Study: Climate change will reduce the number of satellites that can safely orbit in space
Increasing greenhouse gas emissions will reduce the atmosphere’s ability to burn up old space junk, MIT scientists report.
MIT engineers prepare to send three payloads to the moon
Data from the devices will help future astronauts navigate the moon’s south polar region and search for frozen water.
Study reveals the Phoenix galaxy cluster in the act of extreme cooling
Observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope help to explain the cluster’s mysterious starburst, usually only seen in younger galaxies.
MIT engineers develop a fully 3D-printed electrospray engine
Ideal for propelling tiny satellites, the lightweight devices could be produced on board a spacecraft and cost much less than traditional thrusters.
Rare and mysterious cosmic explosion: Gamma-ray burst or jetted tidal disruption event?
Researchers characterize the peculiar Einstein Probe transient EP240408a.
X-ray flashes from a nearby supermassive black hole accelerate mysteriously
Their source could be the core of a dead star that’s teetering at the black hole’s edge, MIT astronomers report.
Monitoring space traffic
AeroAstro PhD student Sydney Dolan uses an interdisciplinary approach to develop collision-avoidance algorithms for satellites.
Yari Golden-Castaño is over the moon about outreach
The engineer and aspiring astronaut developed an outreach program at Lincoln Laboratory to help bring hands-on STEM activities to all.
MIT scientists pin down the origins of a fast radio burst
The fleeting cosmic firework likely emerged from the turbulent magnetosphere around a far-off neutron star.
Professor Emeritus Hale Van Dorn Bradt, an X-ray astronomy pioneer, dies at 93
Longtime MIT faculty member used X-ray astronomy to study neutron stars and black holes and led the All-Sky Monitor instrument on NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.
Liquid on Mars was not necessarily all water
New study proposes that some of the minerals seen on Mars today may have formed in liquid CO2 instead of water.
TBIRD technology could help image black holes’ photon rings
The Lincoln Laboratory-developed laser communications payload operates at the data rates required to image these never-before-seen thin halos of light.
Curiosity, images, and scientific exploration
Professor of the practice Alan Lightman’s new book digs into the wonder of striking visual phenomena in nature.
Asteroid grains shed light on the outer solar system’s origins
A weak magnetic field likely pulled matter inward to form the outer planetary bodies, from Jupiter to Neptune.
Communications user terminal developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory prepares for historic moon flyby
Aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the terminal will beam data over laser links during the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.