Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial news, from the skies above planet Earth and beyond, including strange or unusual news.

Astronauts and experiments on the International Space Station work to make life better on Earth and help humanity explore deep into the cosmos. Credits: NASA

NASA Administrator Statement on Russian ASAT Test (11/15/2021) - On Monday, November 15, 2021 Moscow Standard Time, the International Space Station (ISS) Flight Control team was notified of indications of a satellite breakup that may create sufficient debris to pose a conjunction threat to [...]

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur enjoys fresh food on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

NASA Announces Winners of Deep Space Food Challenge (10/24/2021) - Variety, nutrition, and taste are some considerations when developing food for astronauts. For NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge, students, chefs, small businesses, and others whipped up novel food technology designs to bring new solutions to the [...]

NASA, ULA Launch Lucy Mission to “Fossils” of Planet Formation (10/16/2021) - NASA’s Lucy mission, the agency’s first to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, launched at 5:34am EDT Saturday, October 16, 2021, on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral [...]

Issue 1, “Dream to Reality,” imagines Callie's trailblazing path as the first woman on the Moon. Callie and her robot sidekick, RT, overcome setbacks, disappointment, and tragedy along the way. Credits: NASA

NASA Releases Interactive Graphic Novel “First Woman” (9/26/2021) - NASA released its first digital, interactive graphic novel on Saturday, September 25, 2021, in celebration of National Comic Book Day. “First Woman: NASA’s Promise for Humanity” imagines the story of Callie Rodriguez, the first woman [...]

Illustrations of the projects that were selected for Phase I of the 2021 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Source: NASA

Watch NIAC Online: Visionary Tech Concepts Could Pioneer the Future in Space (9/17/2021) - Dozens of concepts are being presented at this year’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium, including eight led by technologists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA missions make it seem like the future is now — [...]

Rod Roddenberry, top left, George Takei, Tracy Drain, Jonny Kim, bottom left, Swati Mohan, and Hortense Diggs participate in a panel discussion as part of the program Celebrating Gene Roddenberry: Star Trek's Bridge and NASA. Credits: NASA

NASA Helps Celebrate Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry’s Centennial on Aug. 19 (8/18/2021) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is helping the legacy of inspiration, hope, and diversity fostered by the creator of Star Trek to live long and prosper. The agency will observe the late Gene [...]

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flew over these sand dunes and rocks during its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. While the agency’s Perseverance Mars can’t risk getting stuck in this sand, scientists are still able to learn about this region by studying it from Ingenuity’s images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Reveals Intriguing Terrain (7/13/2021) - Ingenuity’s ninth flight provided imagery that will help the Perseverance rover team develop its science plan going forward. Images snapped on July 5, 2021 by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on its ambitious ninth flight have [...]

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took this shot, capturing its own shadow, while hovering over the Martian surface on April 19, 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight on Mars (4/19/2021) - The small rotorcraft made history, hovering above Jezero Crater, demonstrating that powered, controlled flight on another planet is possible. Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled [...]

UFO Sightings by US State: November 2020 (12/23/2020) - By Kay Whatley, Editor Across the United States each year, thousands of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are reported. UFO reports cover close encounters of various types, range from blinking lights in the sky to [...]

UFO Sightings by US State: September 2020 (10/6/2020) - By Kay Whatley, Editor Unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are reported, across the United States, year-round. UFO reports cover close encounters of various types, range from blinking lights in the sky to unusual aircraft to [...]

First Splashdown of American Astronauts in 45 Years (8/2/2020) - Two NASA astronauts splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday for the first time in a commercially built and operated American crew spacecraft, returning from the International Space Station to complete a [...]

NASA to Broadcast Comet NEOWISE (7/14/2020) - NASA experts will discuss and answer public questions about Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE during a broadcast of NASA Science Live. The comet is visible with the naked-eye in the early morning sky and starting [...]

Located in Canberra, Australia, the Deep Space Network's Deep Space Station 43 spans 70 meters (230 feet), making it the largest steerable parabolic antenna in the Southern Hemisphere. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Station 43 Getting an Upgrade (7/9/2020) - Used for communicating with distant spacecraft, a massive radio antenna is being retrofitted to prepare it for a busy future of solar system exploration The Deep Space Network is NASA’s interplanetary switchboard that enables constant [...]

UFO Sightings by US State: May 2020 (6/11/2020) - By Kay Whatley, Editor Across the United States each year, thousands of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings are reported. UFO reports cover close encounters of various types, range from blinking lights in the sky to [...]

Earth in Full View. The Apollo 17 crew caught this breathtaking view of our home planet as they were traveling to the moon on Dec. 7, 1972. It's the first time astronauts were able to photograph the South polar ice cap. Nearly the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible, along with the Arabian Peninsula. Source: NASA.

