Defeating dust may be a small concern for most people on Earth, but for astronauts and spacecraft destined for the moon or Mars, it is a significant hazard that must be mitigated. That's why researchers at NASA's Kennedy ...
Space Exploration
Apr 11, 2024
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The heliosphere—made of solar wind, solar transients, and the interplanetary magnetic field—acts as our solar system's personal shield, protecting the planets from galactic cosmic rays. These extremely energetic particles ...
Astronomy
Mar 29, 2024
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Universe Today has examined the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, and planetary atmospheres, and how these intriguing scientific disciplines can help ...
Astrobiology
Mar 19, 2024
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1
April 17, 2021, was a day like any other day on the sun, until a brilliant flash erupted and an enormous cloud of solar material billowed away from our star. Such outbursts from the sun are not unusual, but this one was unusually ...
Astronomy
Mar 4, 2024
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392
To quote NASA associate administrator Jim Reuter, sending crewed missions to Mars by 2040 is an "audacious goal." The challenges include the distance involved, which can take up to six months to traverse using conventional ...
Space Exploration
Feb 27, 2024
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48
A new planet starts its life in a rotating circle of gas and dust, a cradle known as a protostellar disk. My colleagues and I have used computer simulations to show that newborn gas planets in these disks are likely to have ...
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2024
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41
Much like the Earth, our sun is a dynamic body with a complex—and sometimes violent—weather system. Solar storms eject highly energetic radiation that can impact our planet, forming strong auroras and disrupting power ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2024
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48
We know of Mars as the red planet, for its surface and atmosphere is caked in endless swirling dust of rusted iron, the rusting action provided by the always-eager oxygen. But this was not always so.
Astrobiology
Jan 24, 2024
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36
In the coming years, NASA plans to send several astrobiology missions to Venus and Mars to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. These will occur alongside crewed missions to the moon (for the first time since the ...
Space Exploration
Jan 24, 2024
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Eighteen years after NASA's Stardust mission returned to Earth with the first samples from a known comet, the true nature of that icy object is coming into focus.
Planetary Sciences
Jan 16, 2024
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