Detecting the presence of isoprene in the atmosphere of an exoplanet could indicate the presence of extraterrestrial life forms on the surface, suggests a team of researchers. Details of the study are published in the journal Astrobiology . Searching for biosignatures To date, there are more than 4

SpaceX could never have widened such a gap with its competitors if the companys engineers had not succeeded, in 2016, in the feat of landing their Falcon 9 booster at sea. Heres why. The importance of returning to sea A little over five years ago, on April 8, 2016, SpaceX achieved a feat:landing a

In Russia, a neutrino hunting telescope buried deep in Lake Baikal is about to deliver first scientific results after four decades of political setbacks. A glass orb the size of a beach ball sinks into a hole in the ice, then another, then another. A total of 36 of these light detectors, spun in a

Astrophysics of the 2030s will be played out in a few weeks. Of the four missions pre-selected by NASA for future development, one is of particular interest to us. Named LUVOIR, this observatory could change everything. NASAs next big observatory The more than 4,000 extrasolar planets confirmed so

Orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid Psyche will soon receive visitors. To do this, NASA will rely on Hall effect thrusters. A first in deep space. The meeting is scheduled for 2026. In the asteroid belt is an asteroid named 16-Psyche. With its 220 kilometers in diameter, the obj

Traveling back ten billion years in the past of the universe, Hubble came across two pairs of quasars very close to each other. Astronomers conjure up two needles in a cosmic haystack. A quasar is a very energetic galaxy with a very voracious supermassive black hole at its center. The object, which

NASA will land the first person of color, in addition to the first woman on the Moon, as part of its Artemis program, said Steve Jurczyk, l Acting Administrator of the United States Space Agency. President Bidens administration just submitted a $24.7 billion budget proposal to Congress outlining it

Crushed in his seat, Yuri Gagarin sees flames outside his ship and prepares to die. His voice breaks the tense silence at ground control:Im burning. Goodbye, comrades . It will finally land a few minutes later. Before him, no man had ventured into space. That was sixty years ago. If he is chosen am

The size of a tennis court, the sun visor of the James Webb Telescope has been folded one last time. This important step, which requires incredible attention to detail, brings us closer to its launch scheduled for October. A huge parasol The James Webb Telescope, one of the most anticipated space o

Sometimes called failed stars, brown dwarfs can spin at over 360,000 kilometers per hour, but this could be a limit that these objects could not cross... at the risk of self-destruction. Brown dwarfs are objects that are too massive to be considered planets, but too unmassive to fit into the rank o

The annual flux of extraterrestrial material ending up on the Earths surface is dominated by small particles. It is therefore very difficult to apprehend them. To estimate the distribution and volume of this cosmic matter, researchers traveled to Antarctica. On Earth, it regularly rains alien matte

Its official:NASA has just selected SpaceX to supply the US agencys next manned lunar lander. This will finance SpaceX for a first uncrewed mission, then a second with a crew. SpaceX, once again, is about to make aerospace history by landing the first humans on the Moon since the Apollo era. About

Observations made by the Hubble telescope, coupled with computer simulations, suggest that GJ 1132 b, a nearby exoplanet, has lost its original atmosphere to develop a second thanks to its volcanic activity. In some ways, GJ 1132 b, found 41 light years away, displays intriguing similarities to Ear

The United States is unlikely to build a launch vehicle like the Space Launch System again. This rocket, supposed to propel future astronauts to the Moon, thus represents the end of a story. The most powerful rocket built by NASA since the Apollo program finally stood up for several weeks. At leas

Researchers describe three strains of good bacteria found aboard the ISS belonging to a previously unknown species. These could one day allow astronauts to grow plants on Mars. Study details are published in Frontiers in Microbiology . The stowaways of the ISS American and Indian researchers workin

Astronomers announce that they have isolated the remains of an absolutely colossal supernova less than 4,000 light years from Earth. In terms of apparent size, imagine an expanding cloud of gas and dust nearly a hundred times larger than the full Moon. A supernova is a dying star. Two main mechanis

US President Joe Biden has just appointed former Democratic Senator Bill Nelson as Administrator of NASA. This administration ally will be responsible for guiding an agency that is supposed to return humans to the Moon and strengthen its climate research work. But his appointment is not unanimous.

Asteroid 2001 FO32 has just passed close to our planet, passing about two million kilometers from it. This event occurred this Sunday, March 21 at 5:02 p.m. Paris time. Of course, there was no risk of collision. While its trajectory was regular and well known, the asteroid had a particularity:a spee

The American rover Perseverance has just dropped the debris shield responsible for protecting its companion Ingenuity during landing. According to NASA, a first flight could be attempted in April. Ingenuity is a technology demonstration side mission – a project that seeks to test a new capability f

An amateur astronomer has just spotted a new object in the sky. In reality, it is a star that has recently been transformed into a nova. And its still bright enough for you to see tonight. What is a nova? A nova is a star that suddenly becomes very bright. This bright light only lasts a few days to