The newly announced "space force" division of the Armed Forces will be a "separate but equal" sixth branch of the military, President Trump said Monday. Trump said he directed the Department of Defense and Pentagon to establish the new branch as "not only a matter of national identity but a matter of national security." Trump had previously floated the idea of a space force, and in March, the president said, "space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea." Secretary of Defense James Mattis last year penned a disapproving letter regarding the creation of a space force. — CNBC

Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts criticized the space agency's plans for the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. He said the plan to create a facility that would orbit the Moon was not an effective use of the space agency's funds. “It essentially calls for building another orbital space station, a skill my colleagues and I have already demonstrated on the ISS. Gateway will only slow us down, taking time and precious dollars away from the goal of returning to the lunar surface and eventually flying to Mars," Virts said. He was not specific on what a replacement plan should include but said he wanted to see an Apollo-like model — smaller missions to lead to the return to the Moon's surface. — SPACENEWS

​​​​​

Peggy Whitson, who broke records as a NASA astronaut, retired Friday. Whitson spent 665 days in space over a period of three separate missions — more than any other American. She also went on 10 spacewalks — the most of any American woman. "It's been the greatest honor to live out my lifelong dream of being a NASA Astronaut," Whitson tweeted in a thank you message. Whitson, 58, also is the first woman to serve as the leader of NASA's astronaut corps. Only Russian men have spent more time in space — with cosmonaut Gennady Padalka leading with a record of 879 days over five missions. Whitson's final space flight ended in 2017 and spanned nearly 10 months. — CBC

A Tennessee woman is suing NASA to keep a vial of Moon dust she says was given to her by Neil Armstrong. In the lawsuit, Laura Cicco says Armstrong gave her the vial when she was 10 years old along with a note. Cicco said the astronaut and her father were friends in Cincinnati when Armstrong taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. A handwriting expert verified Armstrong's signature, according to her attorney. It is unknown if the vial truly contains moon dust as materials from Earth's crust also were found in the sample, but court documents said there is "no evidence to rule out a lunar origin." NASA claims all lunar samples collected via their missions are the property of the U.S. government. — NBC

For $55 million, you could take a 10-day trip to the International Space Station, Axiom Space announced this week. The price tag covers a traveler's orbital stay, transportation to and from ISS and a 15-week astronaut training program. The Houston-based company plans to begin customer space travel in 2020. "It is an honor to continue the work that NASA and its partners have begun, to bring awareness to the profound benefits of human space exploration and to involve more countries and private citizens in these endeavors," Axiom Space President and CEO Michael Suffredini said. In addition to providing trips to the ISS, Axiom is developing its own space station that company officials said should be operational by 2022. — SPACE

NASA's Opportunity rover's situation on Mars has gone from bad to worse. Earlier in the week, we shared with you that the rover did make contact with Earth on Sunday. Since then, the dust storm has intensified, and NASA reports that the device has not made contact. Officials say the rover is in a power-saving mode that could be rectified if the device's solar-powered batteries are able to see the sun. The rover's battery levels are considered critically low. “We’re concerned, but we’re hopeful that the storm will clear and the rover will begin to communicate with us,” project manager John Callas said. — NYT

Mars will be visible to the naked eye next month in its closet appearance to Earth in 15 years. The planet will be about 35.8 million miles from Earth on July 31, making it appear rather large and bright to stargazers. “In fact, you will be hard pressed to miss it. To the naked eye, it will look like a suspiciously bright, steadily-shining, orange star. Only Venus is a brighter star-like object (and it will be visible in the western sky at the same time)," Cincinnati Observatory astronomer Dean Regas said. The reason for this phenomenon is due to the two planets' orbits. It takes Mars about 687 days to orbit the sun, while it takes Earth 365 days. So every 26 months, the two planets pass by in what's known as "Mars Close Approach." — NEWSWEEK

Volcanic eruptions could explain a mysterious rock formation on Mars, researchers said. Soft rock known as Medusae Fossae Formation, which is located near the equator of Mars — has been shaped by wind and other elements into valleys and ridges. In a new study published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, scientists think extreme volcanic eruptions on the Red Planet are the reason for the massive formation. “This is a massive deposit, not only on a Martian scale, but also in terms of the solar system, because we do not know of any other deposit that is like this,” lead author Lujendra Ojha said. Researchers measured formation density by using gravity data from spacecraft orbiting Mars. — CNET

It might be hot among large swaths of the U.S. this week, but...

...check out these patches of snow on Mars. NASA published this photo earlier this month from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It is early in the Red Planet's summer season, and dry ice that remains is protected in shade from the sun.

