monster black holes could collide in just 100 years

Astronomers have uncovered compelling evidence of two supermassive black holes spiraling toward a potentially spectacular collision at the…

Comet Halley is parent of 2 meteor showers

The famous comet Halley spawns both the October Orionid meteor shower and the May Eta Aquariid meteor shower.

Japan to launch spacecraft on a mission to get samples from a Martian moon

Japan is set to launch a spacecraft on the world's first mission to bring back samples from Phobos…

The MMX mission launches to Mars’ moons on Monday

The MMX mission launches October 19 to Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos.

The Sky Today on Sunday, October 18: Another Tethys transit

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.

APOD: 2026 October 18 – Sonified: Eagle Nebula Pillars

NASA’s SpaceX launch lights up the sky with a giant glowing jellyfish

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket created a dazzling, jellyfish-shaped glow across the eastern United States as sunlight illuminated…

New Research Reveals How Long Stays in Space Affects the Human Genome

A new study in Science Advances addresses the pressing questions about how long-duration exposure to microgravity affects the…

Simulations explore nuclear mitigation of asteroid threats

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be…

Salt crystals could hold clues to life beneath Enceladus's ice

The ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus lies under kilometers of ice, but some of its contents do reach…

Lone, starless cloud may be a 'dark' galaxy

Astronomers using China's FAST radio telescope have discovered a compact cloud of hydrogen with no visible stars or…

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope exceeds expectations by nearly 30%

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has exceeded expectations after engineers made incredibly tiny adjustments to sharpen its…

Oct. 17, 1956: Birth of Mae Jemison

Born Oct. 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, and raised in Chicago, Mae Jemison showed a passion and talent…

NASA’s Webb reveals the wild weather of a mysterious world 20 light-years away

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed that a turbulent world 20 light-years away has a surprisingly orderly…

Inferior conjunction — Venus! October 23-24, 2026

Venus reaches inferior conjunction soon. It'll pass between Earth and the sun at 4 UTC on October 24.

The Sky Today on Saturday, October 17: Watch Wild Ducks

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Enigmatic Mercury Will Remain A Puzzle Until Someone Sends A Lander

Despite the upcoming Bepi Colombo visit to Mercury, we need a lander mission to fully understand our solar…

APOD: 2026 October 17 – 3D 67P

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 17… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss…

SpaceX just delivered some very strange cargo to the International Space Station

SpaceX just delivered some surprisingly strange cargo to the International Space Station, including tiny brain models, 3D heart…

James Webb reveals a strange bulge in an alien planet's atmosphere

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered that a distant alien planet's atmosphere is surprisingly lopsided.

Astronomer leads global team on NASA mission to create unprecedented view of the early universe

A University of Missouri astronomer is leading a team of 130 researchers from 62 institutions—including NASA, the California…

Plants shift gene activity within minutes of entering spaceflight, experiment reveals

Plants begin responding to spaceflight almost immediately after leaving Earth, according to a new University of Florida study…

New 3D model reveals how shadows reshape chemistry in stellar nurseries

How do young stars reshape the clouds from which they are born? A new high-resolution 3D model developed…

First comprehensive Mars soil classification offers framework for exploration and future farming

A Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney has produced the first comprehensive classification system and map of…

NASA Names Stephen Cash Marshall Space Flight Center Director

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Stephen Cash director of the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville…

ExoPAG 35 – Policies and Conduct

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct Outlined…

ExoPAG 35 – Resources

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct

ExoPAG 35 – Venue

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct

In the Search for Exoplanets, Some Failures Are A Success

Astronomers used decades of archival data and new radial velocity measurements to search for exoplanets around a neaby…

ExoPAG 35 – Registration

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct

ExoPAG 35 – Program

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct

ExoPAG 35 – Early Career Talks

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct

Japan prepares to launch sample return mission to Phobos

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is targeting Oct. 19 for the launch of a first-of-its-kind sample return…

ExoPAG 35 – Overview

Overview | Program | Registration | Venue | Resources | Early Career Talks | Policies and Conduct

NASA's Hubble spies spiral's edge

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1827, located roughly 37 million…

Crew Unpacks Dragon and Begins Activating New Science Experiments

Five spacecraft are docked at the International Space Station following the arrival of a cargo-packed SpaceX Dragon on…

Caves on the moon are target of new NASA mission

NASA is searching for caves on the moon. A new mission, GIMLI, will land near the volcanic Marius…

Artemis II Heat Shield After Splashdown

Shortly after NASA’s Artemis II mission splashed down on April 10, 2026, U.S.

