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Watch live: American astronauts space walk outside the ISS
NASA astronaut Loral O’Har exits the ISS to begin a space walk on Nov. 1, 2023. Credit: NASA. NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara are on their spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The spacewalk streams live on NASA’s YouTube channel, which you can watch below. The two will remove an electronics box and…
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IARPA Searches for Space Junk’s Trashed Signals
The first phase officially started June 29. The goal for the first phase is to establish a proof of concept for detection, tracking and characterization. The initial focus will be on space objects already cataloged to strengthen confidence in new techniques. “At the beginning stages, we are trying to really advance the state of the…
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November Astronomy: What’s in the North Texas sky this month?
What’s happening in the skies over North Texas this month? November holds some spectacular sights in the night and morning sky. Check out the list below. THE LEONID METEOR SHOWER November is known for its meteor showers. The Leonid meteor shower will run from November 6th through the 30th and peak around November 17th and…
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Payload For Vulcan’s First Flight Arrives For Launch Preparations
A privately owned lunar lander slated to fly aboard the first United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket arrived in Florida on Oct. 30 for launch preparations. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral SFS’s Space Launch Complex 41 is targeted for Dec. 24. Based on lighting and other conditions for the attempted lunar landing, ULA will have only…
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NASA’s Juno probe detects organic compounds on huge Jupiter moon Ganymede
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has detected salts and organic compounds on the surface of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. The detection was made during a June 2021 flyby in which Juno analyzed Ganymede using its Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer, an instrument designed to study the chemistry and interactions within Jupiter’s atmosphere and those of its…
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OSIRIS-REx flies on to explore second asteroid
TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — After seven years in space, and over four billion miles traveled, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission delivered the first U.S. sample from asteroid Bennu. After all of that, the spacecraft will not retire! Instead, NASA extended the University of Arizona led mission so that the spacecraft can be used to study another near-Earth…
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What happens when two stars collide?
A collision of two stars in space is not something astronomers are used to seeing, even with powerful space telescopes trained on galaxies beyond our own. But with the help of these massive eyes on the universe, including the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists recently got to see what such a space explosion – a…
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New Telescopes to Study the Aftermath of the Big Bang
Astronomers are currently pushing the frontiers of astronomy. At this very moment, observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are visualizing the earliest stars and galaxies in the Universe, which formed during a period known as the “Cosmic Dark Ages.” This period was previously inaccessible to telescopes because the Universe was permeated by clouds…
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Remembering John Glenn’s historic return to space
John Glenn at age 77. Credit: NASA. With millions of visitors each year, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, located north of downtown Houston, Texas, is among the United States’ busiest aviation hubs. And in 1998, it brought together an elderly couple and an elderly astronaut, each about to embark on one more great adventure. Thirty-six years…
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Uranus aurora discovery promises new riches from James Webb Space Telescope
After more than 30 years scientists have finally been able to confirm that the icy planet Uranus has an infrared aurora. The discovery will provide insight into how magnetic fields on ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune behave and could even help astronomers use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to identify similar aurorae from…
