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Spacelab 1: A Model for International Cooperation
Forty years ago, in 1983, the Space Shuttle Columbia flew its first international spaceflight, STS-9. The mission included—for the first time—the European Space Agency’s Spacelab pressurized module and featured more than 70 experiments from American, Canadian, European, and Japanese scientists. Europeans were particularly proud of this “remarkable step” because “NASA, the most famous space agency…
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Alien haze, cooked in a lab, clears view to distant water worlds
An illustration of two water-rich exoplanets with hazy atmospheres. Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University Scientists have simulated conditions that allow hazy skies to form in water-rich exoplanets, a crucial step in determining how haziness muddles observations by ground and space telescopes. The research offers new tools to study the atmospheric chemistry of exoplanets and…
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PUNCH mission advances toward 2025 launch
On November 17, 2023, the Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission achieved an important milestone, passing its internal system integration review, clearing the mission to start integrating the four observatories. Three of the four PUNCH spacecraft will include SwRI-developed Wide Field Imagers (pictured) optimized to image the solar wind. The dark baffles…
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Vera Rubin Observatory will find binary supermassive black holes: Here’s how
This image is from a simulation of two merging black holes. The upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory should be able to detect binary black holes before they merge. But the vexing problem of false positives needs a solution. Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Project When galaxies merge, we expect them to produce binary black holes (BBHs.)…
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Listen to the Center of the Milky Way Translated Into Sound
A new musical piece is based on this composite image of the center of the Milky Way. The bright spot on the right is hot gas in infrared light, marking the approximate location of the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. X-ray: NASA / CXC / SAO; Optical: NASA / STScI; IR: Spitzer NASA / JPL-Caltech The…
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Listen to the Center of the Milky Way Translated Into Sound
A new musical piece is based on this composite image of the center of the Milky Way. The bright spot on the right is hot gas in infrared light, marking the approximate location of the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. X-ray: NASA / CXC / SAO; Optical: NASA / STScI; IR: Spitzer NASA / JPL-Caltech The…
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Go to Infinity and Beyond at Space Bar in Market Square
PHOTOS BY KRISTY GRAVER Houston native Dale Thomas Vaughn spent his childhood watching rockets blast off from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where his grandfather worked as an engineer. Last week he launched Space Bar in Market Square. The interplanetary pub isn’t a pop-up or a recreation of the Mos Eisley cantina from “Star Wars,” it’s…
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Go to Infinity and Beyond at Space Bar in Market Square
PHOTOS BY KRISTY GRAVER Houston native Dale Thomas Vaughn spent his childhood watching rockets blast off from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where his grandfather worked as an engineer. Last week he launched Space Bar in Market Square. The interplanetary pub isn’t a pop-up or a recreation of the Mos Eisley cantina from “Star Wars,” it’s…
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Cyber Monday: Save 34% on this 14-piece Celestron telescope eyepiece accessory kit
If you’ve got one of the best telescopes, you may want one of the best telescope eyepieces as well. So this deal might pique your interest: As part of Amazon’s Cyber Monday sale, it has reduced 34% off the price of the Celestron accessory kit. Get 14 different eyepieces and filters for just $151.96 instead…
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Cyber Monday: Save 34% on this 14-piece Celestron telescope eyepiece accessory kit
If you’ve got one of the best telescopes, you may want one of the best telescope eyepieces as well. So this deal might pique your interest: As part of Amazon’s Cyber Monday sale, it has reduced 34% off the price of the Celestron accessory kit. Get 14 different eyepieces and filters for just $151.96 instead…