From Science: On 21 May, China plans to launch a satellite with a vital but unglamorous mission. From a vantage point beyond the moon, Queqiao, as the satellite is called, will relay data from Chang'e 4, a lander and rover that is supposed to touch down on the lunar far...
From Popular Science: The moon is more than just a pretty face to gaze upon at night. It helps direct our ocean currents and tides, the movement of Earth’s atmosphere and climate, and even the tilt of our planet’s axis. So what would happen to Earth, and us, if it...
From Nature: Researchers are heading to some of the most remote spots on Earth — from the Tibetan Plateau to an island in the sub-Antarctic ocean — to try to capture an enigmatic radio signal from the early Universe. This grand search, which could even involve a mission to the...
From Popular Mechanics: NASA's support of private spaceflight has helped spur competition between companies like SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin, and that rocket race has driven launch costs to historic lows. The next step will give industry a chance to take the reins a little farther from home...
From Space.com: NASA is pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost for astronauts positioned in the space near Earth's moon. According to NASA, the Gateway will not only be a place to live, learn and work around the moon but will also support an array...
From Colorado Public Radio: Astronomers have detected the first stars ever to shine in the universe, an event that happened more than 13 billion years ago. No one’s actually seen them -- scientists picked up their radio waves. But Doug Duncan, director emeritus of the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, says...
From KJZZ 91.5 Radio: The story of the universe as we know it and the planet we live on begins with the first star. In 2016, the Hubble Telescope measured the oldest known galaxy in the universe — one that formed 400 million years after the Big Bang. A group...
From Popular Mechanics: "If that thing goes up 200 feet and explodes, I'm jumping in the water"—so says one of the tens of thousands of spectators who made the pilgrimage to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. We're looking at Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy rocket on the launch pad about three miles...
From BGR Media: Scientists have long attempted to paint a detailed picture of what the universe looked like in the immediate aftermath of the big bang, and new research suggests that some of their most basic assumptions have been entirely incorrect. Researchers studying some of the most ancient regions of...
From Nature: The cosmic radio-frequency spectrum is expected to show a strong absorption signal corresponding to the 21-centimetre-wavelength transition of atomic hydrogen around redshift 20, which arises from Lyman-α radiation from some of the earliest stars. By observing this 21-centimetre signal—either its sky-averaged spectrum or maps of its fluctuations, obtained...