Astronomy

June's new moon leaves the sky dark for skywatchers to see Mercury next to our lunar companion on June 27.

While satellites have revolutionised our ability to measure sea level with remarkable precision, their data becomes less reliable near coasts – where accurate information is most urgently needed. To address this critical gap, ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Sea Level Project research team has reprocessed almost two decades of satellite data to establish a pioneering network of ‘virtual’ coastal stations. These stations now provide, for the first time, reliable and consistent sea-level measurements along coastlines. 

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The Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew lifts off to the International Space Station atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 25 June at 02:31 EDT, local time (07:31 BST/08:31 CEST).

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski travels to his new home in space in the Dragon spacecraft. Sławosz is part of Axiom Mission 4 alongside Peggy Whitson (USA), Shubhanshu Shukla (India) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary).

During their journey on the Dragon spacecraft to the orbital outpost Sławosz and Tibor will serve as mission specialists, Shubhanshu will be the crew’s pilot and Peggy will be commander.

The Polish project astronaut is the second of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space. Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the mission will include an ambitious technological and scientific programme with several experiments led by ESA and proposed by the Polish space industry. The mission, known as Ignis will officially begin once Sławosz  enters the Station.

Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski was selected in November 2022 as a member of the ESA astronaut reserve and joined ESA as a project astronaut on 1 September 2023 for training familiarisation at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Ax-4 mission for Axiom Space today (June 25), sending four private astronauts on a two-week mission to the ISS.

Just when you thought the race to reusable rockets was all wrapped up, a new competitor emerges from the shadows. Honda R&D Co (a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co) successfully tested their new experimental reusable rocket. The 6.3-meter rocket blasted off, reached an altitude of 271.4 m, and then landed within 37 cm of their touchdown point. The flight lasted for 56.6 seconds.

The early Universe was a busy place some 13 billion years ago. That's when countless young galaxies began to evolve and birthed stars at a prodigious rate. The hearts of those very distant galaxies show turbulent, lumpy disks studded with even thicker clumps of dust and gas that spawned huge batches of stars. Astronomers want to understand what's driving the clumping, so they've turned to recent surveys of closer galaxies in the "local Universe" that contain similar lumpy regions.

More than one third of the regular matter in the Universe is missing (we're not talking about dark matter, just regular matter). It's needed to make the current cosmological models work, so astronomers continue to search for it, and have found many indirect examples of it. Now a team of astronomers has directly observed it as a huge filament of hot gas bridging four galaxy clusters and containing 10 times the mass of the Milky Way.

Solar eclipses are beautiful, but they're a valuable chance to study the Sun's atmosphere as its surface is blocked by the Moon. Now, ESA can generate artificial solar eclipses from space with the Proba-3 mission. The two satellites fly in formation 150 meters apart. One spacecraft occults the Sun, while the other observes the faint solar corona. They can produce a new 6-hour eclipse every 19.6-hour orbit around the Earth. Solar eclipses on demand.

Comet C/2014 UN271 is one of the largest Oort Cloud comets ever observed, measuring 140 km across. It's currently at a distance of 16.5 AU from the Sun, which makes it tough to observe with all but the largest telescopes. Astronomers have used ALMA in Chile to observe the comet, watching as jets of carbon monoxide gas are erupting from its nucleus. This is a surprising level of activity for a comet that's so far from the Sun.

Scientists are using a new approach to find the mysterious - if it exists - Planet Nine by hunting for its heat signature instead of reflected light. Using data from Japan's AKARI space telescope, a team of researchers identified two promising candidates using their thermal detection method which is more effective than optical searches alone. But could these distant heat sources finally prove the existence of our Solar System's most elusive world, or will they turn out to be yet another false alarm in the decades long search?

The night lizards may have been the only terrestrial vertebrates that survived in the region of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs

The night lizards may have been the only terrestrial vertebrates that survived in the region of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs

Enigmacursor darted around North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago and its skeleton is now on display in London’s Natural History Museum

Enigmacursor darted around North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago and its skeleton is now on display in London’s Natural History Museum

Over the past 150 years, the rise in Caesarean sections and changes in diet could have led to smaller pelvises among women – which may make vaginal birth more difficult but could also reduce common conditions associated with childbirth

Over the past 150 years, the rise in Caesarean sections and changes in diet could have led to smaller pelvises among women – which may make vaginal birth more difficult but could also reduce common conditions associated with childbirth

Miguel Claro captured the Orion Constellation glowing red due to hydrogen gas, as seen from the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve in Portugal.

Japanese company ispace lost its Resilience lunar lander this month due to laser range finder errors, the company said.