Scott Kenyon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Photos from the spacecraft’s close approach are dazzling. They and other data from the mission will fill in some of the blanks about Pluto and provide a snapshot of the infant solar system.
After a decade in space, New Horizons has finally completed its fly-by of Pluto. And the fact that it is no longer a planet makes it all the more interesting.
The moon might harbor bits of the Earth that blasted off our planet billions of years ago. These lunar time capsules could hold secrets about conditions here at home back when life was first emerging.
Sinkholes on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko could teach us a lot about the geology and history of the body, but they could also spell the end for Philae.
The turbocharged capitalism of private space flight is strangely at odds with the brotherly, generous global consensus that built the legal framework for extra-terrestrial travel.
Many do not associate Africa with the high-tech sphere of “space”. However, in recent years, many countries on the continent have woken up to the potential and usefulness of space technology.
The discovery of a white dwarf star with hydrogen and oxygen in its atmosphere suggests water could be planted on stars and planets by bodies like asteroids.
Twenty-five years on and the Hubble Space Telescope is still taking some amazing images. But there have been a few glitches over the years, right from day one.
Lynn Zubernis, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Star Trek fans were especially drawn to Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock – who showed many that it “was okay to be a nerd, that even in the future not everyone fit in, or needed to.”