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Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets. In October, a Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The $5 billion mission is designed to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, can support life. But because Europa is constantly bombarded by intense radiation created by Jupiter’s magnetic field, the Clipper spacecraft can’t orbit the moon itself. Instead, it will slide into an eccentric orbit around Jupiter and gather data by repeatedly swinging by Europa—53 times in total—before...

ABC’s Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos is attempting to breathe new life into the “pee dossier” hoax as he launches his new ABC News production company with a Hulu documentary about former British spy Christopher Steele. George Stephanopoulos, who served as spokesman for the Bill Clinton White House, announced his production company during GMA’s broadcast on Thursday. George Stephanopoulos Productions will create content for ABC, Disney+, National Geographic, and FX — all of which are owned by the Walt Disney Co.

For centuries, humans have looked to space and the stars for answers. The fascination is more than philosophical - it’s coupled with the need to solve problems here on Earth. Today, as Visual Capitalist's Therese Wood details below, there are seemingly countless benefits and applications of space technology. Satellites, for instance, are becoming critical for everything from internet connectivity and precision agriculture, to border security and archaeological study. Space is Open for Business Right now, there are nearly 6,000 satellites circling our tiny planet. About 60% of those are defunct satellites - space junk - and roughly 40% are...

Arianespace of Evry, France, in a statement released Jan. 26, blamed a "trajectory deviation" for the break in communication with the rocket, which stopped sending telemetry 9 minutes and 26 seconds after liftoff, seconds after the rocket's second stage engine ignited. Data from the U.S. Strategic Command's Space Track website indicates that the payloads from the launch are in orbits of about 235 by 43,150 kilometers, similar to the planned orbits of 250 by 45,000 kilometers. However, the satellites have orbital inclinations of about 21 degrees, far higher than planned inclination of 3 degrees. Both SES and Yahsat have since...

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June 5, 2006 | Evidence continues to mount that planets can form around very-low-mass objects. In fact, planets might even form around objects that are so low in mass that they themselves could be considered "planets." The latest results, reported at this week's American Astronomical Society meeting in Calgary, Alberta, come from groups led by Ray Jayawardhana (University of Toronto, Canada) and Subhanjoy Mohanty (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics).