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The idea that the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) will collide emerged after decades of observations by a host of astronomers. The Hubble played a decisive role in the determination during the early 2000s. It was a triumph of precision astronomy and space telescopes. Now, the Hubble has played an equally important role in cancelling the collision.

The grainy videos from the Apollo Moon landings are treasured historical artifacts. For many of us, that footage will be lodged in our minds until our final synaptic spark sputters out. But like all technology since the space race days, video technology has advanced enormously, and the next Moon landings will be captured in high-definition video. The ESA is so focused on getting it right that they're practicing filming lunar landings in a special studio that mimics the conditions on the lunar surface.

How can humanity use the developing Lunar Gateway as an appropriate starting point for advancing human space exploration beyond the Moon? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a team of researchers evaluated a myriad of ways that Lunar Gateway could be used as a testbed for future technologies involving sending humans to Mars and Ceres. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, astronauts, and mission planners develop novel strategies for advancing long-term human space exploration.

The search for life on other worlds needs a way to sift through the chemistry of their atmospheres. If another species observed Earth to search for life, they'd look for "smoking gun" chemistry in the atmosphere. That includes looking for oxygen, since it is created through photosynthesis by plants and some bacteria. So, the key is to look for life-dependent chemical "signals" at exoplanets.

Solar storms have the potential to cause catastrophic damage. One that occurred around the end of October 2003 (now called the 2003 Halloween Storm) caused an estimated $27B in damages. That number will only increase as humanity has become more reliant on space-based and electrical infrastructure. However, if we could predict when storms would hit with some accuracy and adjust our use of the technologies that could be affected, we could avoid the worst damage. But, as of now, we don't have such a system that could help predict the types of events that could cause that damage accurately enough. That is where a new Sun activity monitoring system, described in a recent paper by Leonidas Askianakis of the Technical University of Munich, would help.

How can fission-powered propulsion help advance deep space exploration, specifically to the outer planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a pair of researchers from India investigated the financial, logistical, and reliability of using fission power for future deep space missions. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and future astronauts develop next-generation technologies as humanity continues to expand its presence in space.

Preparations for the arrival of a visiting crew, the continued study of how humans adapt to microgravity and more highlight the sixth week of Expedition 73 on the International Space Station.

Antares is a red supergiant star located 400 light-years from Earth.

China has revealed the first image from its Tianwen 2 asteroid sample return mission, which is now more than 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Earth.

"I've had a number of NASA personnel come up and think that the one that was theirs was ours, and they're shocked."

What's happening to this spiral galaxy?

If it's realism you're looking for, the Sega Toys Homestar Classic is the gold standard of star projectors.

You don't have to stay at home to enjoy great games. Game on the go with the best space and sci-fi games on the Nintendo Switch.

SpaceX conducted a static-fire test with one of its Super Heavy boosters today (June 6), part of the prep work for the next test flight of the Starship megarocket.

On Episode 164 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discuss these concerning times for NASA with Casey Dreier, the Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society.

A historic dust storm hit Chicago last month, and a weather satellite gave us a bird's-eye view of the dramatic event.

Don't miss the 2025 full "Strawberry Moon" when it rises above the southeastern horizon on June 10.

"The first time I spotted it, I thought at first it may have been a rare form of blue aurora but then realised it was moving too quickly."

SpaceX launched the SXM-10 satellite for SiriusXM early Saturday morning (June 7), adding another spacecraft to the company's broadcasting constellation.

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Sols 4561-4562: Prepping to Drill at Altadena NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a recent DRT (Dust Removal Tool) site, showing off the marks created in the rocks by DRT — a motorized, wire-bristle brush on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm — as well as a whitish vein that was revealed after the dust covering it was removed. Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera mounted on the turret at the end of the robotic arm, which provides close-up views of the minerals, textures, and structures in Martian rocks and the surface layer of rocky debris and dust. Using an onboard process, MAHLI merges two to eight images to make a composite image of the same target acquired at different focus positions, to bring many features into focus in a single image. Curiosity merged this composite on June 4, 2025 — Sol 4560. Or Martian day 4,560 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 12:33:42 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025

We are continuing to look for a suitable location to collect a drilled sample in this area. As you may recall from Monday’s plan, we performed a short “bump” of just under 4 meters (about 13 feet) hoping to find a drill target today after Monday’s analysis determined that there were no good targets in our previous workspace. Happily, today’s workspace was much more cooperative, and we were able to select the target “Altadena” as our next potential drill location. Altadena is a name that we’ve been saving for a special target, as its namesake here on Earth is a neighborhood next to JPL that was devastated by the Eaton Fire earlier this year. We’re about to enter our next mapping quadrangle, which will come with a new set of target names, so the team decided that using Altadena as the name for this drill site was an obvious choice.

The big activity in this plan is the next step in the drilling process. This activity is the “preload test,” which determines if the forces on the drill will be good while drilling, and the drill target won’t unexpectedly move or fracture. If we pass the preload test and find that the rock has the chemistry we’re looking for, we’ll be able to proceed with Altadena as our next drill site. If we don’t, we’ll have to decide whether to bump again or resume driving deeper into this potentially boxwork-bearing region.

Of course, the preload test isn’t the only thing we’re doing today. Coming in, it was looking like our time for other activities would be pretty tight due to power constraints imposed by preparations for drilling and keeping the rover warm during the cold Martian winter. However, we’ve recently implemented some new power-optimizing capabilities, which led to us having much more power today than we expected. This meant that we were able to add a whole additional hour of science time in addition to the hour that we already had scheduled. 

Unsurprisingly, Altadena gets a lot of love in this plan to characterize it before we drill. This includes a ChemCam LIBS activity and a Mastcam observation, as well as some overnight observations by APXS and some MAHLI images. In addition, Mastcam will be observing some exposed stratigraphy at “Dana Point,” a light-toned vein at “Mission Trails” that will also be a ChemCam LIBS target, a few more nearby troughs, and a couple of sandy patches at “Camp Williams” to observe wind-driven sediment transport. Along with the two LIBS, ChemCam will be using its RMI camera to add to the pile of images we have of the Mishe Mokwa butte and the yardang unit off in the distance.

As the lead for the Atmosphere and Environment (ENV) group today, it looked like I was going to have a pretty light workload due to the power constraints preventing any ENV activities other than our usual REMS, RAD, and DAN observations. With the extra hour of science time, I was able to add a handful of new activities, including three Navcam cloud movies, a Navcam line-of-sight observation of dust within Gale Crater, and a Navcam survey to look for any dust devils that may be swirling around the rover. A pretty decent ENV science haul for a plan that started with nothing!

When we come into planning on Friday, we’ll hopefully have passed the preload test and will be able to turn Altadena into our 43rd drill hole in the coming sols, before we continue driving up the slopes of Mount Sharp.

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Jun 06, 2025

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