THE LAST TRANSMISSIONStories from the Edge of ScienceCOLLECTION / SIGNALS FROM THE EDGE
Spacecraft, planetary discoveries, and the machines we send into places we cannot follow.
28 TRANSMISSIONS
Far beyond Saturn, a small world casts a shadow that suggests one ring is growing darker while another is fading. Whatever is happening there may have begun within our own lifetimes.
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Research suggests Earth's closest planetary twin may still be tearing itself apart, hiding enormous tunnels beneath its surface.
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The spacecraft’s greatest discovery made its continued existence unacceptable
Parker Solar Probe survived the closest encounter any human creation had ever made with a star. Eugene Parker had waited most of his life to hear what it found.
A radio telescope looked below Saturn’s calm exterior and found something disturbing: the planet may still carry chemical fingerprints from storms that erupted generations ago.
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The human story behind NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample, the chemistry of life it carried home, and three minutes when twenty years almost disappeared.
Tidal tomography suggests that the Martian mantle beneath the southern highlands remains 200 to 400°C warmer, reopening questions about hidden magma, ancient impacts and volcanic activity on Mars.
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NASA turned technology from the classified world of orbital surveillance toward dark matter, rogue planets and the deepest questions in physics.
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How NASA’s first chief astronomer overcame discrimination, transformed space-based astronomy, and inspired an observatory built to map the universe.
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In 2026, humanity's first interstellar explorer will reach one light-day from home. Its power is disappearing, its instruments are failing, and the message bolted to its side may outlive us all.
If an asteroid had a real chance of hitting Earth in six months, would you want the public warned immediately, or only after officials knew where it would hit?
Antimatter propulsion sounds like the future. Antimatter containment failure sounds like the universe deleting the evidence.
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For most of human history, traveling to another star system has belonged to the realm of fantasy.
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