NYT > Science > Space & Cosmos

  • NASA Finds Water and Ice on Moon in More Places Than Thought
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-10-26 in Moon, Water, Ice, Space and Astronomy, Research, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Telescopes and Observatories, Nature Astronomy (Journal)

    Future astronauts seeking water on the moon may not need to go into the most treacherous craters in its polar regions to find it.

  • A Black Hole’s Lunch: Stellar Spaghetti
    by Dennis Overbye on 2020-10-26 in Space and Astronomy, Stars and Galaxies, Black Holes (Space), Telescopes and Observatories, Gravitation and Gravity, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Journal), your-feed-science

    Astronomers observed a star become a “feast” for a cosmic monster.

  • Video Shows NASA Probe’s Quick Landing on Asteroid Bennu
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-10-23 in National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Asteroids, OSIRIS-REX, Solar System

    The spacecraft succeeded in pogo-sticking off the space rock, hinting that it may have been able to capture a large sample to bring back to Earth.

  • NASA OSIRIS-REX Mission Springs Leak After Touching Asteroid
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-10-23 in National Aeronautics and Space Administration, OSIRIS-REX, Asteroids, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Space and Astronomy, Research, Engineering and Engineers

    The OSIRIS-REX spacecraft collected rock and dirt samples from Bennu, but it appears to be losing some of what it grabbed.

  • NASA’s OSIRIS-REX Mission Completes Quick Touch of Bennu Asteroid
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-10-21 in OSIRIS-REX, Asteroids, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Solar System

    The spacecraft attempted to suck up rocks and dirt from the asteroid, which could aid humanity’s ability to divert one that might slam into Earth.

  • Orionids Meteor Shower 2020: How to Watch
    by Nicholas St. Fleur on 2020-10-20 in Meteors and Meteorites, Space and Astronomy, Content Type: Service, Comets, Earth, Solar System

    Meteor showers can light up night skies from dusk to dawn, and if you’re lucky you might be able to catch a glimpse.

  • Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket Launches a New Line of Business
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-10-19 in Blue Origin, Bezos, Jeffrey P, Space and Astronomy, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Private Spaceflight, Science and Technology, Research, Innovation, Moon, Southwest Research Institute

    Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket hasn’t flown space tourists yet, but it has found a business niche with NASA and private science experiments.

  • Stuart Bowyer, Astronomer Who Lent His Ear to the Cosmos, Dies at 86
    by Dennis Overbye on 2020-10-15 in Deaths (Obituaries), Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Space and Astronomy, Stars and Galaxies, Ultraviolet Light, Extraterrestrial Life, Soyuz Project, Telescopes and Observatories, University of California, Berkeley, Bowyer, Stuart (1934-2020)

    He was a scientist who succeeded in seeing the unseeable and hoped to tune in to extraterrestrial life.

  • How a 2nd-Grade Class Sent a Science Experiment to Space
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-10-13 in Blue Origin, Education (K-12), Private Spaceflight, Fireflies, Space and Astronomy, Science and Technology, Indiana, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Research

    “Any school district now that affords football can afford spaceflight.”

  • Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to 3 Scientists for Work on Black Holes
    by Dennis Overbye and Derrick Bryson Taylor on 2020-10-09 in Nobel Prizes, Black Holes (Space), Physics, Penrose, Roger, Ghez, Andrea, Genzel, Reinhard, Space and Astronomy, Sagittarius A*, your-feed-science

    The prize was awarded half to Roger Penrose for showing how black holes could form and half to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for discovering a supermassive object at the Milky Way’s center.

  • Britain Is Getting Ready for Its Space Race
    by Stanley Reed on 2020-10-06 in Satellites, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Private Spaceflight, Great Britain Withdrawal from EU (Brexit), Airbus Industrie, OneWeb Inc, European Union, Virgin Orbit, Cornwall (England), Great Britain

    Spurred by Brexit, London is backing companies that will build satellites and haul them into orbit.

  • The Search for Life on Venus Could Start With Rocket Lab
    by Jonathan O’Callaghan on 2020-09-22 in Venus (Planet), Rocket Lab, Private Spaceflight, Beck, Peter (Scientist), Space and Astronomy, Research, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Satellites, Extraterrestrial Life, your-feed-science

    Rocket Lab may be able to send a small spacecraft to probe the clouds of Venus long before NASA or other space agencies are able to do so.

  • On Venus, Cloudy With a Chance of Microbial Life
    by Dennis Overbye on 2020-09-19 in Space and Astronomy, Venus (Planet), Planets, Solar System, Microbiology, Biology and Biochemistry, Extraterrestrial Life, Seager, Sara (1971- ), your-feed-science

    Astrobiologists shift their gaze, and speculations, to Earth’s broiling sister planet.

  • Life on Venus? Astronomers See Phosphine Signal in Its Clouds
    by Shannon Stirone, Kenneth Chang and Dennis Overbye on 2020-09-17 in Venus (Planet), Extraterrestrial Life, Biology and Biochemistry, Phosphine, Research, Telescopes and Observatories, Microbiology, Space and Astronomy

    The detection of a gas in the planet’s atmosphere could turn scientists’ gaze to a planet long overlooked in the search for extraterrestrial life.

  • A Solar Forecast With Good News for Civilization as We Know It
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-09-16 in Sun, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Space and Astronomy, Research

    Space weather experts believe the sun has entered a new sunspot cycle, and expect it to be a relatively quiet one.

  • Missions to Venus: Highlights From History, and When We May Go Back
    by Shannon Stirone on 2020-09-15 in Venus (Planet), Space and Astronomy, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Private Spaceflight, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, European Space Agency, India, USSR (Former Soviet Union), Rocket Lab, Research, Extraterrestrial Life

    Much visited in an earlier era of space exploration, the planet has been overlooked in recent decades.

  • How Old Is This Ancient Vision of the Stars?
    by Becky Ferreira on 2020-09-13 in Arts and Antiquities Looting, Archaeology and Anthropology, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Germany, Research, Space and Astronomy, your-feed-science

    It’s a tale of bronze, iron, looting and archaeological conflict.

  • A Rip in the Fabric of Interstellar Dreams
    by Dennis Overbye on 2020-08-24 in Telescopes and Observatories, Extraterrestrial Life, Space and Astronomy, Stars and Galaxies, Black Holes (Space), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, University of Central Florida, Drake, Frank, Puerto Rico, your-feed-science

    The iconic Arecibo radio telescope is temporarily crippled by an accident.

  • NASA Astronauts Safely Return to Earth: ‘Thank You for Flying SpaceX’
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-08-03 in National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Hurley, Douglas G, Behnken, Robert L, Space and Astronomy, Private Spaceflight, United States Politics and Government, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Pensacola (Fla), Public-Private Sector Cooperation

    Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley returned to Earth in the first water landing by an American space crew since 1975.

  • Why NASA Picked Jezero Crater for the Perseverance Rover
    by Kenneth Chang on 2020-07-30 in Mars (Planet), Perseverance (Mars Rover), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Geology, Space and Astronomy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Grotzinger, John P, Smith, Bradford A, Names, Geographical, Science and Technology, Research, Nevada, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Jezero crater, the destination of the Perseverance rover, is a promising place to look for evidence of extinct Martian life.