PufferBot approaches a bystander with its shield extended.

Pufferfish-inspired robot could improve drone safety

Oct. 21, 2020

Drone crashes are becoming more common than ever before. Engineers at the ATLAS Institute have built a robot that comes with its own inflatable "airbag."

Artist's depiction of the SPRITE CubeSat orbiting Earth.

New CubeSat will observe the remnants of massive supernovas

Oct. 19, 2020

A new space mission will seek to better understand a time in the early universe when the first stars lived fast and hard, burning out and going supernova in the span of a few million years.

Artist's depiction of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft swooping toward Bennu to collect a sample of material from the asteroid's surface.

Scientists peer inside an asteroid

Oct. 8, 2020

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft rendezvoused with the asteroid Bennu in late 2018. Now, researchers think they know what this chunk of space debris is like on the inside.

Artist's depiction of the DAPPER satellite in orbit around the moon.

A roadmap for science on the moon

Sept. 30, 2020

Scientists at CU Boulder have laid out a roadmap for a decade of scientific research at the moon. Teams from the university will participate in four upcoming or proposed space missions that seek to use the moon as a unique laboratory for peering back to the dawn of the cosmos.

Artist's depiction of a magnetar with magnetic field lines emerging from its surface.

Astrophysicist probes cosmic 'dark matter detector'

Sept. 29, 2020

CU Boulder's Jeremy Darling believes that a distant and powerful collapsed star could help scientists to unlock the secrets of dark matter.

Stacked photo of fireflies flashing in a forest.

In the Smoky Mountains, thousands of fireflies flash in unison; researchers want to know how

Sept. 23, 2020

Ever wonder why some fireflies flash in harmony? New research sheds light on this beautiful phenomenon and strives to understand how relatively simple insects manage to coordinate such feats of synchronization.

Ash covers rooftops in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta.

Volcanic ash may have a bigger impact on the climate than we thought

Sept. 10, 2020

Volcanic ash shuts down air traffic and can sicken people. But a new study suggests it may also be more important for Earth's climate than once thought.

Artist's depiction of the twin Janus spacecraft flying in formation through space.

Where no spacecraft has gone before: A close encounter with binary asteroids

Sept. 10, 2020

In a moment for twos, the Janus mission will launch two identical spacecraft to rendezvous with two asteroid pairs millions of miles from Earth.

Image of the asteroid Bennu with small bits of material jumping off into space.

How small particles could reshape Bennu and other asteroids

Sept. 9, 2020

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft observed tiny bits of material jumping off the surface of the asteroid Bennu. A new study tracks where those particles went.

Dust sticks to the boots of Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell in 1971.

Researchers develop dustbuster for the moon

Aug. 31, 2020

Future moon astronauts may one day be able to step into an electric-beam shower to clean sticky dust off of their spacesuits and equipment.

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