Great Space

South Korea hits a space race milestone with latest rocket launch
The country launched a satellite into orbit with its own rocket for the first time

For the first time in its history, South Korea has successfully launched a satellite into orbit on a domestically built rocket. The Nuri rocket lifted off at 4PM local time today from the Naro Space Center in Goheung. The launch could help South Korea gain footing in the growing global space industry and potentially bolster the nation’s national defense arsenal with future spy satellites.

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Hubble Space Telescope starstruck by a mysterious globular cluster

A celestial workhorse and its dedicated team of astronomers are at it again by delivering a hypnotic new image of a globular cluster and its infinite depth of stars.

But while a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope is stunning, there's much more to this section of the heavens than the eye can see. The cluster, called Ruprecht 106, it's also home to a great mystery of Sherlockian proportions — and the game's afoot to unlock clues to the cluster's enigmatic makeup, according to a statement from the European Space Agency, a partner on the observatory.

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Dead Star Caught Ripping Up Planetary System
A star's death throes have so violently disrupted its planetary system that the dead star left behind, called a white dwarf, is siphoning off debris from both the system's inner and outer reaches. This is the first time astronomers have observed a white dwarf star that is consuming both rocky-metallic and icy material, the ingredients of planets.

Archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories were essential in diagnosing this case of cosmic cannibalism. The findings help describe the violent nature of evolved planetary systems and can tell astronomers about the makeup of newly forming systems.

The findings are based on analyzing material captured by the atmosphere of the nearby white dwarf star G238-44. A white dwarf is what remains of a star like our Sun after it sheds its outer layers and stops burning fuel though nuclear fusion.

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NASA, Partner Establish New Research Group for Mars Sample Return Program

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), its partner in the Mars Sample Return Program, have established a new group of researchers to maximize the scientific potential of Mars rock and sediment samples that would be returned to Earth for in-depth analysis. Called the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group, the 16 researchers will function as a science resource for the campaign’s project teams as well as for related Earth-based ground projects, such as sample recovery and curation.

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Dragon Mission on Hold as Astronauts Conduct Eye Exams, Spacesuit Work

NASA and SpaceX are standing down from this week’s Falcon 9 launch of the CRS-25 cargo mission to the International Space Station. Officials from NASA and SpaceX met to discuss an issue identified over the weekend and the best path forward.

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Chinese astronauts arrive at Tiangong space station to prepare for its completion.
Two additional modules are set to arrive in July and October.

Three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, arrived at the Tianhe core module of the unfinished Tiangong space station on Sunday morning, where they’ll stay for six months to help finish its construction

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NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Resumes Science & Operations, Exits Safe Mode

MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered orbit around Mars in September 2014. The mission’s goal is to explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. Understanding atmospheric loss gives scientists insight into the history of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. MAVEN’s primary mission was one year in duration. It has since far surpassed that and was recently approved for its fifth extended mission.

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4 big Milky Way mysteries the next Gaia mission data dump may solve

This image shows the paths of 40,000 stars located within 326 light-years of the solar system over the next 400,000 years, based on measurements and projections from the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft.

The data, compiled by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, contains an unprecedented amount of information about more than 1 billion of the brightest objects in the sky. Astronomers hope the new data, which will be released June 13, will help solve some major mysteries about the birth and life of the Milky Way and the stars in it.

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