We may soon be on our way to Venus. A mission to our neighbouring planet is one of three finalists in the running to be the European Space Agency’s (ESA) next mission in its Cosmic Vision programme.
When the solar wind – which is really a driving rain of charged particles from the sun – strikes Earth’s protective magnetic field, the shock generates roiling, turbulent magnetic fields that enshroud the planet and stretch for hundreds of thousands of miles.
An international team of astronomers has detected helium — the second-most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen — in the atmosphere of WASP-107b, a super-Neptune exoplanet approximately 200 light-years away in the Virgo constellation. This is the first time this inert gas has been detected in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet.
Scientists have detected an exoplanet atmosphere that is free of clouds, marking a pivotal breakthrough in the quest for greater understanding of the planets beyond our solar system.
Watery remains of meteorites could be trapped in craters
Too bad humans won’t be around to see it.
Prime Minister Theresa May has asked experts to look into options for a British satellite navigation system to rival the European Union’s Galileo project amid a row over attempts to restrict Britain’s access to sensitive information after Brexit.
The far reaches of the outer solar system may be home to an icy giant — a hypothetical planet scientists have dubbed “Planet Nine.”
Several privately funded space companies are locked in a race to claim the trillions of pounds worth of precious metals thought to exist in asteroids. The UK has now entered the race, with the Asteroid Mining Corporation becoming the first of these new firms in the country.
Six years after last landing on Mars, NASA is sending a robotic geologist to dig deeper than ever before to take the planet’s temperature.
