The new orbiter will orbit in the ionosphere and study the interactions of Earth and space weather. (Credit: ASA Goddard's Conceptual Image Lab/B. Monroe)
NASA will launch its Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite on Wednesday, October 9, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:30 p.m. EDT.
The new satellite will orbit Earth, studying what happens when space weather and Earth weather interact in Earth’s ionosphere, the atmosphere level populated by ions a ...read more
The first exoplanets ever discovered were found orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. It took years for astronomers to find exoplanets around sun-like stars. (Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)
In 1992, astronomers discovered the first exoplanet, or planet
outside our solar system. But it didn’t come in any form they’d really
anticipated.
Neutron stars are the second densest type of object in the
universe outside black holes. They form when a giant star dies and explodes
outward as a result ...read more
Following the only deaths to have ever occurred in space, the USSR started a policy requiring all cosmonauts to wear pressurized spacesuits during reentry. (Credit: Peakpx.com)
For many wannabe astronauts, the idea of venturing into the great unknown would be a dream come true. But over the past 50 years, there's been a slew of spaceflight-related tragedies that are more akin to an astronaut's worst nightmare.
In the last half-century, about 30 astronauts and cosmonauts have died while tr ...read more
(Credit: Abigail Malate, Staff Illustrator/Courtesy American Institute of Physics)
(Inside Science) -- The 2019 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists “for contribution to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos."This year’s prize was awarded to James Peebles of Princeton University “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology, and Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva and Didier Queloz, of the Un ...read more
Multiple scientists are working to grow corn that can fertilize itself, bypassing the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers that can harm the environment. ...read more
