Space Probes News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Space-Trekking Muscle Tests Drugs for Microgravity-Induced Muscle Impairment

July 25, 2024 — A gentle rumble ran under a researcher's feet as a rocket carrying her research -- live, human muscle cells grown on scaffolds fixed on tiny chips -- lifted off, climbed, and disappeared into the sky ...

Exoplanet-Hunting Telescope to Begin Search for Another Earth in 2026

July 18, 2024 — Europe's next big space mission -- a telescope that will hunt for Earth-like rocky planets outside of our solar system -- is on course to launch at the end of 2026. PLATO, or PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is being built to find ...

New Analysis of Cassini Data Yields Insights Into Titan's Seas

July 16, 2024 — A new study of radar experiment data from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn has yielded fresh insights related to the makeup and activity of the liquid hydrocarbon seas near the north pole of Titan, the largest of Saturn's 146 known ...

Greater Focus Needed on How Existing International Law Can Prevent the Increasing Militarization of Outer Space

July 10, 2024 — There is a pressing need for countries and international organizations to understand better how existing international law can help them address serious concerns about the militarization of outer ...

Latest Headlines

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Expiring Medications Could Pose Challenge on Long Space Missions

July 23, 2024 — A new study shows that over half of the medicines stocked in space -- staples such as pain relievers, antibiotics, allergy medicines, and sleep aids -- would expire before astronauts could return to ...

Machine Learning Could Aid Efforts to Answer Long-Standing Astrophysical Questions

July 3, 2024 — Physicists have developed a computer program incorporating machine learning that could help identify blobs of plasma in outer space known as ...

Moon 'Swirls' Could Be Magnetized by Unseen Magmas

July 3, 2024 — Mysterious, light-colored swirls on Moon's surface could be rocks magnetized by magma activity underground, laboratory experiments ...

Predicting Changes Inside Astronauts' Bodies During Space Travel Through Blood Sample Analysis

June 26, 2024 — The human body undergoes various transformations in space. However, a direct examination of organs and tissues is challenging. This study ...

Geologists Expect Chang'e-6 Lunar Surface Samples to Contain Volcanic Rock and Impact Ejecta

June 24, 2024 — On June 25, China's Chang'e-6 (CE-6) lunar probe is set to return to Earth, carrying the first surface samples collected from the farside of the ...

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is Not the Same One Cassini Observed in 1600s

June 19, 2024 — Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot has persisted for at least 190 years and is likely a different spot from the one observed by the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1665, a new study reports. The ...

New Biomarker Database Designed to Improve Astronaut Health May Also Be Useful to Earthlings

June 11, 2024 — As space travel becomes more frequent, a new biomarker tool was developed by an international team of researchers to help improve the growing field ...

Would Astronauts' Kidneys Survive a Roundtrip to Mars?

June 11, 2024 — The structure and function of the kidneys is altered by space flight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardise any mission to Mars, according to a new study led by ...

In a Significant First, Researchers Detect Water Frost on Solar System's Tallest Volcanoes

June 10, 2024 — An international team of planetary scientists has detected patches of water frost sitting atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars, which are not only the ...

In New Experiment, Scientists Record Earth's Radio Waves from the Moon

June 7, 2024 — Odysseus, a tenacious lander built by the company Intuitive Machines, almost didn't make it to the moon. But an experiment aboard the spacecraft managed to capture an image of Earth as it might look ...

Lake Under Mars Ice Cap Unlikely

June 7, 2024 — Researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive -- if less dramatic -- explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars' south ...

Researchers Call for Strengthening Sustainability Regulations in Laws Governing Space Exploration

June 3, 2024 — Researchers call for strengthening existing planetary protection policies beyond the space surrounding Earth to include requirements for preserving the Lunar and Martian ...

Moon Orbiting 'Dinky' Asteroid Is Actually Two Tiny Moons Stuck Together

May 29, 2024 — The moon orbiting the asteroid Dinkinesh is actually two tiny moons stuck together. Collectively called 'Selam,' the two moonlets bring new insight into the complex processes behind ...

New Technique Offers More Precise Maps of the Moon's Surface

May 29, 2024 — A new study may help redefine how scientists map the surface of the Moon, making the process more streamlined and precise than ever ...

Mystery of 'Slow' Solar Wind Unveiled by Solar Orbiter Mission

May 28, 2024 — Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the ...

Venus Has Almost No Water: A New Study May Reveal Why

May 6, 2024 — Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored as much water as Earth. Today, almost all of it has disappeared. A new study may help to explain ...

New Discoveries About Jupiter's Magnetosphere

May 6, 2024 — New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth's own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system's largest ...

Probing the Effects of Interplanetary Space on Asteroid Ryugu

Apr. 29, 2024 — Samples reveal evidence of changes experienced by the surface of asteroid Ryugu, some probably due to micrometeoroid ...

Toward Unification of Turbulence Framework -- Weak-to-Strong Transition Discovered in Turbulence

Apr. 23, 2024 — Astrophysicists have made a significant step toward solving the last puzzle in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence theory by observing the weak to strong transition in the space plasma turbulence ...

'Tube Map' Around Planets and Moons Made Possible by Knot Theory

Apr. 17, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new method using knot theory to find the optimal routes for future space missions without the need to waste ...

Turbulence Within Solar Transients Imaged

Mar. 27, 2024 — Scientists captured images showing the development of turbulence as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) interacted with the ambient solar wind in the circumsolar ...

Signs of Life Would Be Detectable in Single Ice Grain Emitted from Extraterrestrial Moons

Mar. 22, 2024 — Could life be found in frozen sea spray from moons orbiting Saturn or Jupiter? New research finds that life can be detected in a single ice grain containing one bacterial cell or portions of a cell. ...

Secrets of the Van Allen Belt Revealed in New Study

Mar. 21, 2024 — A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new ...

Pioneering Muscle Monitoring in Space to Help Astronauts Stay Strong in Low-Gravity

Mar. 20, 2024 — Astronauts have been able to track their muscle health in spaceflight for the first time using a handheld device, revealing which muscles are most at risk of weakening in low gravity conditions. ...

Do Astronauts Experience 'Space Headaches'?

Mar. 13, 2024 — Space travel and zero gravity can take a toll on the body. A new study has found that astronauts with no prior history of headaches may experience migraine and tension-type headaches during long-haul ...

Giant Volcano Discovered on Mars

Mar. 13, 2024 — A deeply eroded giant volcano, active from ancient through recent times and with possible remnants of glacier ice near its base, had been hiding near Mars' equator in plain sight. Its discovery ...

CSI in Space: Analyzing Bloodstain Patterns in Microgravity

Mar. 8, 2024 — As more people seek to go where no man has gone before, researchers are exploring how forensic science can be adapted to extraterrestrial environments. A new study highlights the behavior of blood in ...

Space Tourism? Cosmic Radiation Exposure

Mar. 5, 2024 — Space weather experts are urging regulators and space tourism innovators to work together to protect their passengers and crews from the risks of space weather radiation ...

Ice Shell Thickness Reveals Water Temperature on Ocean Worlds

Feb. 29, 2024 — Astrobiologists have devised a novel way to determine ocean temperatures of distant worlds based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from ...

New Realistic Computer Model Will Help Robots Collect Moon Dust

Feb. 22, 2024 — A new computer model mimics Moon dust so well that it could lead to smoother and safer Lunar robot ...