Update, Oct. 26 — On Saturday, NASA said the astronaut who experienced a “medical issue” has been released from the hospital after an overnight stay and has now returned to Houston. “The crew member is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members,” the space …
Read More »Unexplained Enigmas in the Orion Nebula May Be Victims of Stellar Bullying
Some 1,350 light-years from Earth, astronomers detected strange pairs of unexplained objects orbiting in the Orion Nebula. Since then, about 12 months ago, other scientists have proposed a new potential explanation for these apparitions, while other researchers wonder whether they exist at all. “There’s a bit less confidence they exist,” …
Read More »Orionids Meteor Shower: When and How to Watch Its Peak
Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can observe only a fraction of astronomical phenomena with your naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them. The latest observable meteor shower will be the Orionids, which have been active …
Read More »Space: The Final Fashion Frontier
In its quest to shape the aesthetics of everything, the fashion world has extended its glossy, well-decorated tentacles into all sorts of unexpected areas: sports, film, hotels, furniture, publishing. And, as of Wednesday, space. The cosmos is not just the final frontier, apparently. It’s the final fashion frontier. Or so …
Read More »A Distant Planet May Host a Moon That’s Spewing a Volcanic Cloud
Astronomers have identified thousands of planets orbiting distant stars using sophisticated observatories. But there’s something they have yet to spot with any certainty: moons around those worlds. Now a recent discovery around a Saturn-size planet 635 light-years from Earth offers one of the best potential clues that exomoons orbit exoplanets …
Read More »NASA Launches Europa Clipper to Explore an Ocean Moon’s Habitability
Europa Clipper, the biggest interplanetary spacecraft that NASA has ever built, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Monday afternoon. The mission will tackle one of biology’s core questions: Can life exist anywhere else in our solar system? The spacecraft’s destination is Europa, a moon of Jupiter, …
Read More »SpaceX Advances Starship Program With a Launch and a Catch
SpaceX pulled off a feat of technical wizardry on Sunday, not only flying a 233-foot rocket booster back to its launch site, but also catching it out of the air with two giant mechanical arms. It occurred during the fifth test flight of the Starship rocket and was a huge …
Read More »F.A.A. Clears the Way for SpaceX to Hold Starship Launch on Sunday
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a new license on Saturday allowing Elon Musk’s SpaceX company to launch its Starship rocket again from South Texas, and it included new requirements to limit the harm to birds’ nests and other wildlife in an adjacent state park and National Wildlife Refuge. The action …
Read More »California Rejects Bid for More Frequent SpaceX Launches
A California state commission this week rejected the U.S. Space Force’s bid to increase the number of SpaceX rocket launches on the state’s central coast, citing concerns about the environmental impacts of the launches. The Space Force had sought to increase the number of launches of SpaceX’s flagship Falcon 9 …
Read More »Northern Lights Animate Night Skies Around the Globe
Night skies came aglow on Thursday with the shimmering palette of the northern lights, or the aurora borealis if you prefer. Above rooftops in Brooklyn and along the shores of Maine, amid Scottish trees and between Russian monuments to artistry, human eyes looked up, surprised to spot colorful bands of …
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