Wouldn’t you be happy too? The European Space Agency has found a “smiley” face on the surface of Mars — and the joy-sparking pattern could be a sign of life on the bright red dot. The purplish hue, seen by ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, evokes a grinning — or perhaps still-faced emoji — and is … Read more
One giant beep for mankind. Scientists have proposed a radical new method for sniffing out potential alien life on other planets — send AI into space and see if any little green men respond. The science fiction-worthy suggestion — recalling the Netflix hit show “3 Body Problem” — was recently put forward in an essay published by Scientific … Read more
It’s a Sirius problem. A crime scene specialist is probing the forensics behind how a murder could be investigated in outer space — something he says is “inevitable” in the coming years by way of space tourism. “Where humanity goes, so too will human behavior,” said Detective Zack Kowalske, who works in CSI for the Roswell, … Read more
Sounds like utter lunar-cy. As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) readies to return astronauts to the moon and convert the space rock into an orbital outpost, plans are apparently being mulled to build a train on its surface. “We want to build the first lunar railway system, which will provide reliable, autonomous, and efficient … Read more
The truth is out there. People from the southwestern US to Scandinavia and the far reaches of Eastern Europe posted footage of an unidentified flying object they saw mysteriously coasting overhead in a spiral pattern Thursday evening. “Completely clear skies, and I see a super blurry white light (no flashes like a plane), coming straight … Read more
This party is sure to be far out. The Kennedy Space Center of Cape Canaveral, Florida is gearing up for a major launch in February — of an after-hours techno rave and costume party among real astronauts. “The colors of the cosmos come to life” on the evening of February 2 as the center will … Read more
When the Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Fla., for its April 12, 1981 maiden voyage, it ushered in a new and exciting age of space travel and exploration. But as Matthew H. Hersch explains in ‘Dark Star: A New History of the Space Shuttle’ (MIT Press), the … Read more
On June 16, 1963, Russia edged ahead in the Space Race with the United States when 26-year-old Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space. Soon after, the US press launched a counteroffensive, publicly denigrating Tereshkova, as Loren Grush explains in “The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts” (Scribner). “Articles … Read more
Who are the best stars for Mars? Computational social scientists at George Mason University have published a new paper that reveals the ideal types of Earthlings to inhabit Mars upon the red planet’s hopeful colonization some day. “Establishing a human settlement on Mars is an incredibly complex engineering problem,” the researchers wrote. “The inhospitable nature … Read more
Somebody really spaced out on this one. NASA has lost contact with its deep space, Voyager 2 satellite after giving the unmanned module an incorrect command two weeks ago, the Associated Press reported. On Tuesday, it was announced NASA had only first heard back from the vessel when a “heartbeat signal” was picked up by … Read more
It might sound like NASA is investigating another UFO sighting with its latest call for citizen scientists’ help, but the mysterious bright flashes known as “sprites” are a weather-related phenomenon. Sprites are a form of Transient Luminous Event or TLE and are often associated with thunderstorms. These bright light flashes happen above the storm in Earth’s upper … Read more