Elon Musk unveils Tesla's 'flying' car

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a "flying" car, equipped with thrusters, during a livestreamed…

Astronomers Get a Better Look at a Rare White Dwarf–Brown Dwarf Pair

The white dwarf–brown dwarf pair J0404+1112 — one of only about a dozen known systems like it …

A Point-Spread Function for the Extreme Ultraviolet High-Resolution Imager on Board Solar Orbiter

Stefan J. Hofmeister et al 2026 ApJS 286 3 Researchers have assessed the diffusion and scattering within an…

The Flavor of Neutrinos Could Determine How a Large Star Dies

Neutrinos come in three different flavors. A new study finds that neutrino flavor could play a significant role…

Correction to ROSES-25 B.7 Heliophysics Low-Cost Access to Space

The Heliophysics Low-Cost Access to Space (H-LCAS) program (B.7 of ROSES) solicits proposals for the development and application…

A Radio Phoenix Beyond the Zone of Avoidance

Years ago, astronomers spotted a strange radio formation beyond the Zone of Avoidance.

Forecasting air drag with deep learning helps predict when uncontrolled satellites and rocket stages fall to Earth

On May 10, 2025, a spacecraft built in the Soviet Union to land on Venus came home.

Seeing the old in a new light

Old stars may offer a rainbow of color, while a Mars rover sets a new record, and a…

I Am Artemis: Allison Mjoen

As the supercooled propellant flowed into the core stage, and NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket roared to…

A Distant Supercluster of Galaxies Points To Self-Interacting Dark Matter

The El Gordo supercluster is unusually large given its distance. How could such a large galaxy cluster form…

Shredded star reveals a massive black hole wandering far from its galaxy's center

Astronomers have discovered a star being torn apart by a massive black hole more than 1,000 parsecs from…

Blue Origin to add new Florida launch pads, seeks aggressive increase in New Glenn flight rate

The launch infrastructure improvements also include a substantial manufacturing expansion at Rocket Park and the addition of new…

Reflections After Artemis II

Artemis II astronauts Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen reflect on memorable mission moments, new perspectives, and what comes…

Oct. 16, 1975: The first GOES satellite launches

A joint project of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites…

UK to Award £25M Space Surveillance Radar Contract in July 2027

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) is expected to award a £25 million contract for a ground-based space surveillance…

NASA’s Hubble Spies Spiral’s Edge

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1827, located roughly 37 million…

RATLOG Wants to Cut ~90% of a Rocket Engine’s Parts

The heavy-lift rocket startup debuted on Y Combinator as part of the Fall 2026 batch.

No more leap seconds! Timekeeping is officially changing

The world’s timekeepers announced on Thursday that leap seconds will no longer be added to clocks starting in…

US winter weather outlook: What will El Niño bring?

NOAA's winter winter outlook says El Niño will bring a warm and wet winter for much of the…

2nd-generation planet: Was this world born around a dead star?

Astronomers might have found a new 2nd-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf star.

Space is getting crowded. Here’s the latest satellite report

ESA reports on the state of low-Earth orbit. The number of satellites in orbit is skyrocketing, along with…

Astronomers discover a strange universal rule behind black hole eruptions

Scientists have discovered that black holes of vastly different sizes appear to launch powerful jets according to the…

Blue Origin is going all in on the New Glenn rocket

The infrastructure is designed to support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade.

