Category: Space and Astronomy

  • Starship Sails Through Hot-Staging Separation Before Vehicles Are Lost

    BOCA CHICA, Texas—A Starship-Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from SpaceX’s privately owned spaceport on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 18, with all 33 of its first-stage Raptor engines burning as it headed into a second integrated flight test (IFT-2) of the most powerful rocket ever built. With a deep and powerful…

  • This Week In Space podcast: Episode 88

    On Episode 88 of This Week In Space, Tariq and Rod discuss what they are grateful for in space. A lot of cool space stuff has occurred since the dawn of the Space Age, and a lot of it lives overhead right now. This week, Rod and Tariq run through their favorite space missions and…

  • Astronomers spot aurora on the sun for the 1st time

    Astronomers spot aurora on the sun for the 1st time

    Scientists have spotted a stunning “aurora-like” display of crackling radio waves over the surface of the sun that is strikingly similar to the Northern Lights on Earth.  The solar lightshow took place roughly 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) above a sunspot — a magnetically warped dark patch on our star’s surface. Astronomers on Earth detected the…

  • NASA Mission Reveals Possible Reason Behind Shrinking Exoplanets

    NASA Mission Reveals Possible Reason Behind Shrinking Exoplanets

    NASA Mission Reveals Possible Reason Behind Shrinking Exoplanets | www.caltech.edu Skip to main content

  • UOS signs MoU with the Emirates Astronomical Society

    Sharjah24: With the aim of exchanging experiences and fostering collaboration in the field of astronomy and space technology for the benefit of society, the University of Sharjah (UOS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Emirates Astronomical Society. The agreement was signed on behalf of the University by its chancellor, His Excellency, Prof. Hamid…

  • Martian Green Nightglow Seen for the First Time

    Martian Green Nightglow Seen for the First Time

    On Earth, there is a phenomenon known as nightglow, where the atmosphere experiences faint light emissions that prevent the night sky from becoming completely dark. This is caused by various processes in the upper atmosphere, like the recombination of atoms, cosmic rays striking the atmosphere, or oxygen and nitrogen interacting with hydroxyl a few hundred…

  • Tour the inner solar system

    Tour the inner solar system

    The solar nebula that birthed the Sun and its stellar siblings likely resembled the Orion Nebula. Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team Approximately 4.5 billion years ago, a cold cloud of gas and dust buried deep in one of the Milky Way galaxy’s spiral…

  • The International Space Station, a cosmic collaboration, turns 25

    The International Space Station, a cosmic collaboration, turns 25

    James H. Newman (right) and Jerry L. Ross (lower left) work on the recently-connected Russian-built FGB Module (Zarya) and the United States-built Unity Module in 1998. The photograph was taken out the window of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavour. Credit: NASA. Baikonur awoke to a cool dawn on Nov. 20, 1998, the ubiquitous murk of…

  • Life might be easiest to find on planets that match an earlier Earth

    Life might be easiest to find on planets that match an earlier Earth

    Artist’s impression of the “pale orange dot” – what early Earth would have looked like. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy We’re inching closer and closer to reliably detecting biosignatures on distant planets. Much of the focus is on determining which chemicals indicate life’s presence. But life can also create free energy in a system,…

  • The Thanksgiving menu in space this year sounds *delicious*

    The Thanksgiving menu in space this year sounds *delicious*

    Expedition 61 crew members NASA astronaut Christina H. Koch, left, Aleksandr A. Skvortsov of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir, Oleg I. Skripochka of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Andrew R. Morgan, and Luca S. Parmitano of the European Space Agency celebrate Thanksgiving together on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA) Astronauts aboard the International Space Station…