New mission, who dis? The spacecraft formerly known as OSIRIS-REx had an impromptu close encounter with the Sun as it follows a newly crafted route to a second asteroid, using one of its solar arrays for shade.
Nazarii Neshcherenskyi
DrPixel
- NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to pass the Sun on 24 December 2024.
- It's due to fly past the sun at 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph.
- "We are basically almost landing on a star," a scientist on the project said.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to pass the Sun next year in a milestone moment for space exploration.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team, ESA/Webb, M. Barlow (UCL), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University) M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), and the PDRs4All ERS Team
Our top science stories this week include a physics experiment to turn light into matter, an update from NASA’s Juno mission (it’s about to make a close encounter with Jupiter’s moon Io), and a roundup of the best archaeological discoveries of 2023.
NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC)
NASA/CXC/SAO/Ákos Bogdán; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & K. Arcand
Ahead of NASA’s long-awaited return to crewed Moon landings, the space agency is testing an elevator that will carry astronauts from their spacecraft to the lunar surface. If all goes as planned, this elevator will be ready for the Artemis 3 and 4 missions, ambitiously set for 2025 and 2028.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA)