Some people see a face in the moon; others see a rabbit or a toad. But regardless of what you see on the lunar surface, we all view the same side of our natural satellite. So why don’t we ever see the far side of the moon? From Earth, it appears as if the moon…

Who are the greatest and most famous astronomers of all time? The history of astronomy is the story of how humanity has uncovered the secrets of the cosmos, from early astronomers defining the mechanics of the Solar System and how the night sky changes over time, to astrophysicists studying the chemistry of stars, the expansion…

Officials warned of potential blackouts or interference with navigation and communication systems this weekend, as well as auroras as far south as Northern California or Alabama. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of the solar flares, as seen in the bright flashes in the upper right, on May 5 and May 6. The image…

Grand plans: Both the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope are seen as the future of US ground-based astronomy and stem from advances in mirror technology (courtesy: Damien Jemison/Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)) The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is to assemble a panel to help it decide whether…

Over the past few years, our planet has become increasingly encircled by Starlink, OneWeb and other “megaconstellation” satellites. Yes, the emergence of those megaconstellations offers great benefits for humanity. But in a wait-a-minute pause, there are also substantial costs, including a growing imposition on astronomy. That’s the view of David Koplow, the Scott K. Ginsburg…

Electromagnetic waves are a form of energy that have both an electric and magnetic component. They’re different from mechanical waves since they’re one of the only things that can propagate long distances through the vacuum of space. A Webb / Hubble combined view of the Phantom Galaxy, M74, in optical and infrared. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA…

The Starliner approaches the International Space Station during a 2022 test flight. The orbiting lab was flying 268 miles above the south Pacific at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA. Already years late, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft continues to face delays as it prepares to launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams into space. The latest…

In 2015, the iconic Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first-ever tangible detection of gravitational waves. The waves were the result of two black holes colliding far away in the universe; since then, a wealth of such signals from merging black holes, neutron stars and even a couple of mixed mergers between the two…

Lift-off: Chang’e-6 will attempt to bring back 2 kg of lunar material from the far side of the Moon (Courtesy: CNSA) China has successfully launched a mission to bring back sample from the far side of the Moon – the first attempt to do so. Chang’e-6 was launched at 17:27 p.m. local time today by…

Join the Boise State Physics Department for our First Friday Astronomy Event:Friday, August 2, 7:30 p.m. in the Liberal Arts Building, Room 106. Jason Williams, project scientist at NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, will present: “NASA’s Cold Atom Lab: Six Years of Quantum Science on the International Space Station”. The event is free and open to the public.…