A robotic spacecraft called LINK will soon tug the telescope to a higher orbit. The NASA Swift Boost mission has launched from Marshall Islands on July 3 at 4:36AM Eastern time after a couple of delays, and the agency has started preparing it for its ultimate goal: To rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which is falling faster than anticipated. Swift Boost's ground teams have already established communication with LINK, the robotic spacecraft designed by Arizona company Katalyst Space to dock with the observatory and to tug it back into a higher orbit. LINK was attached to a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, which was in turn attached to the belly of a plane called Stargazer. The plane took off from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands and then released the Pegasus XL rocket in the air at an altitude of around 40,000.

Image caption, Artist's impression of the Swift observatory which was built to study the cosmos A Nasa-funded spacecraft has been sent into space to catch a falling telescope. The Swift observatory detects some of the most powerful explosions in the Universe - but is at risk of crashing back to Earth in the coming months. The small space telescope will be intercepted by the LINK craft, which will attempt to grab it with three robotic arms, and try and lift it back to a safe orbit. The rescue mission, launched on Friday, has never been attempted before, and Dr Simeon Barber, a space scientist, has said it is high risk. But Nasa obviously thinks it's worth a go.

Science Space Deep Space Space Telescope Put your name aboard NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope The next generation space observatory is scheduled to launch in August. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. The NASA observatory was designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. Roman's barrel-like shape will help block out unwanted light from the sun, Earth, and moon, and the spacecraft's distant location will help keep the instruments cool. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.

The rise of AI tools that instantly answer questions and complex problems could make humans less intelligent, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has warned. The Observatory, one of the UK's oldest purpose-built scientific institutions, is known for its contributions to astronomy. Paddy Rodgers, director of the Royal Museums Greenwich group which oversees it, said its rich history of research showed the power of human knowledge and curiosity - and the need to avoid complete dependence on AI. A reliance solely on instant answers risks losing the habits of questioning and evaluation that underpin knowledge, expertise and innovation, he said. Rodgers' remarks come amid an ongoing transformation of the Royal Observatory in a project called First Light. The project hopes to seize on the passion of all the astronomers over the last 350 years, and interpret that passion through science, Rodgers told the BBC.

Astronomers Are Closing In on the Kuiper Belt's Secrets As next-generation telescopes map this outer frontier, astronomers are bracing for discoveries that could reveal hidden planets, strange structures, and clues to the solar system's chaotic youth. Out beyond the orbit of Neptune lies an expansive ring of ancient relics, dynamical enigmas, and possibly a hidden planet--or two. The Kuiper Belt, a region of frozen debris about 30 to 50 times farther from the sun than the Earth is--and perhaps farther, though nobody knows--has been shrouded in mystery since it first came into view in the 1990s. Over the past 30 years, astronomers have cataloged about 4,000 Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), including a smattering of dwarf worlds, icy comets, and leftover planet parts. But that number is expected to increase tenfold in the coming years as observations from more advanced telescopes pour in.

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has gathered over 1.3 million detections in 27 years. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory is considered one of the agency's greatest achievements, but it's not necessarily as recognizable as siblings like the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes . However, since 1999, the powerful spacecraft has peered deep into the cosmos to provide astronomers with never-before-seen glimpses of the Milky Way galaxy . As the observatory nears its 27th anniversary, NASA is highlighting its Chandra Source Catalog (CSC), an absolutely massive archive of visualization data collected over the years.

'We essentially have 102 new maps of the entire sky.' Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. NASA aimed big for its SPHEREx's first 3D cosmic map . Only six months after starting operations, the orbital space telescope has completed its inaugural infrared scan of the entire sky. Although infrared isn't visible to the human eye, the map's 102 wavelengths remain detectable across the universe--to the right instruments. "It's incredible how much information SPHEREx has collected in just six months--information that will be especially valuable when used alongside our other missions' data to better understand our universe," Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA, said in a statement .

Science Space Deep Space Space Telescope Two neutron stars may have formed the first known'superkilonova' The historic explosion was 1.3 billion light-years away from Earth. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A double blast of dying stars may be the first observed case of a long-hypothesized, never proven "superkilonova." Although astronomers are still searching for concrete answers, a study published in may detail the historic explosion about 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. Most of the universe's massive stars end their lives in a blaze of glory as supernovae, but that's not always the case.

On a commercial thoroughfare in old town Pasadena, California, a stone's throw from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), you'll find the Neon Retro Arcade. Among its collection of vintage video games is the 1979 Atari classic Asteroids, in which a pixelated spaceship shoots down a barrage of space rocks to stave off fatal collisions. After long days of work at JPL, Amy Mainzer used to rack up high scores on that console. "It was a hoot," she says. It was also apt, considering she oversees a space mission designed to spot dangerous asteroids before they crash into Earth. That mission, the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, was conceived in the early 2000s and finally got the green light in 2022. Its components are now being built, tested, and assembled in clean rooms across the United States ahead of its planned launch in September 2027. "We're in the thick of building everything," says Mainzer, NEO Surveyor's principal investigator and now an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

After weeks of silence, NASA has officially dismissed speculation that 3I/ATLAS has anything to do with aliens. After the temporary shutdown of the US government, NASA has finally started its nonessential work back up. It's starting off with a bang: The agency called a press conference to show its hitherto reserved images of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. NASA scientists also confirmed that 3I/ATLAS is in fact a comet, contrary to the speculations about alien technology flooding the internet. During the broadcast, a panel of scientists showed the results of observations obtained by different NASA missions across various points in the journey 3I/ATLAS has taken .