The Boeing Starliner, shown as it approached the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV Boeing’s crew transport space capsule, the Starliner, returned to Earth without its two-person crew right after midnight Eastern time on Sept. 7, 2024. Its remotely piloted return marked the end of a fraught test flight to the International Space Station which left two astronauts,…

Astronomers have gotten the first-ever detailed views of turbulent activity in a star other than our own sun. A time-lapse video released Wednesday (Sept. 11) shows enormous gas bubbles roiling on a nearby star called R Doradus, a red giant about 300 times bigger than our sun that lies roughly 180 light-years away, in the…

The next Vectis Astronomical Society talk explores the incredible achievements of the post-Moon era. Presented by Neil Phillipson, Mankind’s Next Giant Leap takes place on Friday 27th September 2024 at 7.30pm at Newchurch Pavilion, Watery Lane, Newchurch (nearest postcode: PO36 0LX). This shows how the vast body of work the scientific community has done since…

This artist’s conception of orbital debris around Earth shows just the largest, trackable pieces. If one of these collides with a spacecraft, it could cause serious damage or failure. Credit: NASA It’s no question that we have begun polluting the space around Earth. While governments around the world have participated in cataloging and tracking the…

The iconic star Betelgeuse, which is part of the constellation Orion, is one of the brightest stars visible from Earth and one of the most observed celestial objects in the night sky — but it may not be alone. A new theoretical study proposes that Betelgeuse has a sunlike companion that orbits it and may…

AN unexplained cosmic object has left scientists and space fans with more questions than answers. Nasa‘s James Webb Space Telescope captured a hazy red galaxy for the first time. A curious question mark shape has been spotted by Nasa’s James Webb Space TelescopeCredit: NASA While the finding was surprising on its own, it got even…

NASA’s Space Launch System stands beside Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA A report published Tuesday raises serious questions about NASA’s ability to effectively function as the nation’s preeminent space agency. The 218-page document, assembled by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) at the behest of Congress, warns that NASA is…

Astronaut Peggy Whitson performs a spacewalk in January 2017. Credit: NASA Space is an unnatural environment for humans. We can’t survive unprotected in a pure vacuum for more than two minutes. Getting to space involves being strapped to a barely contained chemical explosion. Since 1961, fewer than 700 people have been into space. Private space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin hope to…

The European Southern Observatory has published an image showing part of the Hydra cluster. In its center you can see the galaxy NGC 3312, which became a victim of a kind of cosmic “robbery”. It has lost almost all of its gas reserves.  Galaxy NGC 3312. Source: ESO/INAF/M. Spavone, E. Iodice The Hydra cluster is…

Since ancient times, humans have looked to the stars for answers to life’s biggest questions. Now, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal a bizarre cosmic object that appears to be throwing a question of its own right back at us. Spotted by JWST’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument, the object…