The Beaver visits Father Sky: Meet MIT’s First Nations Launch team
MIT Doya blasted their first rocket to a height of 1,290 meters, placing second at the 2023 First Nations Launch contest. The team is now gearing up for a 2024 launch.
Bright flash leads astronomers to a heavy-metal factory 900 million light years away
Using multiple observatories, astronomers directly detect tellurium in two merging neutron stars.
With Psyche, a journey to an ancient asteroid is set to begin
The NASA mission, a project with deep roots at MIT, is setting course for a metallic space rock that could be the remnant of a planetary core like our own.
3 Questions: The first asteroid sample returned to Earth
Richard Binzel describes how asteroid dirt and dust delivered by OSIRIS-Rex, with help from MIT, may reveal clues to the solar system’s origins.
3 Questions: A bigger, better space-ripple detector
The MIT-led Cosmic Explorer project aims to detect gravitational waves from the earliest universe.
Newly discovered planet has longest orbit yet detected by the TESS mission
The frosty gas giant was discovered in a system that also hosts a warm Jupiter.
Studying rivers from worlds away
A new technique uses remote images to gauge the strength of ancient and active rivers beyond Earth.
Tiera Fletcher ’17: Finding the purpose that propels us
The aerospace engineer, mentor, and author talks motivation and representation with MIT Libraries staff.
A telescope’s last view
Astronomers discover the last three planets the Kepler telescope observed before going dark.
Understanding boiling to help the nuclear industry and space missions
Florian Chavagnat seeks to answer fundamental questions about heat transfer that will shape the success of nuclear power plants — and extended missions in space.
Researchers 3D print a miniature vacuum pump
The device would be a key component of a portable mass spectrometer that could help monitor pollutants, perform medical diagnoses in remote areas, or test Martian soil.
A portfolio that’s out of this world
Following an influential career at NASA, Ezinne Uzo-Okoro SM ’20, PhD ’22 now shapes space policy as a top White House advisor.
Mix-and-match kit could enable astronauts to build a menagerie of lunar exploration bots
Robotic parts could be assembled into nimble spider bots for exploring lava tubes or heavy-duty elephant bots for transporting solar panels.
3Q: What we learned from the asteroid-smashing DART mission
Saverio Cambioni discusses new results revealing the redirected asteroid Dimorphos to be a dust-trailing rubble-pile.
White House names Daniel Hastings to space advisory group
National Space Council’s Users Advisory Group will guide the Biden-Harris administration on space preservation and industry.