Cassiopeia the Queen is overhead on autumn evenings

Spot the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen somewhere in the northern sky during much of the year, throughout much…

Small lunar missions, big ambitions

Europe is preparing for a future in which astronauts, robots and scientific instruments work on and around the…

Moon Explore sprinter missions

Europe is preparing for a future in which astronauts, robots and scientific instruments work on and around the…

New type of superionic water ice observed for the first time

Hexagonal close-packed phase could exist deep within the planets Uranus and Neptune, contributing to their peculiar magnetic fields

Earth from Space: West Antarctica

Image: This image over part of West Antarctica was captured by Copernicus Sentinel-3 on 30 September 2026.

The Sky Today on Friday, October 16: Tethys and its shadow transit

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Seraphim Space Investment Trust Doubled its Value in 2026

Seraphim’s major holdings—ICEYE, ALL.SPACE, D-Orbit, HawkEye 360, and Xona Space Systems, which together represent more than 75% of…

The Sky This Week from October 16 to 23: The Orionid meteor shower peaks

Friday, October 16Pluto is stationary in Capricornus at 7 A.M. EDT. This evening, the Moon reaches apogee, the…

APOD: 2026 October 16 – Chasing the International Space Station

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 16 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About…

Isaias Dims the Gulf Coast

High-definition images of nighttime lights show where the hurricane knocked out power along the Florida Panhandle and how…

Carbon Fibre Troubles Force Rocket Lab to Delay Neutron Debut to No Earlier Than 2027

Rocket Lab has delayed its Neutron launch vehicle once again after carbon fibre manufacturing problems… The post Carbon…

Water2Coasts

Overview Water2Coasts is an interdisciplinary study examining how watersheds of varying size, land use, and climate regimes influence…

JAXA’S MMX Mars Mission Readies for Launch with Two NASA Instruments

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is getting ready to launch its Martian Moons eXploration mission early next…

Rigorous analysis confirms NASA's Artemis II heat shield performance

NASA's Artemis II mission sent four astronauts around the moon and brought them safely back to Earth, laying…

Scientists Detect Rare Type of Wood Alcohol in Space

As part of the ALMA COMPASS Large program, an international research team has detected a rare form of…

Lunar fault maps reveal how much the moon is shrinking

A new study of young tectonic landforms on the moon offers the most detailed estimate yet of how…

UKSA Taps ClearSpace for Country’s First Debris Removal Mission

The UK Space Agency is dressing up as a waste-management company for Halloween.

A.15 Biosphere: New Requirement Added to Section 4.2.1

On or about October 8, 2026, a new requirement to budget for travel to an annual PI meeting…

Oct. 29: Applying AI to the GEOINT Mission

Join us for a conversation on how machine learning is transforming the GEOINT mission across different markets

Replay: Applying AI/SI to the GEOINT Mission

A conversation on how machine learning is transforming the GEOINT mission across different markets

TOI-5120 b

TOI-5120 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a -type star. Its mass is 1.

NASA to Help Unlock Mysteries of Mars’ Moons in Upcoming Mission

NASA is playing an important role in JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission, to…

How did Mars get its moons? Japan's MMX space mission aims to solve the puzzle

The Earth got its moon when a small planet collided with our planet more than 4 billion years…

SpaceX launches a classified payload for U.S. Space Force

Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California happened on Thursday, Oct.

NASA Satellites Observe Historic 2026 El Niño

A phenomenon rarer than a solar eclipse and more powerful than any single storm system is unfolding this…

Power Up: Roll Out Solar Arrays Boost Space Station Power Supply

From the International Space Station’s unique position 250 miles above Earth, the Sun is a vital source of…

Host Stars Shape Their Planetary Systems Into Two Families

New research draws a link between a host star and the characteristics of its planetary system.

Chandra breaks down 'Treble Clef's' galaxy cluster collision

Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to break down the cause of a remarkable formation of radio…

NASA Welcomes All Ages, Experience Levels for Space Apps Challenge

Registration is open for the 2026 NASA Space Apps Challenge, a two-day global event on Saturday, Nov.

