On March 17, 2026, around 8:56 am EDT, a bright meteor lit up the sky over the northern United States. The fireball was seen across at least ten states and southern Ontario, Canada. Seconds after appearing, it produced a loud sonic boom that was heard and felt across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan....
Read news articleOn December 20, 2025, Michaela "Michi" Benthaus became the first person in a wheelchair to travel to space. The 33-year-old German aerospace engineer launched from West Texas aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-37 spacecraft. Her flight marked an important step toward making space travel more accessible to people with physical disabilities....
Read news articleFor the first time in the 25-year history of the International Space Station (ISS), NASA has ordered a crew to return early. The Crew-11 astronauts — Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Platonov — will leave aboard the SpaceX Dragon on January 14, 2026. If all goes according to plan, they will splash down off the California coast at about 3:40 am pst on January 15. The mission had been initially planned to last until around February 20....
Read news articleA tiny traveler has joined Earth in its journey around the Sun. The object, named 2025 PN7, is a quasi-moon, an asteroid whose orbit closely matches Earth’s. This makes it look like it follows our planet. The quasi-moon's discovery, revealed on October 22, 2025, offers scientists a rare chance to study near-Earth asteroids....
Read news articleUranus and Neptune are often called "ice giants." This is based on the theory that they were made from materials that easily freeze in space, like water and ammonia. However, this label does not come from direct observations, since no spacecraft has visited the two giants since Voyager 2 in the 1980s. Instead, it is drawn from computer models built using the planets’ sizes, masses, densities, and gravity fields. Now, a new study by scientists at the University of Zurich is challenging this idea. It suggests that the two planets may contain more rock than ice....
Read news articleThree taikonauts — the term for Chinese astronauts — aboard China’s Tiangong Space Station have had their trip home postponed after a piece of space debris struck their return capsule. Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie were set to return to Earth on November 5, 2025, after handing over duties to the Shenzhou-21 mission crew. But just hours before departure, engineers found signs of damage to the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, forcing officials to delay the trip....
Read news articleStargazers rejoice! A rare celestial visitor from the distant Oort Cloud is heading our way. The newly discovered Comet Lemmon will make its closest flyby of Earth in late October 2025. Under the right conditions, it might even be seen without a telescope!...
Read news articleFor the past 30 years, scientists around the world have been searching for planets beyond our solar system. Known as exoplanets, these worlds come in all shapes and sizes, each orbiting its own star. On September 17, 2025, NASA officially confirmed the existence of 6,000 exoplanets. Even more exciting, an additional 8,000 are just waiting to be verified!...
Read news articleThe US space agency NASA needs your help designing the next set of wheels for space vehicles. The "Rock and Roll with NASA Challenge" is hosted on the innovation platform HeroX. It challenges students, engineers, and creative minds to design wheels that can withstand the Moon's harsh conditions. These innovations could shape the future of lunar exploration....
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