Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Look Up Say More Mashable Selects Mashable Voices Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag All Series NASA's Roman telescope is built to find what Hubble and Webb miss Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for in Norfolk, Virginia, and in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won National Headliner Awards, including first place for her Sex in Space series.

The LINK probe was supposed to use robotic arms to capture Swift and lift it into a safe orbit. Problems with its control system forced NASA to call off the attempt. The Swift space observatory has been in operation since 2004. It specializes in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most energetic electromagnetic explosions known in the universe . Its original mission was supposed to last just two years.

A device currently being used to help octogenarians do self-administered eye exams could be part of future space missions to monitor astronauts' ocular health. The European Space Agency is trying to understand why astronauts lose their eyesight in space, in the hope they can figure out how to treat--or even prevent--the condition as looming longer spaceflights heighten the risk of permanent vision damage. The agency has commissioned British eye-scanning startup Siloton to develop a solution ahead of the international Artemis flights to the moon and other deep space missions. The health tech uses quantum technology to shrink core components used in eye-testing equipment found at optometrists to fit on a photonic chip smaller than a coin. Founded by physicists in 2020, Siloton is currently working with the UK's National Health Service to enable patients with retinal conditions to self-scan at home. "The ESA pretty much has the same requirements," says cofounder and chief technology officer Euan Allen.

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. These images show the evolution of supernova SN 2026gzf, which was first detected by the Einstein Probe on 21 March 2026. Images taken on 25 March and 3 April 2026 show the supernova brightening. An archival image of the host galaxy from 9 March 2016 reveals a bright blue source at the location of the supernova, which scientists say likely represents a compact, extreme star-forming region in the host galaxy, combined with pre-explosion activity of the progenitor star before its death. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.

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.