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NASA just lost contact with a Mars orbiter, and will soon lose another one

10 December 2025 at 19:29

NASA has lost contact with one of its three spacecraft orbiting Mars, the agency announced Tuesday. Meanwhile, a second Mars orbiter is perilously close to running out of fuel, and the third mission is running well past its warranty.

Ground teams last heard from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft on Saturday, December 6. β€œTelemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the red planet,” NASA said in a short statement. β€œAfter the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal.”

NASA said mission controllers are β€œinvestigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.”

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Β© NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Saturn’s Rings Seem as if They’re About to Disappear: Here’s Why

21 November 2025 at 05:01
During the weekend, the orbits of Earth and Saturn will combine to create an interplanetary optical illusion for anyone with a good telescope and clear skies.

Β© NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn’s rings, observed by the Cassini spacecraft. They will be all but invisible when viewed from Earth on Sunday.

The Moon Was an Inside Job

20 November 2025 at 14:00
New research suggests that Theia, the object whose collision with Earth is theorized to have caused the formation of the moon, came from closer to the sun.

Β© Mark A. Garlick/MPS

Artist’s impression of the collision between the early Earth and Theia, with the sun in the far distance, roughly 100 million years after the formation of the solar system.

NASA Releases Images of Comet 3I/ATLAS Passing by Mars

19 November 2025 at 19:44
With the government reopened, the space agency at last released pictures captured by a fleet of government spacecraft of an object that came from beyond our solar system.

Β© NASA/Lowell Observatory/Qicheng Zhang

Everyone’s Asking How Comet 3I/ATLAS Got to Our Solar System

8 November 2025 at 05:01
Scientists who study comets are struggling to keep up with popular speculation that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was sent to our solar system by an alien intelligence.
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