Astronomy news

• SpaceX serious about building factories on the moon: 'It’s going to happen,' Elon Musk says

  07-08-2026 23:00 via space.com
  
  As usual, SpaceX is dreaming big.The company plans to build factories on the moon, using robots to do much of the heavy lifting, Elon Musk said on Tuesday (Aug. 4) during SpaceX's first-ever quarterly earnings call. "We are going to land a lot of tonnage on the moon," he said. "We're going to build the factories on the moon. The robots will be helpful with that."This is not a newly revealed vision; Musk first laid it out in February, in a blog post that announced SpaceX's purchase of xAI, a comp
  
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• 'Not looking good right now': Starship likely to be lost at sea 2 weeks after epic 13th test flight, Elon Musk says

  07-08-2026 22:44 via space.com
  
  It looks like Starship's two-week-long ocean adventure won't have a happy ending.The SpaceX megarocket conducted its 13th test flight on July 24, lifting off from the company's Starbase site in South Texas. Things went pretty well on Flight 13, especially for Starship's 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper stage, known as Ship, which splashed down as planned in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.In an unexpected first, Ship survived that homecoming, staying in one piece even after to
  
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• NASA figured out how to keep its 48-year-old Voyager 2 probe running for yet another year

  07-08-2026 21:00 via space.com
  
  NASA just made an interstellar tweak to the Voyager 2 spacecraft, known as the "Big Bang", to keep its remaining 50-year-old science instruments running a little longer.Voyager 2 and its twin launched in 1977, called Voyager 1, rely on a form of nuclear battery known as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that uses the heat produced by the decay of plutonium. But the supply of plutonium on each probe drops at about four watts a year on each spacecraft. To keep the probe running on this dwind
  
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• Inside the mystery of the James Webb Space Telescope's little red dots — and how they might be evolving

  07-08-2026 20:00 via space.com
  
  New evidence has come to light showing that the mysterious 'little red dots' discovered in the early universe by the James Webb Space Telescope could evolve into the active centers of fully formed galaxies."Everything created in the early universe must evolve into something around us," said George Rieke of the University of Arizona in a statement. "We have had little idea of what little red dots become, but these results finally show us how to find their progeny."Discovered by the James Webb Spa
  
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• How to safely observe eclipses and the solar surface with a smart telescope

  07-08-2026 19:00 via space.com
  
  Solar observation can be tricky or underwhelming when trying to observe with handheld methods such as using solar eclipse glasses and solar binoculars. Hunting for the sun with binoculars can be tricky due to the essential ISO 12312-2 rated solar filters on the glass blocking all vision except for the solar disk itself. This is where a smart telescope like the entire Unistellar range can help; it automatically finds and tracks the solar disk from a few presses on your smartphone.Need a smart tel
  
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• NASA's SkyFall Mars helicopters will wear tiny capes

  07-08-2026 18:07 via space.com
  
  Picture it: A swarm of tiny robot helicopters descends through a reddish-brown sky, landing gracefully on the Martian surface. What are they wearing? Tiny capes. NASA's SkyFall mission will send a trio of mini rotorcraft to Mars equipped with ground penetrating radar technology which happens to look like little capes. These uniquely designed swaths of fabric look decidedly strange or even accidental in new videos from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that show the little drones practice la
  
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• Engineers race to save stricken LINK rescue spacecraft before it's too late

  07-08-2026 18:00 via space.com
  
  A private rescue spacecraft is having troubles of its own in Earth orbit.LINK, a satellite built and operated by the Arizona company Katalyst Space Technologies, launched July 3 on a daring and unprecedented mission: Rendezvous with NASA's Swift space telescope and boost the observatory to a higher orbit before it falls out of the sky.About three weeks after launch, however, LINK started spinning at an unexpected rate, a problem that caused a temporary communications dropout and a reset of its s
  
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• Chinese company Landspace targets Aug. 10 for historic rocket launch and landing attempt

  07-08-2026 17:00 via space.com
  
  The Chinese commercial launch company Landspace is set for a second attempt at catching an orbital booster. The startup launched its first Zhuque-3 rocket in December 2025, in what was a milestone for Chinese rocket reusability efforts. While the Zhuque-3 second stage successfully reached orbit, the first stage exploded in a dramatic fireball during its final powered descent toward the landing pad. Now, Landspace is poised for a second attempt at liftoff and landing, with airspace closure notice
  
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• On this day in space! Aug. 7, 1980: NASA's Viking 1 Mars orbiter shuts down 4 years into a 90-day mission

  07-08-2026 16:14 via space.com
  
  On Aug. 7, 1980, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft ended its epic and historic mission on the Red Planet. Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars. It was one of two Viking missions NASA launched in 1975 to go look for evidence of life on Mars. Each of the Viking missions were composed of an orbiter and a lander. Viking 1's orbiter took photos of the Martian surface that helped NASA decide where to drop the lander. Viking 1: The Historic First Mars Landing in PicturesAfter four ye
  
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• Cosmic treasure chest explodes with baby stars | Space photo of the day for Aug. 7, 2026

  07-08-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  The Carina Nebula's "Treasure Chest" stuns in this new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.(Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter)In a nebula far, far away, colossal clouds of dust and gas tower amongst the stars. What is it?This spectacular new image from the James Webb Space Telescope showcases the brilliant majesty of the Carina Nebula, a giant cloud of dust and gas found 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. You may have seen the Carina Nebula before &m
  
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• The UK is about to witness its most spectacular solar eclipse in 11 years. Here's what you need to know

  07-08-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  It will be a magnificent day for England's south coast. From Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard and Brighton's Royal Pavilion to Dorset's Jurassic Coast and Cornwall's Land's End, beaches and cliff tops will be plunged into darkness in the day during the U.K.'s first total solar eclipse for almost 91 years. There is, however, a problem — this scenario won't occur until Sept. 23, 2090.A total solar eclipse visits a location on Earth on average once every 366 years, and the British are currently
  
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• Why you don't need a perfectly clear sky to enjoy the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12

  07-08-2026 08:00 via space.com
  
  Are you ready for the eclipse? Whether you're bound for the path of totality or set to see a partial eclipse from Europe, Canada or the northeast U.S. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, there's a dirty word eclipse chasers hate to utter during an eclipse season, and yet become completely obsessed with — clouds. Related: Total solar eclipse 2026 — Everything you need to knowWe all start behaving as though Earth's atmosphere owes us something. After spending years studying the climate and where it
  
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