Astronomy news

• The 1st 'Avengers: Doomsday' trailer is here, and it's stuffed to bursting with superheroes

  20-07-2026 23:05 via space.com
  
  One thing is for certain: there will absolutely be no shortage of superheroes in Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Doomsday", as evidenced by this first full trailer that showcases everyone from the Wakandans and the X-Men to the Fantastic Four and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers. Plus, we get slivers of a metal-masked Victor Von Doom looming over the mayhem to further whet the appetites of MCU acolytes before the Russo Brothers’ epic lands Dec. 18."Something's coming," Downey's Doom decla
  
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• SpaceX targets July 23 for crucial Starship Flight 13 test launch after abort

  20-07-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  SpaceX has pushed the next launch of its Starship megarocket back a few more days.Elon Musk's company is now targeting Thursday (July 23) for Flight 13 of Starship, the giant, fully reusable vehicle it's developing to help get people to the moon and Mars, among other spaceflight tasks.If all goes to plan, the 408-foot-tall (124.4 meters) Starship will lift off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas on Thursday during a 90-minute window that opens at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT; 5:45 p.m. local T
  
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• Scientists discover mystery molecule on Pluto and Saturn's moon Titan: 'We cannot say what it is'

  20-07-2026 22:00 via space.com
  
  Separated by billions of miles and shaped by very different environments, Saturn's smoggy moon Titan and the dwarf planet Pluto have, on paper, little in common.Titan is a geologically active world cloaked in an atmosphere denser than Earth's, its landscape shaped by seas of liquid methane and vast dunes built from organic particles that rain out of its skies. Pluto, by contrast, is a frigid outpost with a tenuous atmosphere hovering above an icy, frozen surface.Yet, observations from the James
  
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• 50 years after Viking 1's historic Mars landing, NASA is looking to the Red Planet's skies

  20-07-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  Half a century after first putting hardware down on Mars, NASA is looking to explore the Red Planet's skies.On July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 lander touched down in the western reaches of Chryse Planitia (the "Golden Plain"), a large circular landform that lies 22.5 degrees north of the Martian equator.It was the first-ever Mars landing for NASA. Viking 1, along with its twin Viking 2, went on to conduct the first fully successful mission on the Red Planet's surface. (The Soviet Union's Mars 3 prob
  
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• 'Stranger Things' at 10: The Netflix streaming icon that made it cool to like science again

  20-07-2026 19:00 via space.com
  
  In July 2016, "Stranger Things" stormed its way into the pantheon of pop culture greats. Finding the sweet spot of '80s nostalgia, horror, and sci-fi, the Duffer Brothers' series established itself as one of Netflix's flagship shows and a favourite water cooler topic for close to a decade.Much like "Jurassic Park" encouraged an entire generation to suddenly view paleontology through a new set of eyes, the same can be said about "Stranger Things" and science. Seriously, how many of us discovered
  
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• Twice in a row: SpaceX rocket aborts launch at last second again (video)

  20-07-2026 18:09 via space.com
  
  That's two last-second launch aborts in a row for SpaceX.One of the company's Falcon 9 rockets tried to loft 24 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California this morning (July 20), but the attempt was aborted just as the first-stage engines started firing up.Something similar happened on Thursday afternoon (July 16), when SpaceX attempted to launch the 13th test flight of its Starship megarocket. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket tries to launch 24 Starlink satellites from
  
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• Four astronauts, 3 spacecraft, 2 weeks in orbit: Artemis III will be NASA's most complicated mission ever

  20-07-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  NASA has never flown a mission like Artemis III, and it's shaping up to become one of the most elaborate spaceflights in history. NASA has provided more details about the Artemis III flight scheduled for next year, and, if all goes according to plan, the objectives the astronauts will be checking off their list will contain more than a few "firsts" for the Artemis program and human spaceflight overall. That includes the first crewed NASA mission to rendezvous and dock with two separate designed
  
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• Artemis II was an incredible reminder of our shared humanity just when we needed it most (op-ed)

  20-07-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  For ten glorious days starting on April 1, 2026, one human endeavor captivated our home planet across continents and time zones: the NASA Artemis II mission to orbit the moon, the first crewed mission to cislunar space since 1972. In an Easter-Passover week that had especially demoralizing headlines on global conflicts, this mission presented a powerful vision of what journeying together and taking enormous risks for a shared purpose towards a shared future could look like.Much has been spoken a
  
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• Get stabilized views of the cosmos with the Canon 18x50 IS binoculars, now almost 30% off

  20-07-2026 16:27 via space.com
  
  The Canon 18x50 IS binoculars are ideal for stargazing and are able to deliver clarity on night sky objects, thanks to their image stabilization. The 50mm objective lenses are the benchmark for stargazing binoculars and are able to deliver bright views of the night sky. They are currently 30% off their retail price.You can get the Canon 18x50 IS all-weather binoculars on sale for $1195 from Amazon.When it comes to stargazing, image-stabilized binoculars are a cut above the rest. Even at high mag
  
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• Ancient sandstorm leaves behind wreckage on Mars | Space photo of the day for July 20, 2026

  20-07-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this image on the surface of Mars, and scientists think it's the wreckage of an ancient sandstorm.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)NASA's Curiosity rover has uncovered evidence of ancient sandstorms on the Red Planet. What is it?Scientists think ancient Mars was quite different than it is today. While we might know it now as a barred, reddish wasteland, billions of years ago it actually had an atmosphere. Scientists even think that it had flowing rivers and exp
  
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• Rocket launch costs have dropped 96% since 1960. How low can they go?

  20-07-2026 15:00 via space.com
  
  The costs of space launch have fallen 96% in the past six decades and have the potential to plummet by nearly as much by 2040, a new study finds.However, such an improvement might get hampered by a number of challenges, such as the rise of space debris in orbit or a single company monopolizing commercial space launch, researchers added.Although previous analyses of space launch suggested that costs had dropped over time, one major problem with these prior studies was that they "considered the co
  
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• Did Viking 1 find life on Mars 50 years ago? Here's why the debate continues

  20-07-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  In looking back and commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Viking missions to Mars, one is struck by the bold and audacious undertaking.Twin spacecraft missions — each consisting of a lander and an orbiter — made their way to Mars and into the history books. The Viking 1 lander planted its legs on the terrain of Chryse Planitia 50 years ago today, on July 20, 1976, while its Viking 2 counterpart touched down at Utopia Planitia on Sept. 3 of that year.Among their duties, the dual l
  
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• An artificial 'Saturn's ring' of satellites could soon fill the sky, astronomers warn

  20-07-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  A bright "Saturn's ring" of satellites could circle the night sky if plans to launch a million data center spacecraft and tens of thousands of space mirrors come to pass. This ring, traversing the sky for hours after dusk and before dawn, would outshine every star and planet, and be visible from every spot on Earth.Hugh Lewis, a professor of astronautics at the University of Birmingham in, the U.K., told Space.com that the only way to accommodate the high number of data center constellations tha
  
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