News & Articles
Space
What the world is talking about, with sources. Every piece is prepared with artificial intelligence, and every claim links to where it came from.
How Satellites Work: Orbital Mechanics, Main Types and Everyday Uses
Satellites stay in orbit because their forward speed and Earth's gravity balance out, keeping them in continuous free fall around the planet rather than falling to the ground or flying off into space. Engineers choose an orbit's altitude, shape and inclination to match a satellite's job, from low orbits used for imaging to the geostationary belt used for weather and telecoms. As of October 2026, tracking groups count roughly 17,000 active satellites around Earth.
How to Identify Stars and Constellations: A Beginner's Stargazing Guide
Beginners can learn to identify stars and constellations without a telescope. NASA's Night Sky Network and The Planetary Society say the naked eye is enough to start: learn a few bright anchor constellations, then use their stars as pointers to find others. Autumn and winter favor the hobby because nights are longer and, National Geographic notes, the air often offers clearer sky conditions.
Black Holes Explained: How They Form and What Science Has Confirmed
A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape past a boundary called the event horizon, according to NASA. Most form when a star with more than roughly 20 solar masses runs out of fuel and its core collapses; scientists have now confirmed their existence through direct imaging, X-ray observations, and gravitational-wave detections.
Japan launches MMX probe to collect first samples from Mars moon Phobos
Japan's space agency JAXA launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft on October 20, 2026 (Japan time) from Tanegashima, aiming to bring back more than 10 grams of material from Mars's moon Phobos. The probe will also observe Deimos before an Earth return planned for 2031.
Japan launches MMX mission to Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos
Japan's space agency JAXA launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe on October 20, 2026, aboard an H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. The spacecraft is set to reach Mars in summer 2027, land on Phobos to collect at least 10 grams of surface material, and return the samples to Earth in 2031.
How Satellites Work: Orbit Types and Everyday Uses Explained
Satellites stay up because gravity keeps pulling them toward Earth while their sideways speed keeps them from ever landing — the balance that defines an orbit. Depending on how high and how fast they fly, satellites fall into three main families (low, medium and geostationary orbit), each matched to a different job such as GPS navigation, weather tracking or broadband internet, according to the European Space Agency, NOAA and the U.S. government's GPS program.
How Comets Form, Where They Come From, and Why Their Orbits Differ
Comets are icy leftovers from the solar system's formation, built from rock, dust and frozen gases, according to NASA. Most are stored in one of two distant reservoirs — the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud — and the reservoir a comet comes from largely explains how long its orbit takes and at what angle it approaches the Sun.
How Rockets Work: Engine Technology and Space Launch Mechanics Explained
Rocket engines generate thrust by burning a fuel and an onboard oxidizer in a combustion chamber and expelling the hot gas through a nozzle, following Newton's third law. Because that oxidizer is carried on board, rockets can work in the vacuum of space, and because of the exponential cost of speed described by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, launch vehicles are built in multiple stages that are shed once their propellant is spent.
Dark Matter and Dark Energy: What Makes Up 95% of the Universe
Scientists say ordinary matter — everything we can see, from stars to planets to people — accounts for only about 5% of the universe. The rest is split between dark matter (about 27%), an invisible substance that adds gravity, and dark energy (about 68%), a mysterious pressure driving the universe's expansion to accelerate. Neither has been directly detected, and new surveys are testing whether dark energy's strength changes over time.
A Beginner's Guide to Photographing the Night Sky and Constellations
Photographing stars and constellations requires no special gear to start: a stable tripod, manual exposure control, and a wide-open aperture are enough, according to NASA and the Planetary Society. This guide walks beginners through choosing a dark-sky location, learning a few anchor constellations, and setting exposure step by step, whether using a dedicated camera or a smartphone.
Black Holes Explained: How They Form, Work, and Were Finally Photographed
A black hole is a region of space where gravity is strong enough that nothing, not even light, can escape once it crosses the boundary called the event horizon. Most form when a star of more than about 20 solar masses runs out of fuel and its core collapses; supermassive versions sit at the centers of galaxies, including the Milky Way's own Sagittarius A*. Since 2015, gravitational-wave detectors and direct imaging have turned black holes from theoretical predictions into directly observed objects.
Astronomers Identify First Green Star: White Dwarf WD J1330+6435
A University of Warwick-led team says a white dwarf called WD J1330+6435, in the constellation Draco, is the first star that would genuinely look green to the human eye. The colour comes from sodium, calcium and lithium pulled from its own planetary debris, which absorb orange light in its dense atmosphere, according to a study published in RAS Techniques and Instruments.
How Scientists Search for Intelligent Life Beyond Earth: SETI Methods Explained
Scientists searching for intelligent life beyond Earth mainly use two approaches: scanning the sky for radio and laser signals that could be artificial (SETI), and analyzing exoplanet atmospheres for gases that might indicate biology or technology. No alien signal has ever been confirmed, including the 1977 Wow! signal and a 2026 scan of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS.
How to Identify Planets and Constellations on Autumn Nights
Autumn's longer, clearer nights make it one of the easier seasons to learn the sky. Saturn is the brightest planet on view this autumn, having reached opposition on October 4, 2026, while the Great Square of Pegasus and Cassiopeia's W-shape work as signposts to find Andromeda, Perseus and other constellations.
How to Identify Constellations and Use Them to Find Direction at Night
Beginners can learn the night sky by starting with a few bright, easy-to-spot star patterns and using "pointer stars" to find true north or south. The Big Dipper points to Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Cross and its pointer stars locate the south celestial pole below the equator.
Meteor Showers Explained: How They Form, Annual Peaks and How to Watch
Meteor showers happen when Earth's orbit carries it through a trail of dust shed by a comet, or in one notable case an asteroid, and the particles burn up in the atmosphere. NASA and the American Meteor Society track roughly eight to nine recurring showers a year, each with its own peak window, expected rate and viewing conditions. This guide covers the mechanics behind the display and what to expect from each shower, including the Orionids, which peak on October 21–22, 2026.
NASA Selects GIMLI Mission to Check if a Lunar Pit Hides a Cave for Astronauts
NASA has chosen the GIMLI mission, led by the Planetary Science Institute, to send radar, seismic and gravity instruments to a pit in the Moon's Marius Hills region and determine whether it opens into a large underground lava tube. If such a cave exists and is large enough, it could one day shield astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures and micrometeorite impacts.
How to Observe the Moon's Phases, With October 2026's Hunter's Moon as a Guide
The Moon moves through eight phases every 29.5 days, a cycle called the synodic month, and the next full phase — October's Hunter's Moon — peaks at 04:12 GMT/UTC (12:12 a.m. EDT) on October 26, 2026. Here is how the phase cycle works and what NASA and skywatching guides recommend for observing it, from naked-eye views to binoculars.
How rockets work: propulsion systems and launch technology explained
Rockets fly by throwing mass out of a nozzle at high speed, which pushes the vehicle the opposite way under Newton's third law — no air to push against is needed. Launch vehicles mainly use chemical propulsion (liquid, solid or hybrid), built in stages that are discarded as they burn out, while spacecraft already in space often switch to low-thrust electric (ion) propulsion for efficiency.
Black Holes Explained: How They Form, What They Look Like, and the Proof They Exist
A black hole is a region where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape once it crosses the event horizon. Most black holes form from the collapse of massive dying stars, while the origin of the largest, supermassive black holes remains poorly understood, according to NASA. Their existence has been confirmed both by a 2015 gravitational-wave detection and a 2019 direct image.
NASA's Space Shuttle Hit Mach 25: Why It's Called the Fastest Crewed "Aircraft"
NASA's Space Shuttle re-entered the atmosphere at roughly 17,500 mph — about Mach 25 — making it the fastest crewed vehicle ever to fly like an aircraft and land on a runway. It did this 133 times across 135 missions between 1981 and 2011. A faster absolute human speed record, however, belongs to the Apollo 10 capsule, which was not a winged aircraft.
Could We Live in Caves on the Moon? Inside the Search for Lunar Lava-Tube Habitats
Yes, in principle: scientists say collapsed lava tubes beneath pits such as Marius Hills and Mare Tranquillitatis could shield astronauts from radiation, micrometeorites and extreme temperature swings far better than any surface habitat. NASA has now selected a mission, GIMLI, to find out whether one of these pits actually opens into a cave large enough to matter.
Record-breaking radio burst traces back to universe's early star-forming era
Astronomers have measured the distance to the most remote fast radio burst ever recorded, FRB 20240304B, which left its source when the universe was about 3 billion years old. The James Webb Space Telescope traced the millisecond-long burst to a small, actively star-forming dwarf galaxy — not the large, mature galaxy researchers expected.
How Satellites Work: Orbits, Signals and Global Connectivity Explained
Satellites stay in orbit because their forward speed balances Earth's gravity, and the altitude chosen determines what job a satellite can do. Low orbits give sharp images and short delays, geostationary orbits give constant coverage of one region, and medium orbits power global navigation — each linked to ground stations by radio signals regulated through an international frequency system.