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Reusable rockets and Starlink made Elon Musk’s company dominant in spaceflight. Its record valuation leans on making Starship flights routine and orbital AI data centers real

Meteor camera networks can reveal the hidden history of the solar system, and you can assist from your own backyard

Extremely curved spacetime can warp cause and effect, creating channels for backward communication

Video: 00:17:20

Step inside the Columbus Control Centre near Munich, Germany, and discover what it takes to keep ESA's Columbus laboratory running—24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Columbus Flight Director Tristan Hermel takes us behind the scenes of mission control, where teams on the ground coordinate operations, support astronauts and work with international partners across the globe.

Get a glimpse of life behind the consoles as ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot carries out her Epsilon mission on board the Space Station.

This interview was recorded in January 2026.

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A linguist lays out what communicating with aliens could actually involve—and what that tells us about human language

The three planets in the western twilight are pulling away from each other now. On Wednesday, the Moon will occult Venus in daylight.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 12 – 21 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

In the face of loneliness, many people are turning to AI chatbots for companionship – but research shows it can’t replace human connection. Columnist David Robson explores how beneficial it can be to talk to strangers, with evidence-based tips on how to get the conversation flowing

In the face of loneliness, many people are turning to AI chatbots for companionship – but research shows it can’t replace human connection. Columnist David Robson explores how beneficial it can be to talk to strangers, with evidence-based tips on how to get the conversation flowing

A clock based on radioactive thorium atoms realises a long-held ambition, demonstrating a technology that could eventually beat the accuracy of today’s best atomic clocks

A clock based on radioactive thorium atoms realises a long-held ambition, demonstrating a technology that could eventually beat the accuracy of today’s best atomic clocks

Image:

This radar image from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captures Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, the surrounding countryside and the Rio de la Plata estuary.

Zoom in to explore this image at its full resolution.

This is a composite of three Sentinel-1 acquisitions taken in January, March and May this year, with each image assigned to a different colour channel (blue in January, green in March and red in May). As the environmental changes on the ground created a significant ‘backscatter’ reflection of the radar signal, they show up as bright shades that correspond to changes across the seasons.

On the right-hand side of the image, the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires is visible in light grey. The area has a population of more than 16 million people and lies at 25 m above sea level. The urban areas were largely unchanged between January and May, hence the lack of colour in this part of the image. Other towns, such as Luján and Junin, are also visible as smaller patches of grey west of the capital.

The blue areas correspond to surface changes such as choppy water, captured in January, which is mid-summer in Argentina. The rivers, deltas and open water are mainly coloured in either dark blue, purple or black. Winds and rough sea conditions during both January and May mean that the Rio de la Plata estuary, east of Buenos Aires, appears purple (a mix of blue in January and red in May). The Paraná river meanders through wetlands on the left of the image before flowing into the Rio de la Plata. The Uruguay river is also seen flowing from the north into the estuary.

To the west of Buenos Aires, agricultural fields and the Argentinean Pampas dominate the landscape. The green tint is due to significant ‘backscatter’ reflection of the radar signal in this area during the capture in March. Since this period is late summer in Argentina, it likely denotes growth of major crops such as soy and corn.

At the top of the image, a large area north of the Paraná river, in Entre Ríos province, appears in vivid red – the channel assigned to ground change in May, which is late Autumn in Argentina. It is likely that this is due to natural vegetation growth caused by seasonal rains during that period. This is when the areas of exposed grassland come back to life following the long, dry summers.

The second generation of Galileo, Europe’s satellite navigation constellation, is being built. These satellites will feature reconfigurable payloads, provide more robust and reliable positioning, navigation and timing, enable new services and add new capabilities to the constellation.

One of these capabilities, intersatellite links, will allow the satellites to communicate with one another in orbit. After going through extensive testing, the intersatellite link antennas are ready to be integrated into the satellites.

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Earth Observatory

1. Science
2. Earth Observatory
3. World Cup Fever in Guadalajara

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A darkened and mysterious north polar region

Within our own Milky Way galaxy, two bright, spiky stars stand

Black holes are already strange enough, regions of space where gravity is so extreme that not even light can escape. But physicists have long known there's another layer of weirdness, that black holes also behave like thermodynamic objects, with temperature, entropy, and phase transitions just like a gas or a liquid. Now, a new approach borrowed from pure mathematics is revealing hidden patterns in that behaviour and hinting at something fundamental about the nature of black holes themselves.

A small rock found in the African desert has just handed scientists an extraordinary window into one of the most violent and consequential periods in the history of the Solar System. Inside this lunar meteorite, a chunk of the Moon knocked to Earth by an ancient collision, researchers have found evidence of a massive impact event 3.5 billion years ago, one that matches the timing of known impacts on Earth and in the asteroid belt. Three worlds but one shared bombardment and a story that may have everything to do with the origins of life.

Saturn's moon Titan has long fascinated scientists, it’s a world with rivers, lakes, and a thick atmosphere, all made not of water but of methane. Now, a new study suggests Titan is stranger than first imagined since beneath its surface lies a 9 km thick crust of methane laced ice that acts like a giant thermal blanket, warming the interior in ways nobody expected.

2 Min Read NASA Award Boosts Space Technology Research Capabilities

NASA is introducing a new funding opportunity to accelerate academic research and technology development. The Minority University Research and Education Project Space Technology Artemis Research (M‑STAR) application window opened Thursday and will remain open through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

The research funded through this award supports the agency’s priorities for exploring the Moon, Mars, and deep space, while strengthening eligible institutions in the future of space exploration. Through M-STAR, institutions are encouraged to grow their scientific and engineering capabilities, enhance faculty and student engagement in aerospace research, and expand their ability to compete for future federal and commercial research awards.

Administered by NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, this initiative contributes to NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, and supports the agency’s broader mission to develop innovative technologies that improve space transportation, human exploration, robotic discovery, and the growing space economy.

NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement fosters an ecosystem across education, industry, and government to cultivate a well‑prepared talent pool, while the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate develops the transformative space technologies that enable future NASA missions and ensure U.S. leadership in aerospace. Together, they accelerate mission readiness by aligning cutting edge technological innovation with the workforce needed to carry it forward.

For complete eligibility information, help session registration, and to submit an M-STAR proposal, visit:

https://go.nasa.gov/4exkPiH

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