Astronomy news

• On this day in space! Aug. 9, 1976: Soviet Luna 24 sample return probe launches to the moon

  09-08-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  On Aug. 9, 1976, the Soviet space program launched its last moon mission. Luna 24 was a robotic sample return mission and the third of its kind. It lifted off on a Proton-K rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and safely landed on the lunar surface nine days later. The probe landed in a dark plain of the moon known as Mare Crisium, or the "Sea of Crises" and collected 6 ounces (170.1 grams) of soil samples, which it brought back to Earth on Aug. 22, 1976. Scientists then found that
  
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• Exploring 'very low Earth orbit': The world's 1st air-breathing satellite thruster could soon get a test run

  09-08-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  A new way to move around Earth's outer atmosphere could soon get a field test.The Spanish company Kreios Space plans to launch into orbit the world's first satellite that uses scooped-up air to push it forward, the company announced on Tuesday (Aug. 4). The technology Kreios Space has been developing is called air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP). It relies on air sourced from Earth's atmosphere, which is then heated up, ionized and expelled to generate thrust.Diagram showing the different t
  
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• The total solar eclipse on Aug. 12 will reveal something nobody has ever seen before

  09-08-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  Every total solar eclipse is different. While the silhouette of the moon passing across the sun barely changes, the moment our natural satellite covers the entire solar disk, something spectacular happens — the emergence of the corona. The Latin word for "crown", the solar corona is one of the wonders of nature. To gaze upon its delicate, spiky white tendrils during brief moments of totality is to glimpse the infinite, but it's only a glimpse because the corona is always changing. Shaped b
  
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• Here's what to expect from 5 stages of the total solar eclipse 2026

  09-08-2026 08:00 via space.com
  
  We're just a few short days away from the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse, when millions will watch as the moon glides across the face of the sun, hiding its light in a wondrous display of orbital mechanics. The eclipse will unfold during August's new moon phase, as the lunar disk slips silently between the sun and Earth in the daytime sky. Ordinarily, the subtle tilt in the moon's orbit causes its shadow to pass just below, or above our planet, missing it entirely. However, on Aug. 12, the moon's o
  
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