Euclid telescope maps 900m galaxies in first big data release
The European mission’s DR1-Foundation release covers 14% of the sky it will survey and holds about 15,000 strong lensing candidates, clues to the nature of dark matter.
Space
Mars may still be volcanically alive, European orbiter finds
Hydrogen chloride rising from fresh cracks on the flanks of the Alba Mons volcano suggests magma may still be stirring beneath the planet’s surface, scientists say
NASA picks eight firms for up to $10bn in moon lander deals
Eight companies, from SpaceX to Blue Origin, will compete to fly cargo to the Moon, and a nuclear-powered rover built from Mars rover spares is headed for the lunar south pole in 2028
Pakistani astronaut to be first foreigner on China’s space station
A Pakistani payload specialist will fly to Tiangong on the Shenzhou-24 mission and return on Shenzhou-23, in the first joint flight of China’s crewed space programme
NASA unveils X-70 Fractal, a new crewed experimental aircraft
The agency expects a first flight within two years, testing manoeuvres and flight controls never before tried in a crewed plane
NASA’s Swift telescope falls back to Earth over Indonesia after 22 years
The observatory re-entered the atmosphere over North Sumatra. NASA expected most of it to burn up, though some parts may have survived
Ozone hole is seventh largest on record, but still healing, NASA says
An unusually strong polar vortex enlarged this year’s Antarctic hole, scientists say, but the layer is on track to recover by the 2070s
NASA seeks ideas to save Hubble before it falls to Earth around 2033
The 36-year-old telescope still works well, and administrator Jared Isaacman says it deserves the effort
US midterms: Three NASA astronauts vote from the space station
Anil Menon says he, Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins filled out electronic ballots, and his sleeping quarters served as the voting booth
Europe’s Hera probe gets first sight of the asteroid NASA hit in 2022
The spacecraft is closing in to measure what the deliberate crash did, in a test of how to defend Earth from asteroids
