NASA has zeroed in on a rock nicknamed “Rochette.” Perseverance is checking out a craggy ridge named “Citadelle.” The rocks on top of this ridge have been sitting here getting sandblasted by Mars winds for eons. This one looks like a good, solid target for my next drilling effort. The first tube won’t go to waste. NASA scientists are excited the rock-less tube is full of Mars' atmosphere instead. The successful capture of its first rock core will be an event worth cheering about....

“This is really old ice we’re losing at quite a frightening rate.” Kacimi sees one of those dramatic shifts on the horizon.

NASA’sArtemis I moon mission launch, stalled by Hurricane Ian, has a new target for takeoff.

“I’m pleased that the Biden-Harris Administration has committed to continuing station operations through 2030.”

NASA now confirms the mysterious boom wasn’t belated revelry but a bolide breaking up in the atmosphere above. “Crude estimate indicates about 100 times the brightness of the full moon.” That bolide released the equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT,according to NASA. The entire thing probably burned up in the atmosphere.

But on Monday, NASA announced that the tangerine-hued rocket would be rolled back into the VAB. The trek back to VABstarted on Monday at 11:21 p.m. After the slow, four-mile journey, the space-bound vessel wassecured inside the buildingat 9:15 a.m. The rollback comes after two aborted launch attempts. In late August, during the first attempt, NASA discovered a problem with engine 3. The second attempt saw a hydrogen leak force an abort....

But observe the same event from space and it can look a bit more… creepy.

A lot of adjectives apply to Mars. In the eyes ofNASA’sPerseverance rover, Mars is also “strangely serene.” On Friday, NASA shared a view taken on Dec. 5 from one of the rover’s mast-mounted cameras. From the human perspective, Mars is pretty inhospitable. We can’t survive on it without protection. We send robotic explorers, and those vehicles also succumb to the harsh conditions. (I remember you fondly,Opportunity rover.) Those rocks and dunes might be an astronaut’s view out of a spacecraft window one day....

In June,we got a look at the central core stage together with the boostersalong its sides. When the rocket ignites and lifts off, the umbilical arms swing out of the way. It’s an important bit of launch choreography. The URRT is all about making sure those systems are working correctly. On Wednesday,NASA shared a video of the testin action. It’s been decades since people were last there during the Apollo era of the 1960s and 1970s....

“NASA tweetedalong with the eye-catching image. Today, NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the Sun “smiling.” “Today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the sun ‘smiling,'” NASA said. It’s used to study space weather and track the star’s flares and outbursts. It was a busy week for the sun. Fixed itpic.twitter.com/hDiWB8Uar0 You might recall another fortuitous SDO image from 2014 when the sun sporteda very Halloween-y jack-o’-lantern face. The more recent face-like shape is more derpy and less spooky....

Parkerset two recordsback in February 2020: But those records have now been surpassed. The latest: Those are some strong records to hold, and this isn’t the end, either. Perihelion is expected to occur on Nov. 21. The spacecraft is already revealing some of the sun’s great mysteries.

Earth appears on the left, a blobbish-looking, rotating object. The moon appears more faintly on the right and disappears into darkness. Lucy launched in October 2021on a jaunt to visit Jupiter’s trojan asteroids.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has emerged victorious in a cosmic game of hide-and-seek with an odd dwarf galaxy. They’ve appropriately dubbed the galaxy “Peekaboo.” The studywill be published in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Finally, Hubble was able to zoom in on 60 stars within the galaxy.