Articolo

Hera Probe Sees Asteroid Pair Separately for First Time

Planetary defense is a growing concern among the scientific community, as efforts have been made to design and implement missions meant to deflect incoming threats to the Earth well in advance. In 2022, NASA intentionally collided the Double Asteroid Redirection test (DART) planetary defense spacecraft into the smaller asteroid of the binary asteroid, Didymos and Dimorphos, with the latter being the smaller one. While the goal was to ascertain if deflecting an asteroid is feasible, how did this influence the geological characteristics of Dimorphos, and what can it teach us about planetary defe

Universe Today · EN

Space Outposts Beyond the Moon May Rely on Planetary AI

NASA plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. But the famed agency has no intention of stopping there, as they plan to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon through a slow and meticulous process involving power, resource extraction, and habitat technologies. However, with the soaring use of artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives, how could this emerging technology be used to identify new landing sites for future outposts on the Moon and possibly Mars?

Universe Today · EN

Ceres' Water Ice Can Mask Massive Surface Salt Deposits

The dwarf planet Ceres is arguably one of the most overlooked and underappreciated planetary objects in the entire solar system. This could be because while Ceres has the same dwarf planet designation as Pluto, Ceres is largely considered an “asteroid” since it resides the in main asteroid belt. However, along with being the largest object in the main asteroid belt, Ceres’ mass comprises between 25 to 30 percent of all the mass of the entire main asteroid belt. Despite its lack of recognition, Ceres’ interior is layered like most rocky planets, including Pluto, and its surface displays evidenc

Universe Today · EN

Martian Polar Crater Ice Shifts with Seasonal Frost

The planet Mars shares many landforms and weather patterns with the Earth, including changing seasons, volcanoes, canyons, dust storms and dust devils, and water ice. But one feature that Earth and Mars share among the eight planets in our solar system are polar ice caps. Both are one of each planet’s striking features, but the major difference is while Earth’s polar ice caps are both comprised of water, Mars’ north polar ice cap is only comprised of water while its southern polar ice cap is carbon dioxide. The reasons for this are determined by altitude, but Mars’ northern polar ice cap is on

Universe Today · EN

New Research Resolves the Mystery Behind Van Gogh's The Starry Night

The sky in Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) matches, in both observation and shape, the pre-dawn sky over Saint-Rémy around 22 July 1889, when a waning crescent moon, Venus and the Hyades star cluster appeared close together, according to a study published inScientific Reports.

Universe Today · EN

Researchers May Have Solved a Puzzling Contradiction in the Ryugu Sample

Samples from the asteroid Ryugu, and from carbonaceous chondrites that have crashed on Earth, present an apparent contradiction. Their fine-grained matrices have widely varied compositions of their clay-like minerals. That suggests that there were widely different aqueous environments in the same parent bodies, which seems unlikely. But new research may have solved that contradiction.

Universe Today · EN

The JWST May Have Found Where Heavy Black Hole Seeds Formed

Astrophysicists think that black holes grow through a hierarchical merger framework. But the elusive Intermediate Mass Black Holes are the missing link between stellar mass black holes, and the gargantuan supermassive black holes like the one at the center of the Milky Way. The JWST may have found the ancient sources of IMBH heavy seeds: young massive clusters in the high-redshift Universe.

Universe Today · EN

APOD: 2026 November 1 – Colors of the Moon

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 November 1 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Colors of the […]

NASA Breaking News · EN

Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon

Amid the warm hues of fall foliage, Pine Creek Gorge forms a deep scar in the Allegheny Plateau.

NASA Breaking News · EN

APOD: 2026 November 2 – A Long Cloud on Mars

APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 November 2 – A… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. A Long […]

NASA Breaking News · EN

NASA’s Hubble Uncovers Case of Missing Oxygen in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies

NASA’s Hubble studied 37 nearby dwarf galaxies and found that much of the oxygen they expected to see is missing.

NASA Breaking News · EN

NASA Invites Media to Northrop Grumman CRS-25 Station Resupply Launch

Media accreditation is open for the next launch to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. A Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft will launch in November to the orbital laboratory on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for NASA. The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 25, […]

NASA Breaking News · EN

What’s Up: November 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA

Meteor Showers, a Spacecraft Milestone, and a Supermoon Catch Taurid and Leonid meteors, spot Mars near Jupiter, celebrate Voyager 1’s light-day milestone, and watch November’s supermoon. Skywatching Highlights Transcript A month of meteor showers … a close pairing of Mars and Jupiter … and a supermoon! That’s What’s Up for November. November offers a buffet […]

NASA Breaking News · EN

NASA’s CHAPEA Crew “Returns” to Earth

The four-member Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) crew poses outside for the first time in more than a year following the end of their simulated Mars journey on Oct. 31, 2026. Crew members Matthew Montgomery (left), James Spicer (middle left), Ross Elder (middle right), and Ellen Ellis (right) spent more than a year […]

NASA Breaking News · EN

TB 26-09 Measured Hammer-Tap Inputs

For more information, contact Joel W. Sills, Langley Research Center, joel.w.sills@nasa.gov. Download the PDF version An instrumented hammer test does not require an idealized single half-sine waveform. When the complete force and response are measured accurately, crest ripples and separated contacts remain known inputs. Force shape changes excitation, but does not inherently invalidate the record. […]

NASA Breaking News · EN

Spiral's Edge

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1827, located roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba, the Dove.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

RS-25 Engine Tests at NASA Stennis

Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi tested RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct. 21, 2026.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

NASA's X-59 Aircraft and Test Pilot

NASA test pilot Mike Lippert poses for a photo ahead of his first time flying the agency's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft on Oct. 21, 2026.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

NASA's Neo Surveyor Sunshade

The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission is inspected by a technician at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in late July.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

Webb Sees Turbulent Star Nursery

In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

NASA's Hubble Marks Way for Roman Space Telescope

A sinuous spiral galaxy (center) appears in the same field of view as a vivid gravitational lens (right corner) in this Hubble image.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Captures Eerie Cat's Head

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view reveals intricate structures within the Cat's Head Nebula, traced by the emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

NASA's CHAPEA Crew "Returns" to Earth

The four-member Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) crew poses outside for the first time in more than a year following the end of their simulated Mars journey on Oct. 31, 2026.

NASA Image of the Day · EN

In Indonesia, PhD students blow the whistle on bad supervision

Nature, Published online: 02 November 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02465-w The nation plans to boost the number of doctoral candidates, but some early-career researchers warn of systemic challenges, including poor-quality supervision.

Nature News · EN