Inferring Globular Cluster Initial Mass Function from Stellar Streams

Claire S. Ye and Raymond G. Carlberg 2026 ApJL 1007 L25 Pairing cold dark matter simulations with observations…

NASA Awards Enable Research, Technology to Build Future Workforce

NASA has selected 12 U.S. institutions to receive $12 million to accelerate academic research and technology development in…

New NAVISP activities support resilient transportation in Europe

On 14 October, at the NAVISP Industry Days in Rome, Italy, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed new…

How NASA is thinking about a moon base

In this episode, SpaceNews’ Mike Gruss talks with NASA’s Shatel Bhakta, the principal systems engineer for Moon Base…

Officials celebrate completion of gamma-ray telescope array in La Palma

The Large-Sized Telescope will provide new insights into the early universe

Rigorous Analysis Confirms NASA’s Artemis II Heat Shield Performance

NASA’s Artemis II mission sent four astronauts around the Moon and brought them safely back to Earth, laying…

Technologies for Space Travel

NASA is advancing the technologies that will enable the future of space travel, from next-generation propulsion and solar…

SpaceX Dragon Docks with Science, Supplies, and Roll-Out Solar Arrays

At 11 a.m. EDT, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s…

Orionid, Taurid Meteors Haunt October Skies

Fall meteor season has begun. Late October not only sees dusk falling ever earlier as ghouls and goblins…

Chandra Finds Possible Origin of ‘Treble Clef’ Waves

A formation of radio waves looks remarkably like a treble clef in this Oct.

SPHEREx Just Took the Fingerprints of Failed Stars Across Our Cosmic Neighborhood

Brown dwarfs are the black (or brown?) sheep of astronomy. They’re too big to be considered a traditional…

SpaceX Dragon Cargo Mission Approaching Station

NASA is streaming live coverage as it prepares for the docking of SpaceX’s 35th commercial resupply services mission…

TIME Best Inventions of 2026

NASA’s new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was among the year’s top innovations recognized Thursday on TIME’s Best…

Oct. 15, 1997: Cassini-Huygens launches

At 4:43 A.M. on Oct. 15, 1997, the staccato crackle of the Titan IVB/Centaur’s two side-mounted solid rocket…

BlackSky Renews HEO Deal, Adds Gen-3 Imagery for Space Domain Awareness

BlackSky Technology inked a seven-figure deal to extend its partnership with Australian non-Earth imaging (NEI) provider HEO for…

Agile Space Industries Expands to Seattle Area with New Bellevue Office

BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 15, 2026 — Agile Space Industries, a leading provider of in-space chemical propulsion solutions, has…

Planetary systems fall into 2 distinct families, astronomers say

Astronomers studying planetary systems in the Milky Way have found they can be sorted into 2 families.

What star in the northeast flashes colorfully? It’s Capella!

If you're in Earth's Northern Hemisphere and see a bright star twinkling with red, green and blue flashes…

Arianespace Targets 23 Nov Ariane 6 Return Following Reported Turbopump Fix

Arianespace has announced that the next Ariane 6 launch will take place no earlier than 23 November, marking…

Trace Gas Orbiter — Facts and figures

Image: Trace Gas Orbiter — Facts and figures

Drilling down for the Moon

Image: Drilling down for the Moon

JAXA Taps ArkEdge for Two Lunar Navigation Demos

Today’s Moon explorers won’t have the luxury of GPS-like tech for navigation.

The Sky Today on Thursday, October 15: Double crater Messier

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Act for more sustainable space

Swarming robots to tackle space debris

From the ESA Blogs.

APOD: 2026 October 15 – The Milky Way over Manhattan

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 15 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education…

Fires Arrive in the Amazon Rainforest

During El Niño, a cascade of fires across the tropics begins in equatorial Asia and continues in the…

Green, pink and purple: Astronomers reveal the surprising true colors of white dwarf stars

University of Warwick astronomers have shown that white dwarf stars can glow in a range of colors, including…

Comparing Off-World Rover Driving Distances

NASA develops batteries to power humanity's return to moon

If you've ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning…

Perseverance Rover Path Animation — October 2026 Update

Since it landed on the Red Planet in 2021 to search for signs of ancient life, NASA’s Perseverance…

A trip to Mars could come at a heartbreaking cost

When astronauts first travel to Mars or anywhere else in deep space, they will have to contend with…

Artemis III SLS teams prepare short stack for pad tanking test

With both solid rocket boosters fully stacked and all four RS-25 engines now installed on… The post Artemis…

