Finding Life

A robotic rover has dug down and found subsurface life in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

That's good news for future Mars exploration.

140 AU

Astronomer Scott Sheppard has found the body in the Solar System that is farthest from the Sun we've seen to date.

It's 140 AU out, or 140 times more distant from the Sun than Earth.

Newfound Galaxies

Astronomers in new studies have found 300,000 new galaxies.

Some 200 astronomers were involved.

Cosmos 482

Cosmos 482, a Soviet era Venus probe that failed to leave Earth orbit, may fall back to Earth this year.

Some large chunk of it will reach the surface.

Space Tourism

Russia will fly two tourists to ISS onboard the same Soyuz spacecraft in 2021.

The deal was brokered by Space Adventures.

Sample Snatcher

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe has successfully snatched samples from Asteroid Ryugu.

The samples are due on Earth in December 2020.

Space Force

President Trump signed a space policy directive Tuesday that orders the Department of Defense to create a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.

Congress still has the final say in the creation of such a force.

NASA

NASA's next annual budget will be $21.5 billion.

That's an increase of $1.6 billion.

Perspective

Wal-mart announce quarterly revenues this morning of $138.793 billion.

That's seven times NASA's current annual budget.

Tombaugh

Om this date in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, after a meticulous search, discovered Pluto.

Pluto has since been demoted to dwarf planet status, but that takes nothing away from Tombaugh's achievement.

Solar Flares

Astronomers are studying solar flares as a way to learn about solar systems.

Flares generally are associated with younger stars, and extremely powerful flares can affect entire systems.

Back To Luna

NASA wants to begin commercial missions to the Moon yet this year.

The agency plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028.

Tickets to Mars

Elon Musk tweeted recently that tickets to Mars will eventually cost less than $500,000, and maybe less than $100,000.

SpaceX plans to start flying people to Mars in the 2020s.

Opportunity

NASA has made its final attempt to contact the Opportunity rover on Mars.

Opportunity will go down as a remarkable success.

Mars One

The financial arm of the Mars One project to colonize Mars has gone bankrupt.

What that means for the overall effort is unclear.

Expanding Universe

A new study that measures the expansion of the universe like never before finds the expansion rate is quickening.

A new theory of physics may be necessary to explain it.

Branson

Sir Richard Branson hopes to fly into space July 16, the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11.

Virgin Galactic hopes to begin commercial suborbital flights this year.

Iran

Private satellite images suggest Iran attempted a space launch this week, but Iran has not confirmed a successful effort.

If there was a failure, it would be the second in less than a month.

Oumuamua

Scientists have been trying to determine what Oumuamua is since its discovery in October 2017.

The latest theory is that it's simply the remains of a dead comet.

Shepherd

On this date in 1971, Alan Shepherd hit a golf ball on the Moon.

Shepherd not only landed on the Moon, of course.  He was also the first American in space.

Seismometer

NASA's InSights lander is in the process of deploying a seismometer on Mars.

It will be the first scientific instrument deployed directly on the surface of another planet.

Beresheet

SpaceIL, a private company based in Israel, plans to become the first private firm to launch a lunar mission later this month.

The lander is named Beresheet, which in Hebrew means "In the beginning."

Far Side Oddity

China's  Chang'e 4 mission has found the lunar far side may get colder through the long lunar night than the near side does.

Exactly why that would be is still to be determined.

Dark Energy

A new study of quasars suggests dark energy may be getting stringer.

To explain that, a new physics might be needed.