Space

Like a comet soaring through the cosmos, the moon is followed by a slender tail of irradiated matter — and Earth passes directly through it once a month.

Just when do comets get their signature coma? Conventional wisdom says it only happens when they get close enough to the sun, but new research suggests it starts when they are still beyond the orbit of the planets.

The largest asteroid to zoom past Earth this year will do so on March 21, NASA says. 

NASA is about to fly a helicopter on Mars for the first time ever, and you can learn more about the upcoming effort during a webcast event tonight (March 11) at 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT on March 12).

Astronomers are struggling to understand the discrepancies when measuring the expansion rate of the universe with different methods, and are desperate for any creative idea to break the tension. A new method involving some of the oldest stars in the universe could just do the trick.

University of Arizona researcher Jekan Thanga is taking scientific inspiration from an unlikely source: the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark. Rather than two of every animal, however, his solar-powered ark on the moon would store cryogenically frozen seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million Earth species.

‘We’re trying to figure out how to monetize and operationalize all of this data,’ said Matthew Tirman, head of Satellogic North America.

“Surviving Mars” is a sleek strategy game that challenges players to build a city on the Red Planet and you can get it free this week from Epic Games.