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Artist's impression of ESA's Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses). In July 2024, ESA's Space Safety programme received permission to begin preparatory work for the development of Ramses using existing resources. The decision whether to commit to the mission in full will take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting in November 2025. If approved, Ramses will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis and accompany it through its extremely rare flyby of Earth in April 2029. Researchers will study the asteroid as Earth’s gravity alters its physical characteristics. Their findings will improve our ability to defend our planet from any similar object found to be on a collision course in the future.
ESA
A cruise liner-size asteroid will come closer to Earth than some satellites. A new mission may be racing to meet it
Screenshot from the livestream of a SpaceX Starlink satellite launch on July 11, 2024.
From SpaceX
SpaceX’s prolific Falcon 9 rocket grounded after failed mission
Urine collection garment prototype
Claire Walter
Scientists unveil prototype spacesuit system that recycles urine as drinking water
This "penguin party" is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing "fireworks," or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars per year, for a few million years. For the Penguin, research has shown that about 100 to 200 stars have formed per year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of the same size) forms roughly six to seven new stars per year.
NASA/ESA/CSA/M. Marin (STScI)
New image captures glowing cosmic dance of the Penguin and Egg galaxies
iss071e183650 (June 13, 2024) --- NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
NASA
Boeing Starliner astronaut says the spacecraft is ‘truly amazing’ despite malfunctions and delays
The European Space Agency satellite launcher Ariane 6 rocket takes off from its launchpad at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on July 9.
Jody Amiet/AFP/Getty Images
Long-awaited European rocket experiences ‘anomaly’ before reentry to Earth
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Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University
Scientists find a molecule never before found outside our solar system on a planet with glass rain
The Goldstone Solar System Radar, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network, made these observations of the recently discovered 500-foot-wide (150-meter-wide) asteroid 2024 MK, which made its closest approach — within about 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) of Earth — on June 29.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
New images reveal an asteroid that just whizzed by Earth has an unexpected companion
ULANQAB, CHINA - JUNE 25: The return capsule of the Chang'e-6 probe lands in the designated area on June 25, 2024 in Siziwang Banner, Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. The returner of the Chang'e-6 probe touched down on Earth on June 25, bringing back the world's first samples collected from the moon's far side. (Photo by Menghe Zhaoru/VCG via Getty Images)
Menghe Zhaoru/VCG/Getty Images
NASA administrator weighs in on China’s historic lunar far side samples — and potential US access
The craters seen here in blue were formed by a meteoroid impact on Mars on Sept. 5, 2021. The impact was the first to be detected by NASA's InSight mission; the image was taken later by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The initial impact itself created a small marsquake that was detected by InSight's seismometer. The instrument recorded seismological data that showed the moment the meteoroid entered Mars' atmosphere, its explosion into pieces in the atmosphere, and finally, the impact that created a series of at least three craters in the surface. MRO then flew over the approximate site where the impact was "felt" to look for darkened patches of ground using its Context Camera. After finding this location, HiRISE captured the scene in color. The ground is not actually blue; this enhanced-color image highlights certain hues in the scene to make details more visible to the human eye – in this case, dust and soil disturbed by the impact.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Mars gets hit by hundreds of basketball-size space rocks every year
iss071e182991 (June 13, 2024) --- The Starliner spacecraft on NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port as the International Space Station orbited 262 miles above Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
NASA
Boeing Starliner spacecraft could wait months before return, but officials say astronauts aren’t stranded
A microscope image of a dark Bennu particle, about a millimeter long, with a crust of bright phosphate. To the right is a smaller fragment that broke off.
Lauretta & Connolly et al. (2024)/Meteoritics & Planetary Science
Surprising asteroid sample reveals Bennu may have originated from an ocean world
NASA astronaut Jeff Williams is seen during a 2006 spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
NASA
Spacewalk suits are decades old. NASA just canceled plans for new ones due
International Space Station is seen with Earth in the background.
NASA
SpaceX to build vehicle that will drag the International Space Station out of orbit
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the NOAA weather satellite GOES-U weather satellite lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on June 25.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images
Satellite launches to keep an eye on space weather as solar activity ramps up
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NASA
NASA calls off spacewalk at last minute as astronaut suit malfunctions