NASA Seeks Applicants to #BeAnAstronaut (3/2/2020) - For the first time in more than four years, NASA began accepting applications Monday for future astronauts. Aspiring Moon to Mars explorers have until Tuesday, March 31, 2020, at 11:59pm (EDT), to apply. The call [...]

NASA astronaut Christina Koch gives a thumbs-up as she emerges from the Soyuz spacecraft February 6, 2020. Credits: NASA Television

Record-Setting NASA Astronaut and Crewmates Return from Space Station (2/6/2020) - After setting a record for the longest single spaceflight in history by a woman, NASA astronaut Christina Koch returned to Earth Thursday, along with Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and [...]

Two NASA’s Astronaut Candidates with Ties to North Carolina to Graduate with Eye on Artemis Missions (1/8/2020) - Two astronaut candidates with ties to North Carolina will be honored as part of the first class of astronaut candidates to graduate under the Artemis program Friday, January 10, 2020, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. [...]

This illustration of TOI 700 d is based on several simulated environments for an ocean-covered version of the planet. Source: Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA “TESS” Planet Hunter Finds Earth-Size Habitable-Zone World (1/7/2020) - By Jeanette Kazmierczak, NASA JPL NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star’s habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the [...]

SpaceX launches Dragon, resupply mission to the International Space Station on December 5, 2019. Source:: NASA TV

SpaceX Dragon Heads to International Space Station with NASA Science (12/5/2019) - Upgraded science hardware for the Cold Atom Lab — built and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California — is among the cargo on-board the Dragon spacecraft. The experimental physics facility allows [...]

To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA. Source: Barbi Baker, New Hanover County

To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA Exhibit Open at Cape Fear Museum (11/22/2019) - Cape Fear Museum of History and Science announces the opening of our newest traveling exhibit, To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA. Just before the first man landed on the moon, Charlie Brown and Snoopy [...]

The Grey Area News' UFO with North Carolina outline

The Strange-ness: NUFORC Data Shows North Carolina #12 in UFO Sighting Reports (11/19/2019) - Compiled by Kay Whatley, Editor The National UFO Reporting Center, or NUFORC, contains UFO sighting reports for the State of North Carolina going back to the mid-20th century. According to NUFORC data, North Carolina ranks [...]

NASA portrait of 2017 Astronaut Candidate Zena Cardman in front of a T-38 trainer aircraft at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Source: NASA

NASA Administrator, Astronaut Candidate to Visit University of North Carolina (11/1/2019) - NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and astronaut candidate Zena Cardman will visit the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) November 6-7, 2019, to discuss the agency’s Artemis program. Their visit is part of [...]

Image from NASA's Spitzer Space telescope of the "Jack-o'-lantern Nebula." Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA Spitzer Telescope Spots a Ghoulish Gourd (10/31/2019) - A carved-out cloud of gas and dust looks like a celestial jack-o’-lantern in this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. A massive star — known as an O-type star and about 15 to 20 times [...]

The Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 60 crew members Nick Hague of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, along with visiting astronaut Hazzaa Ali Almansoori of the United Arab Emirates, October 3, 2019. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA Astronaut and Crewmates Return Safely from International Space Station (10/4/2019) - NASA astronaut Nick Hague returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday, alongside Soyuz commander Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and visiting astronaut Hazzaa Ali Almansoori from the United Arab [...]

International Space Station “Population” Increases to Nine Humans (9/25/2019) - NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and two fellow crew members arrived Wednesday for their mission aboard the International Space Station, temporarily increasing the orbiting laboratory’s population to nine people. The Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft carrying Meir, Oleg [...]

Ball Aerospace large camera lens assembly will be incorporated into the LSST ground telescope that will sit on top of Cerro Pachón ridge, an 8,800-foot mountain in Chile. Source: Source: Ball Aerospace

Ball Aerospace Delivers “Large Camera Lens Assembly” for Telescope (9/13/2019) - Ball Aerospace has shipped and delivered the large camera lens assembly to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, which will be incorporated into the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a ground telescope that will sit [...]

Spacewalker Christina Koch enters the Quest airlock. Source: NASA Johnson

North Carolina Students to Speak with NASA Astronaut on Space Station (8/29/2019) - Students in North Carolina will talk live this week with a NASA astronaut currently living and working aboard the International Space Station. The Earth-to-space call will air live on Friday, August 30, 2019, 10:10am (EDT), on NASA television [...]

The ECOSTRESS image shows plant stress in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica (in red on inset map) a few months after the onset of a major Central American drought. Red indicates high stress, yellow is moderate stress, greens/blues are low stress. Light gray is cloud. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA Gauges Plant Stress in Costa Rican Drought (8/8/2019) - NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) has imaged the stress on Costa Rican vegetation caused by a massive regional drought that led the Central American nation’s government to declare a state [...]