Samples from Ryugu asteroid revealed after delivery to Earth
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed off a collection of samples from the asteroid Ryugu on Thursday following the return of the Hayabusa2 probe. The curation work for the…
8 history-making space stories of 2020
It’s been a hard year on Earth. But despite a global pandemic, scientists made huge strides in understanding the universe beyond our planet. They detected far-off signals, launched astronauts into…
What the first new moon rocks in decades can tell us
The newest moon rocks to have landed on Earth are now headed to the lab. On Dec. 17, the Chinese National Space Administration’s Chang’e 5 mission accomplished something no one…
Welcome to Cloud City: The case for going to Venus, not Mars
There are some encouraging signs. Russia is working on its first Venus probe since 1983, the long-delayed and (to English ears) unfortunately-named Venera-D. Its goal is to study Venus’ greenhouse…