Space

T-Minus: SpaceX’s military launch, a rocket family’s final flight, and more

Freethink’s weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring a new kind of military satellite, the solar eclipse, and more.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

T-Minus: SpaceX’s first “Bandwagon” launch, NASA’s future moon vehicles, and more

Freethink’s weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring a new SpaceX service, a request for “moon time,” and more.

Kristin Houser

An artistic representation of a black hole with accretion disk and relativistic jets emitting from its poles.

Outer Space

Persistent “hiccups” in a far-off galaxy draw astronomers to new black hole behavior

Scientists have found a large black hole that “hiccups,” giving off plumes of gas, revealing another black hole.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office

CRISPR

Astronauts use CRISPR in space for first time

A first-of-its-kind experiment using CRISPR in space could help protect astronauts from DNA damage on long trips beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

New evidence discovered of underground water on Mars

Either underground water on Mars is far more prevalent than previously thought or something we can explain is going on beneath the Red Planet’s surface.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

Black holes caught eating neutron stars for first time

Using gravitational waves, astronomers have observed collisions between black holes and neutron stars for the first time.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

Chunks of Venus’ crust float like icebergs on its mantle

New evidence of tectonic activity on Venus expands our understanding of the hellish planet and offers a window into Earth’s own geological past.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

You can now buy a balloon ride to the edge of space

Space tourism company Space Perspective has begun selling tickets for rides in a stratospheric balloon that can reach the edge of space.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

See the first 3D map of the heliosphere

Astronomers have created the first ever 3D map of the heliosphere, using satellite data to reveal the part of the universe influenced by our sun’s solar wind.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

New Chinese space station receives first astronauts

The new Chinese space station has received its first crew, a huge milestone for a project that began nearly 30 years ago.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

Ion propulsion will power new space station

China's new space station will get a boost from an ion propulsion system, making it the first crewed spacecraft to feature the sci-fi-sounding engines.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

Astronomers find more than 100,000 "stellar nurseries"

The biggest survey of stellar nurseries to date, PHANGS-ALMA, charts more than 100,000 star formation regions across our corner of the universe.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

NASA probe snaps stunning photos of Ganymede

NASA has shared new photos of Ganymede taken by the Juno probe when it was just 645 miles away from Jupiter’s icy moon.

Kristin Houser

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