In 2013, police in Grants Pass, Oregon, got a tip that a man named Curtis W. Croft had been illegally growing marijuana in his backyard. So they checked Google Earth. Indeed, the four-month-old satellite image showed neat rows of plants growing on …Continue reading
The black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy is way smaller than we thought
Astronomers found that the mass of the black hole at the center of the small galaxy NGC 4395 (pictured above) is just a 40th what researchers had predicted. What they found: Located about 14 million light-years away from Earth, the black hole …Continue reading
Why is the moon flashing? A new telescope might find out.
Some background: For thousands of years astronomers have observed strange flashes on the lunar surface, known as transient lunar phenomena. They’re there one second, and gone the next. There have been many guesses at what these lights might be. Maybe meteors are …Continue reading
This 3D-printed beehive could be our future home on Mars
If we want to put humans into deep space, we will need to pack lightly. That means we will need to take advantage of whatever resources we find when we’re out there. Since 2015, NASA has been running the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge …Continue reading
The man behind that Apollo boot print
In the months leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, we will be sharing the stories of the people who made the moon landing possible as part of our Airlock space newsletter. First up is David Carrier, the …Continue reading
Meet the astronaut trainer getting billionaire space tourists ready for liftoff
A trip to space is no vacation. Getting there requires some serious prep work—even for people whose checkbooks have paid for the golden launch ticket. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are all promising to send private citizens into space within the …Continue reading
A Material That Throws Heat into Space Could Soon Reinvent Air-Conditioning
Eli Goldstein, a fresh-faced cofounder of SkyCool Systems, pulled open the garage door on the side of the Stanford spinout’s cramped workspace in Burlingame, California, and rolled a set of square silver panels into the parking lot.
Following Rocket Failure, SpaceX Struggles to Relaunch
On September 1, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded catastrophically at a launch site in Florida. Now a series of delays and setbacks in repreparing for launch are beginning to impact its customers. While SpaceX still hasn’t confirmed the cause of what …Continue reading
Seeking Answers in Space for Accurate Emissions Data
Every 99 minutes a NASA satellite orbits the planet, capturing a million measurements a day of the carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s part of an experiment that scientists hope will one day result in a fleet of satellites that reliably …Continue reading