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Ceres’ Four-Mile Tall ‘Pyramid’ Is Closer Than Ever, Still Puzzling

The closer we get to Ceres, the largest object in our solar system’s asteroid belt, the stranger it becomes.

In June, NASA released a photo of Ceres, taken by the Dawn spacecraft from 2,700 miles away, that showed a several-mile high “pyramid” protruding from the dwarf planet’s otherwise generally smooth surface. And a new photo, taken last Wednesday from only 900 miles away, shows the mountain is four miles high and has a perimeter of previously unseen, reflective streaked slopes.

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In The Future, Space Planes Could Be Powered By Microwaves

Over half a century after the dawn of the space age, getting to space remains an epic challenge. Twice this year, the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket met a fiery end on the Atlantic Ocean—both attempts to recover and reuse rockets to reduce launch costs. A third rocket never made orbit, exploding on ascent.

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