Space

Using the powerful Kepler Space Telescope, a team of NASA astronomers has discovered the first known moon beyond our solar system. The astronomers estimated that the “exomoon” is probably equivalent to Neptune in size and mass, and its host planet equivalent to Jupiter in size but with ten times the mass.

The astronomers couldn’t find any predictions of a Neptune-sized moon in the literature, but Dr. David Kipping, assistant professor of astronomy at Columbia University in New York, noted that nothing prevents one in physics.

A number of people reported a bright green streak lasting for several seconds across the night sky in the northwest at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. By some accounts, the bright green streak in the night sky lasted for at least 5 seconds, which is a long time for a typical meteor. People from Salem, Oregon to British Columbia and from Tri Cities to Astoria reported seeing it.

The arrival of the three astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) has once again boosted the orbiting lab back up to its full capacity of six. It is for the first time since April that the ISS has reached its full capacity of six astronauts. The new three-man space crew, one astronaut each from Russia, Italy and the United States arrived at the ISS on Friday for a five-month mission.

China has revealed plans to build a simulation Mars base in the Qaidam Basin of its Qinghai province in the northwestern part of the country.

Revealing the plans, Chinese authorities said the simulation Mars base will act as an educational experience of future settlements on the Red Planet.

The location of the Qaidam Basin has been selected because the landscape and the climatic conditions there are quite similar to those that are found on the Red Planet. The more than 95,000-square kilometer area is actually a desert with harsh dry conditions.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new crew members for the International Space Station (ISS) is all set to launch this Friday, officials have announced.

The Soyuz MS-05 will launch from a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:41 a.m. EDT Friday (GMT-4; 9:41 p.m. local time).

It will be carrying flight commander Cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, flight engineers Randy Bresnik of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency.

NASA has successfully test-fired the RS-25 rocket engine for its future megarocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), for nearly 8.5 minutes.

Agency officials announced that the test, which was the third in a row, was conducted on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center close to Bay St. Louis in Mississippi.

The highly-powerful RS-25 engine will be used to power the upcoming SLS, which is being built for conducting deep space missions.

An international team of astronomers led by Eleanora Troja of the University of Maryland caught a massive star as it died with an immense explosion deep in space.

The blast created a flash of visible light that 31 astronomers from the University of Maryland and Arizona State University and other institutions caught on 25th of June last year, at 6 p.m. ET.

NASA astronaut and flight engineer Jack Fischer shared photos and a time lapse video that he captured of a stunning glowing green aurora borealis from an altitude of nearly 250 miles.

The U.S. space agency said in a new release that Fischer, aboard the International Space Station (ISS), captured the time lapse video and photos on 26th of June this year.

Sharing the video, Fisher wrote in a tweet, “People have asked me what a 'burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce' is... Well folks, it looks like this...awesome sauce is green.”

A new study of ancient volcanic deposits on the Moon has suggested that earth’s only natural satellite might be containing substantial amounts of water deep under its surface.

A team of researchers from Brown University examined lunar pyroclastic deposits using satellite data. Pyroclastic deposits are layers of rock formed from massive volcanic eruptions. Magma associated with these explosive events came from very deep within the Moon’s interior.

Google Street View is known for providing internet users with a closer view of destinations that are normally beyond their reach.

After providing closer view of earthly destinations, Google Street View has now extended its reach into the space. It recently explored the International Space Station (ISS) – a joint venture among multiple countries to conduct various experiments in space.

With the help of its Street View team on ground and astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, tech giant Google gave us a very close look to what really occupies the space station.