Three protoplanets were found orbiting a star in the constellation Sagittarius, researchers announced this week. The young star is about 330 light-years from Earth. Researchers made the discovery using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)  telescope in Chile. The planets are about the same mass as Jupiter. "Finding planets at this stage in their life is extremely hard and essentially boils down to finding enough evidence to show that only a planet could cause what we see," lead author Richard Teague said. The research was published this week in two different papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. — CNN

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft woke up from its second hibernation period as it preps to gather details on Ultima Thule. New Horizons, which previously flew by Pluto in July 2015 and offered the most detailed images ever of the dwarf planet, will collect data from the massive Ultima Thule rock that orbits near the edge of our solar system. “Ultima Thule may very well be the most primitive object ever explored by a spacecraft,” New Horizons project scientist Harold Weaver said. The flyby is scheduled for New Year's Day. — SALON

World Cup excitement in Russia is out of this world.

Literally.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Anton Shkaplerov celebrated their home country hosting the World Cup with a little microgravity soccer game. In a video posted to YouTube by Russian space agency Roscosmos, the two are seen kicking an official 2018 FIFA World Cup ball.

Five new exoplanets — including three that are Earth-like — were discovered about 160 light-years away. The planets orbit their sun in much less time than Earth: ranging from five to a little over 10 days to complete a full orbit. The two other planets found are about two times the size of Earth. Those planets take between six and 20 days to complete an orbit. The two planets are located closer to their sun than Mercury and Earth in our solar system. The findings were posted in a paper on arxiv.org and will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal. The planets were found using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. — NEWSWEEK

A dust storm on Mars is threatening NASA's Opportunity rover. The storm — which began June 1 and has continued to intensify — could have a negative impact on the rover's batteries and power level as the device is solar powered. The rover did send back a transmission Sunday morning, which helped to indicate that the device still was operating. Opportunity has endured storms before, including 2007. The rover launched in 2003 and was expected to last for a 90-day mission. — ENGADGET

New data suggests our solar system's nearby neighbor Alpha Centauri is not inundated with harmful X-ray radiation and could perhaps harbor life. Two of the three stars — Alpha Centauri “A” and Alpha Centauri “B” — in the system that's four light-years away emit similar amounts of X-ray radiation to that of our Sun. While the information is good news for harboring life, scientists still have not found any planets circling the stars. Alpha Centauri "C" — the third star in the system — emits about 50,000 times more X-ray radiation than we receive on Earth, and therefore likely is unable to habor life. — MASHABLE

While Jupiter likely doesn't host life, its magnetic field is helping astronomers understand naturally emitted radio signals. Researchers are using Europe's Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) to measure radio waves on Jupiter to see if those waves could be separated from background noise. "If we can get a handle on how to find direct radio emissions from large exoplanets, we can then eventually use these same techniques to study Earth-sized planets and determine which ones have magnetic fields," researcher Jake Turner said. Researchers scaled emissions from the planet's magnetic field to be similar to those of distant exoplanets. By doing so, researchers could identify an exoplanet 65 light-years from Earth if that exoplanet's magnetic field's brightness was about 1 million times stronger than Jupiter's peak level. — SPACE

Interstellar dust that helped to form the solar system billions of years ago has been discovered. Scientists discovered the dust in Earth's upper atmosphere where it likely came from comets passing by. Lead researcher Hope Ishii said the findings are the "surviving pre-solar interstellar dust that formed the very building blocks of planets and stars." The dust is made up of glassy grains referred to as "GEMS" (or glass embedded with metal and sulfides). — USAT

Rappin' out of this world.

Dajae Williams is a NASA engineer in Pasadena, California, who uses music to help young people better connect with science.

Williams said she often times felt isolated during her education path to becoming a NASA engineer and wants to help other girls the chance to pursue careers without gender and racial barriers.

NASA's Curiosity rover found organic molecules on Mars considered the "building blocks" to life as we know it. The molecules were discovered in 3.5-billion-year-old Red Planet rocks. The rover also found a concentration of atmospheric methane in a seasonal cycle. Researchers said that finding suggests that gas is leaking from under the surface in reservoirs. "These results do not give us any evidence of life. But there is a possibility that [the organics] are from an ancient life source; we just don't know," study lead author Jennifer Eigenbrode said. — SPACE

Richard Branson wants to put people into space within 12 months. Branson is undergoing astronaut training now in preparation for Virgin Galactic's inaugural human space flight. In addition to getting his body into shape by, among other physical activities, playing tennis four times a day, Branson is undergoing centrifuge training that mimics the forces the human body faces during space travel liftoff and traveling in Earth's atmosphere. Along with Branson, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin also is seeking to begin space tourism in 2019. — NERDIST