The International Space Station (ISS) is constantly orbiting around the Earth, making 16 rounds every day. Photographer Andrew McCarthy was recently able to capture the ISS flying across the sun in a stunning portrait. But it took him 12 hours of composition, three telescopes, and two blown-out tires to achieve the shot. The critical moment
Space
As the International Space Station (ISS) approaches the end of its service, China and India are planning to deploy their own space stations, and NASA has contracted with three aerospace companies to design commercial space stations. Now, Airbus has proposed its own Multi-Purpose Orbital Module (MPOP) called the Airbus LOOP, a modular space segment for
The Moon is not the only object orbiting Earth; there are a small number of quasi-satellites that do as well. Kamo’oalewa is a near-Earth asteroid that was discovered in 2016, and it is one of these quasi-satellites. Its orbit changes over time, but it always stays near Earth. It reflects light the same way the
Out of the thousands of meteorites found on Earth, around 188 have been confirmed to have come from Mars. So how did they get here? When asteroids hit Mars with enough force, the debris is blasted into space and eventually finds its way to Earth. While astronomers once believed only the most powerful impacts could
Space is dominated by supermassive black holes that sit at the centers of galaxies. These behemoths start at around 100,000 times the mass of the Sun and can reach tens of billions of solar masses at maximum. Although we have some ideas about how they got that way, the biggest mystery of the universe is
After conducting an extensive investigation, scientists have confirmed that the Moon is not made of green cheese, as the myth goes. Seismic data has revealed that the inner core of the Moon is actually a solid ball with a density comparable to that of iron. This finding has settled the debate around whether the Moon’s
Throughout history, humans have never been contacted by extraterrestrial life. However, statistically, it is believed that Earth is not alone in the universe. With so much space to scan, there is a possibility that Earth simply lies in a bubble without any radio waves emitted by extraterrestrial life. This theory has been proposed by Claudio
Scientists have discovered rare earth metal terbium in the atmosphere of KELT-9b, an exoplanet located approximately 670 light-years away. This is the first time that the extremely rare element has been found on a distant planet. KELT-9b is known as a hot Jupiter, a gas giant that orbits a blue supergiant star on an extremely
Astronomers have observed a flare of light as a dying star engulfs and destroys one of its orbiting planets, providing valuable insight into what happens to a planetary system as a star enters its death throes. This is the first time such an event has been observed, despite being theorized for some time. Process of
Astronomers have detected the chemical imprints of the first stars to exist in the universe, which exploded billions of years ago. The remains of these stars are difficult to find as they exploded too far away to detect with current instruments. However, the material they left behind during their explosions, such as carbon, oxygen and
