The next Orion crew module in line to launch to space on NASA's Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) has passed a critical series of proof pressure tests which confirm the effectiveness of the welds holding the spacecraft structure together.
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Scientists in Australia have found evidence of an enormous asteroid impact about 3.5 billion years ago. But the site of that impact remains a mystery.
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According to a recent study from the Carl Sagan Institute, aging red giant stars could still have habitable zones that create life on its distant planets
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Rolling rolling rolling! Yee-haw!
2 By Sea, 1 By Land. The 3rd recovered Falcon 9 booster has joined her siblings inside SpaceX's gleaming new processing hangar, laying side-by-side at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
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Pluto and Haumea have long been thought of as cousins. But a new study highlights Haumea's lack of small, icy moons, and has astronomers puzzled.
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Simply put, air resistance (aka. drag) describes the forces that act opposite to an object's velocity as it travels through an atmosphere
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In the constellation of Ophiuchus lies the M14 globular cluster, a loose concentration of stars spanning 100 light years, 300,000 light-years from Earth
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Thanks to astronaut Tim Peake, people here on Earth have been treated for the first time to an image of what a chipped window aboard the ISS looks like!
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Why this weekend's Full Moon is considered 'blue'... but not in the usual sense.
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An upgraded version of Orbital ATK's commercially developed Antares rocket has at last rolled out to its launch pad on the Virginia shore - thus paving the path for a high stakes first stage engine test looming "in the next few weeks," according to the aerospace firm.
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Using the largest 3-D map of the Universe to date, an team of researchers has shown that Einstein's theory of general relativity holds up 100 years later
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The Hubble Space Telescope takes a deep look into the Comet 252P/LINEAR and discovers a spinning jet. We look at the jet then learn how you can still track this comet with your own telescope.
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As completion nears for the prototype of Boeing's first Starliner astronaut taxi, the firm announced a slip into 2018 for the blastoff date of the first crewed flight in order to deal with spacecraft mass, aerodynamic launch and flight software issues, a Boeing spokesperson told Universe Today.
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After nearly a year in orbit, speculation still abounds as to the X-37B spacecraft's true purpose, and what its been doing up there all this time
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Recent data from the ESO's trio of Swarm satellites point to a weakening of the Earth's magnetic field as well as variations in field strength across the planet in recent years.
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The recovered SpaceX first stage booster that nailed a spectacular middle-of-the-night touchdown at sea last week sailed back to Port Canaveral, Florida, late Monday and was transferred by crane on Tuesday from the drone ship to land - as seen in an amazing time-lapse video and photos, shown above and below and obtained by Universe Today.
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Elon Musk recently announced SpaceX's plans to send a spacecraft to the surface of Mars by 2018. It's never been easier to die on Mars.
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If our Universe could be likened to a playground, our Sun would be one of the little kids playing in it. And the big kids, it turns out, are really big!
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Astronomers using the Kepler spacecraft and data from the Herschel Space Observatory have given us a revealing glimpse of dwarf planet 2007 OR10.
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At a facility the Nevada Desert, the startup company known as Hyperloop One recently conducted a successful test of the technology that could revolutionize transport
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The Big Bear Solar Observatory Captures a high-res image of this week's transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun.
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A SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft loaded with nearly two tons of critical NASA science and technology experiments and equipment returned to Earth this afternoon, Wednesday, May 11, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean - and bringing about a successful conclusion to its mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that also brought aloft a new room for the resident crew.
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Thanks to new data from the New Horizons mission that shows how Pluto behaves as both a planet and a comet, it may be necessary to reclassify this world again!
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A new image from Cassini shows Saturn's southern polar vortex in striking detail.
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When you remove all the touch-ups and filters, the planets of the Solar System look slightly different than you might imagine, especially in terms of color
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No one had a better view of the transit of Mercury across the Sun than the space-based Solar Dynamics Observatory, as it had a completely unobstructed view of the entire seven-and-a-half-hour event.
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The airborne observatory SOFIA has detected atomic oxygen in Mars' upper atmosphere. It's been 40 years since oxygen has been detected there.
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The SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster that successfully launched a Japanese satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) just 3 days ago and then nailed a safe middle of the night touchdown on a drone ship at sea minutes minutes later, is headed back to port and may arrive overnight or soon thereafter.
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It's going to be almost impossible to travel to another star, but a new idea was announced that might get us to a nearby star within our lifetime. How will it work?
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In billions of years, the Sun will enter its "Red Giant" phase and expand considerably. So naturally, we have to ask, will the Earth survive?
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The long-awaited Falcon Heavy from SpaceX may make its inaugural launch in November, 2016. But what will its payload be?
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Located in the Hercules constellation is M13, a globular cluster so large and bright that its nicknamed the "Great Hercules Cluster"
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Amazing reader images of today's transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun from around the world.
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A review of last night's spectacular aurora along with a look at tonight's space weather forecast plus a recap of tomorrow's big event - the transit of Mercury.
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NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, MD - It's Mesmerizing ! That's the overwhelming feeling expressed among the fortunate few setting their own eyeballs on the newly exposed golden primary mirror at the heart of NASA's mammoth James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - a sentiment shared by the team building the one-of-its-kind observatory and myself during a visit this week by Universe Today.
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In the northern skies lies the constellation Auriga, one of the 44 described by Ptolemy and one of the 88 constellations recognized today by the IAU
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The planet Mars has a highly eccentric orbit around the Sun, and takes a little under two years for it to complete a single orbit
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SpaceX has hired super-hero movie costume designer Jose Fernandez to design space suits for its astronauts.
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SpaceX scored a double whammy of successes this morning, May 6, following the stunning nighttime launch of a Japanese comsat to orbit on the firm's Falcon 9 rocket and nailing the breathtaking touchdown of the spent first stage just minutes later - furthering the goal of rocket reusability
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Less than 4 weeks after launching a Dragon cargo ship for NASA to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX is poised for their next nearly simultaneous Falcon 9 rocket launch and first stage landing attempt for what promises to be a spectacular skyshow shortly after midnight on Friday, May 6.
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It is possible that we could someday transform Ceres, the largest object in the Asteroid Belt, to make it friendly for human habitation?
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If you notice a rise in meteors before dawn now through the weekend, you're not imagining things. It's the annual peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, when pieces of Halley's Comet strike our atmosphere.
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