outer space

NASA's Mars 2020 rover has passed it's first and only driving test - at snail speed. Interested in more space news? Check out this week's top ten space photos.

This article was originally reported on Universe Today.

Space is an interesting place, but it can be hard to wrap your head around some of those out-of-this-world concepts. So what better way to learn facts about space than with GIFs? Here are six interesting and educational GIFs made from videos by Dr James O'Donoghue, a planetary scientist based at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Enjoy learning, space cadets. Want to learn more? Check out this article about how the new Mac Pro isn't good at grating cheese. 

The Boeing Starliner capsule, which is planning to transport people to and from the International Space Station in the near future, successfully completed an abort mission - although one of it's three parachutes failed to deploy. At the time, few photos or videos were taken of the capsule's short flight. New video footage has just emerged, and we've made some sweet GIFs so you can view it's journey in GIF form. If you want to know more about the Boeing Starliner capsule, read our comprehensive article about it. Otherwise, enjoy the GIFs!

Don't have time to watch or fast-forward through 6 hours of filler coverage? We've grabbed the perfect shots from SpaceX and NASA's joint spacecraft launch of the Crew Dragon. This is the first commercial spacecraft in history to bring astronauts into space, and was designed by the tech giant Elon Musk with his SpaceX commercial space program. With the launch a complete success, and the window narrowing after inclement weather, the successful launch was a massive achievement for commercial space travel, and the potential is massive for scaling this to even greater heights. Next stop, Mars.