NASA to Host News Conference Previewing US Spacewalks 100, 101

NASA will preview two upcoming spacewalks to complete solar array installation and power augmentation of the International Space…

The Perseverance Rover Reaches Another Milestone

NASA's Perseverance Rover has reached another milestone. It now holds the record for the longest distance travelled on…

NASA Astronauts to Answer Questions from Florida Students

Students in Florida will hear from NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney as they answer prerecorded STEM…

NASA Roman Team Checks Out Main Instrument, Sharpens Telescope’s Focus

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team completed a marathon of activities to fine-tune the observatory’s vision and…

Crew Preps for Dragon’s Arrival During Vision and Robotics Research

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is orbiting Earth on its way to the International Space Station for a docking…

NASA’s Chandra Breaks Down ‘Treble Clef’s’ Galaxy Cluster Collision

Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to break down the cause of a remarkable formation of radio…

Astronomers Observe The Limb Darkening Effect On Nearby Stars

The edge of the Sun appears darker than its central region. This effect is known as limb darkening…

Electromagnetic Flares from Compact-Object Mergers in Active Galactic Nucleus Disks: Signatures and Predictions

Hiromichi Tagawa et al 2026 ApJ 1006 121 Emission arising from the merger of stellar-mass black holes in…

Catching the Culprit Behind Globular Clusters’ Disappearing Binaries

Globular clusters have far fewer binary stars than the solar neighborhood.

Astronomers Uncover More Intriguing Detail in an Ancient Supernova Remnant

When a supernova exploded in 1181, Chinese and Japanese sky-watchers recorded it.

NASA’s Space X CRS-35 Launch Jellyfish

Sunlight illuminates the exhaust plumes of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft on Oct.

Pandora

NASA's Pandora is designed to study the atmospheres of exoplanets and the activity of their host stars.

Chandrasekhar Placed A Limit On White Dwarfs, But A New Study Finds This Limit Is Not Absolute

The Chandrasekhar limit states that a white dwarf can be no larger than 1.4 solar masses.

NASA Develops Batteries to Power Humanity’s Return to Moon

If you’ve ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning…

EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope)

NASA's EXCITE is designed to study atmospheres around exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system.

Mars moon mission set to launch with tech funded by Planetary Society on board

The first mission to land on a moon of Mars could launch as soon as Oct.

Curiosity Greets a Spectacular Dawn Sky on Mars

Mars is a planetary geologist’s paradise. NASA’s Curiosity rover drove that home recently, with a captivating panorama seen…

New evidence points to two feeding black holes just 175 parsecs apart lurking in the early universe

Astronomers have found two actively feeding supermassive black holes separated by just 175 parsecs (570 light-years) in a…

How lessons from fisheries management could help us govern Earth's orbital space

The space industry is rapidly expanding. About 20,000 satellites already circle Earth, a number that could reach 100,000…

NASA to Discuss Artemis Acceleration, Status of Upcoming Moon Missions

NASA will provide an update on its plans to return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon…

Spain Approves Early Release of €65.8 Million in PAZ 2 Spy Satellite Funding

The Spanish government has approved a request from satellite operator Hisdesat to bring forward €65.

How mini-constellations could more quickly bring new tech to Europe, and to orbit

When the European thermal-imagery company constellr began working with Space Inventor on its next generation of satellites, some…

Oct. 14, 1947: Flying faster than sound

When Glamorous Glennis, an experimental Bell X-1 aircraft built to mimic the shape of a .

Exclusive: In Orbit Aerospace Pivots From Re-entry Vehicles to Spacecraft Autonomy

In Orbit has won new government contracts for its onboard AI system, which the company says can run…

Astronomical nanosatellite VERTECS completes initial operations and begins scientific observations

A research team from the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Tokyo City University, Kanazawa University, the…

Strange cloud! What was it? Observers in U.S. East report

Many people up before sunrise on Tuesday morning saw a strange cloud.

Reflect Orbital Buys Two Skyroot Aerospace Launches

Reflect Orbital announced the purchase of two launches today from Indian launcher Skyroot Aerospace.

A Trip to Mars Could Break Your Heart - Literally