Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chinese astronomy satellite placed into orbit by Long March rocket

16 June 2017 Stephen Clark

China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite launched Thursday on a mission to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars, the remnants left behind after a star burns up its nuclear fuel.

Earth’s carbon came from ancient collision with Mercury-like planet

6 September 2016 Astronomy Now

How did carbon-based life develop on Earth, given that most of the planet’s carbon should have either boiled away in the planet’s earliest days or become locked in Earth’s core? A new study suggests all of the planet’s life-giving carbon came from a collision with an embryonic planet similar to Mercury approximately 4.4 billion years ago.

China’s Yutu rover dies on the Moon

5 August 2016 Stephen Clark

A Chinese rover sent to the Moon in 2013 has stopped operating, officials announced this week, ending a groundbreaking 31-month mission that made discoveries in lunar geology and catapulted China’s space programme to new heights.