A trans-Neptunian object was found to possess a surprising thin atmosphere after astronomers witnessed the object occult a distant star.
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A prototype ion engine that uses lithium metal vapor as a propellant has aced its first tests, achieving 25 times more power than the ion engine on the Psyche mission.
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Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have directly analyzed the surface of a distant super-Earth, revealing a dark, airless, Mercury-like world.
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The Vela Supercluster, in our Milky Way’s Zone of Avoidance, is competing gravitationally with other superclusters for the attention of local galaxies.
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Looking like a scene out of “Star Wars,” this image shows the ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) beaming four separate lasers into the sky towards the Tarantula Nebula.
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Early galaxies were star-forming machines, gobbling up gas and spitting out stars with a furious intensity. A new model helps explain why things were so different back then.
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Astronomers call this “eruptive mass loss,” and it’s a stellar drama we’re still trying to fully grasp.
Drone-mounted radar flown over glaciers on Earth show how the technology can map buried ice in detail, helping future Mars spacecraft choose exactly where to drill.
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In this donut-shaped bag is a massive parachute. Next stop? Mars.
New panoramic views from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers reveal dramatically different Martian terrains shaped by ancient water and billions of years of geological change.
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