technical updates

Chinese researchers have presented a new map of the moon, updating a previous edition based on new scientific findings and recalibrating the moon's ancient geologic eras. The comprehensive map of the moon , with a scale of 1:5 million, was unveiled by the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (IGCAGS) on Aug. 6. The map is an update of a 2024 edition and puts forward new boundaries for the ancient Aitkenian, Nectarian and Imbrian lunar periods. (The researchers use the term Aitkenian, whereas the term pre-Nectarian is often used to describe the lunar geologic period from roughly around 4.5 billion to 3.9 billion years ago.) The map also uses reprocessed spectral data to update areas of KREEP terrane , which features crustal material enriched in potassium (K), rare-earth elements (REE), and phosphorus (P), and is found to be more continuous and abundant than previously e...

When it comes to space exploration, rockets are probably one of the coolest things you'll learn about as a kid. Zooming off into space, traveling to new planets and searching for potential life are all things that feel like they should be impossible. For any age of space enthusiast, it's pretty darn cool. For kids, though, learning about rockets can mark an amazing introduction, sparking a lifelong love of space. But, while real rockets aren't really obtainable, kids can always start out with model rocketry. One of the most child-friendly, affordable and safest ways to get into this hobby, though, is by trying out Stomp Rockets. These toy rockets can be propelled into the air by a simple stomp onto a launcher, hence the name. Attached with a flexible hose, when you compress the launcher, it releases the air into the rocket and makes it fly. A fairly simple concept, but one that can be...

SpaceX keeps setting spaceflight records. Elon Musk 's company launches far more frequently than any other outfit, and it operates the largest satellite constellation ever assembled — the Starlink broadband network, which consists of nearly 11,000 satellites (and counting). On Saturday evening (Aug. 15), SpaceX set another mark, for the shortest time between orbital flights: It launched two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart, besting its old mark — set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink missions — by 27 minutes. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches eight satellites for the telecom company Globalstar from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Aug. 15, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX) The first liftoff, from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station , occurred Saturday at 9:12 p.m. EDT (0112 GMT on Aug. 16) and carried eight satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) for Louisia...

Empty space is not as empty as it looks. That is the takeaway of a new study examining signals from a dead star , offering what researchers say is the strongest evidence yet that extreme magnetic fields can alter the properties of a vacuum, causing seemingly empty space to act like a prism and changing how light travels through it The findings, led by Rachael Stewart, a graduate student in physics at the George Washington University, confirm a prediction of a strange effect first proposed 90 years ago. "The information we obtained from looking at this distant star core also gives us clues about the nature of the fabric of reality as we know it, and I find that to be incredible," Stewart said in a statement . The idea dates to 1936, when the German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his student Hans Euler proposed that space is never truly void. Instead, they argued, it is a simmering sea ...

Cards Against Humanity isn't done with its scorched-Earth campaign against SpaceX and Elon Musk. The Chicago-based company behind the popular fill-in-the-blank adult card game is inviting the public to join its design committee to erect an " Elon Musk is a Sad Little B----- with No Friends" monument on a stretch of land it owns near SpaceX's Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas. Cards Against Humanity (CAH) brought a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX in 2024 for illegally dumping construction materials and other equipment on land owned by CAH. SpaceX decided to settle with the company in 2025 and removed its "gravel, tractors, and space garbage" from the property prior to the area's annexation for the city of Starbase's incorporation, according to CAH . But the company, and its apparent distaste for "racist billionaires," as it...

An 8,800-pound (4,000 kilograms) Falcon 9 rocket stage hit the moon last Wednesday (Aug. 5), stirring lunar regolith in a massive plume of dust observable all the way from Earth. The rocket joined some 3,000 manmade objects scattered on the surface of our planet's companion. Some experts think it's about time we start treating the pristine lunar environment with a bit more respect . Around 200 tons of Earth stuff have been either deliberately left on or crashed into the moon since the beginning of the space age. Some of this material has a prominent place in history books: The descent modules from all six Apollo landing missions, Soviet Lunakhod rovers from the 1970s and China's 2010s Yutu 1 and 2 robots still sit where they had been left or ran out of power. But there is also a lot of stuff on the moon that wasn't really meant to end up there. Astronomer and space historian Jo...