Space : Science World Report

Mar 13, 2019 09:38 AM EDT

Asteroid Bennu, target of NASA's sample return mission, is rotating faster over time

In late 2018, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft arrived at Bennu, the asteroid it will be studying and sampling over the next several years.

Mar 09, 2019 08:37 AM EST

NASA's LRO sheds light on lunar water movement

Scientists, using an instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon.

Mar 07, 2019 08:57 AM EST

Scientists tackle major challenges to sending astronauts to search for life on Mars

An international team of researchers, which includes scientists from McMaster's School of Geography & Earth Sciences, NASA, and others, is tackling one of the biggest problems of space travel to Mars: what happens when we get there?

Mar 04, 2019 08:50 AM EST

Asteroids are stronger, harder to destroy than previously thought

A popular theme in the movies is that of an incoming asteroid that could extinguish life on the planet, and our heroes are launched into space to blow it up. But incoming asteroids may be harder to break than scientists previously thought, finds a Johns Hopkins study that used a new understanding of...

Feb 28, 2019 07:50 AM EST

Clues to Martian life found in Chilean desert

A trial NASA rover mission in the Mars-like Atacama desert has successfully recovered subterranean organisms -- strange, scattered, salt-resistant bacteria that could lead the search for Martian life deeper underground

Feb 26, 2019 07:52 AM EST

Old stars live longer than we thought

The type of stars we refer to, which cannot be seen by the naked eye, officially up to now the objects which have suffered the greatest loss of mass. But the spiral structures detected by an international team show that this is not the case.

Feb 21, 2019 10:15 AM EST

Tiny Neptune moon spotted by Hubble may have broken from larger moon

Astronomers call it "the moon that shouldn't be there." After several years of analysis, a team of planetary scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has, at last, come up with an explanation for a mysterious moon around Neptune that they discovered with Hubble in 2013.

Feb 18, 2019 08:46 AM EST

Northwestern study of analog crews in isolation reveals weak spots for Mission to Mars

Northwestern University researchers are developing a predictive model to help NASA anticipate conflicts and communication breakdowns among crew members and head off problems that could make or break the Mission to Mars.

Feb 16, 2019 08:07 AM EST

A stellar stream in astronomical parlance

Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes the work of researchers from the University of Vienna, who have found a river of stars, a stellar stream in astronomical parlance, covering most of the southern sky.

Feb 14, 2019 07:55 AM EST

Spacecraft measurements reveal mechanism of solar wind heating

Queen Mary University of London has led a study which describes the first direct measurement of how energy is transferred from the chaotic electromagnetic fields in space to the particles that make up the solar wind, leading to the heating of interplanetary space.

Feb 12, 2019 08:03 AM EST

Developing a flight strategy to land heavier vehicles on Mars

The heaviest vehicle to successfully land on Mars is the Curiosity Rover at 1 metric ton, about 2,200 pounds. Sending more ambitious robotic missions to the surface of Mars, and eventually humans, will require landed payload masses in the 5- to 20-ton range. To do that, we need to figure out how to ...

Feb 12, 2019 07:31 AM EST