Space

SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO filing included some out-of-this-world details, including a provision that founder Elon Musk’s massive bonus only kicks in if one million humans settle on Mars.

Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), research published in the journal Science is among the first to detect cloud cycles on a Hot Jupiter exoplanet.

In his 1964 paper, “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” famed astrophysicist and radio astronomer Nikolai Kardashev addressed the types of transmissions (and at what energies) astronomers should search for in their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). As part of his analysis, Kardashev proposed a universal scale for classifying the technological advancement of civilizations based on their overall energy consumption. The resulting Kardashev Scale (as it came to be known) came down to three categories.

Preliminary results of a study presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna indicate that hellish Venus-type planets may be about twice as common as habitable planets that form with oceans.

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth’s, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Suppose there are signs of extraterrestrial life and we have not yet been able to detect them. What does that mean? In Nature Astronomy, researchers discuss the consequences of these so-called false-negative results. “We are currently investing a great deal of money in missions that might need to be designed differently.”

As SpaceX prepares for its next Starship test flight, the company’s prospectus underlines how critical that vehicle is to its ambitions.

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Every new infrastructure platform can look uneconomic at first. Early systems are often bespoke, supply chains immature and scaling doesn’t yet exist. The result: cost structures can appear daunting, if […]

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