Mercury is slowly shrinking, and it's giving the planet wrinkles

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A picture shows Mercury colored in shades of yellow and blue to reflect variation in its composition. the planet appears covered in craters and cracks.
A false-color picture of Mercury shows variations in its surface. The image was placed on a grey background.

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington; Insider

In a first-ever for space junk, Dish Network was fined $150,000 for leaving a retired satellite to orbit indefinitely in the wrong place

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space junk debris field earth orbit esa
An illustration of space junk. Satellites and debris are not to scale.

ESA

A US astronaut involuntarily set a record for time spent in orbit, after his mission home was aborted and added 6 months to his trip

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Frank Rubio is shown being carried away in his astronaut garb, smilling and waving at the camera after landing back to Earth.
Frank Rubio landed back on Earth on Wednesday after 371 days on the ISS. His mission was originally meant to last six months.

NASA/Bill Ingalls

This asteroid dirt might explain the origins of life on Earth

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NASA has successfully returned a 250-gram sample of dirt from a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. Scientists around the world will study the rock particles to see if they contain clues to the origins of life on our planet. 

An amateur astronomer caught one of the brightest fireballs ever seen on Jupiter. Watch the rare video footage.

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A picture of Jupiter snapped by Hubble on September 4th, 2021.
Jupiter recently welcomed a flashy guest from space.

NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

NASA awarded $850,000 to a company that wants to pick up space trash the old-fashioned way — with bags

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space junk debris field earth orbit esa
An illustration of space junk. Satellites and debris are not to scale.

ESA

NASA scientists plan to bake, slice, and fire lasers at the asteroid sample from OSIRIS-REx to understand the creation of our solar system

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osiris rex asteroid bennu illustration nasa
An illustration of OSIRIS-REx in orbit around asteroid Bennu.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab

A giant eruption covered 'over half the sun,' then crashed into Earth nearly 12 hours earlier than forecast

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sun solar surface side by side images left shows the full orange disk with a giant loop of plasma circled and a green arrow pointing to that loop on the right in a purple close-up
This filament formed on the sun, then erupted to send solar material speeding toward Earth.

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory

Side-by-side photos show 4 major changes made to SpaceX's Starship rocket system after its first launch ended in an explosion

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Side by side annotated image show Starship on its launchpad in April and September. Arrows and circle highlight two changes that have been made to the rocket since it last blew up.
Annotated images shows two of SpaceX biggest changes to its Starship mega-rocket, adding a vent between the stages and a flooding system to the launch pad.

SpaceX/Insider

Why the sun has two giant holes, and what that means for Earth

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  • Two giant holes, 18 to 30 times the size of Earth, have appeared on the surface of the sun.
  • They could send 1.8 million mph solar winds toward Earth.
  • They're called coronal holes, which are cooler areas that don't glow as bright as others.

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