Perseverance

 Perseverance launched to Mars last July 30.

Having gotten Ingenuity off to a good start, Perseverance is now ready to begin collecting samples'

Mars

 A new study finds clay might lie under the polar caps of Mars, not lakes of water.

That would limit the case for life.

Plasms

 Scientists have observed slow-moving plasma waves on the surface of the sun.

They think studying the waves can tell them about the internal structure of our star.

Bezos

 Jeff Bezos is asking NASA to give Blue Origin a contract for the Artemis lunar lander.

Bezos says BO will put up billions of dollars for the project.

Galileo

 Avi Loeb has co-founded a foundation dedicated to bringing the search for evidence of technological alien civilizations into the scientific mainstream.

It's called The Galileo Project.

Ingenuity

 Ingenuity has flown ten times on Mars for a total of one mile in the thin air.

Its highest altitude has been forty feet.

Europs Clipper

 A Falcon Heavy will launch NASA's Europa Clipper mission.

Liftoff is scheduled for 2024.

Earth 2.0

 A new study using computer simulation finds that an Earth-like planet could develop and thrive between  two gas giants.

That opens the universe to more possibilities.

Exomoon

 Astronomers have found a disk orbiting a young Jupiter-like planet 400 light years away that could produce multiple moons.

They have yet to find an exomoon.

Hypersonic

 Russian President Putin has announced his nation has a hypersonic vehicle that can deliver nuclear warheads.

Chins and the U. S. are also developing such craft.

Bezos

 Jeff Bezos and crewmates had a safe and successful spaceflight this morning.

The booster also touched down on target.

Worlds

 Astronomers have found four interesting worlds orbiting two small stars 130 light years away.

The worlds are young and still developing.  They cam teach us much.

Mars

 Curiosity has established geological processes om Mars can wipe out evidence of ancient life.

That has no bearing on whether life existed. however.

Hubble

 Hubble is back online using its backup computer.

It had been offline since June 13.

Comet

 Astronomers have spotted a coma around the head of a huge comet far out in the Solar System.

It could be the largest comet yet found.

Nuclear Propulsion

 NASA and the Department of Energy are studying three concepts for nuclear powered spacecraft.

Such ships could cut the flight time for a human trip to Mars in half.

FAA OK

 Blue Origins has gotten a license from the FAA to fly passengers to space.

Jeff Bezos flies next week.

Branson

 Sir Richard Branson and crew successfully completed a suborbital flight yesterday.

Virgin Galactic plans to start flying paying customers next year.

Planetary Defense

 A new study for ESA finds large TV broadcasting satellites could be used to deflect incoming asteroids.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that deflecting a large asteroid could require ten such satellites hitting the asteroid in short order.

Hypernovs

 Scientists have found evidence of a hypernova explosion in the fringes of the Milky Way.

The blast would have been ten times as powerful as a supernova.

China

 China's Chang'e 6 mission will attempt a sample return from the far side of the Moon.

The mission is scheduled for 2024.

Hubble

 Hubble has been offline since June 13.

Engineers aren't sure what's wrong,

Antarctica

 A huge Antarctic lake disappeared as the ice shelf beneath it fractured.

The lake drained in three days.

FRBs

 In April 2020 astronomers detected the first fast radio burst located within the Milky Way.

They still don't know what causes FRBs, but magnetars-- magnet stars-- are the leading candidates.

Collisions

 Scientists have now observed two collisions between a black hole and a neutron star.

The two events came ten days apart.

Space Race

 Richard Branson plans to fly into space July 11

That's nine days before Jeff Bezos is scheduled to do it.

Exoplanets

 A new study finds current methods of detecting exoplanets may be missing many Earth-like worlds.

Rocky worlds in binary stat systems may be lost in the glare of twin suns.