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Join Space.com’s 25th Anniversary Virtual Panel on July 17: The Next 25 Years of Space Exploration — To the Moon, Mars and Beyond
In the 25 years since Space.com first launched its space news mission on July 20, 1999, humanity has accomplished amazing feats in astronomical research and spaceflight. But what lies ahead in the next quarter century? Join Space.com as they celebrate their 25th anniversary by looking to the future of humanity’s reach into the cosmos with…
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Florida Tech, KSC Visitor Complex launch astronomy partnership featuring portable telescope
Astronomy events and scientific talks will be offered to thousands of future visitors at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, courtesy of a new partnership featuring faculty and students from the Florida Institute of Technology. Announcing the partnership, Florida Tech President John Nicklow evoked the words of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking: “Look up at the…
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‘What exactly is a planet?’ Astronomers want to amend the definition
Three astronomers last week proposed expanding the official definition of a planet to encompass worlds orbiting stars other than our own, a nuance not currently included in the formal definition of the term established in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union, or IAU. If the trio’s new definition pans out, thousands of celestial bodies across…
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A Colorado town threw a 100th birthday party for its pet space rock
The Johnstown meteorite, on loan from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of its fall. Credit: Richard Binzel On the evening of July 6, 1924, John Moore’s funeral was interrupted. A meteorite, trailing smoky plume, announced its arrival with a series of thunderous bangs. As the attendees…
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Scientists discover underground cave on the moon that could shelter astronauts on future trips to space
Scientists have confirmed a cave on the moon, not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago, and suspect there are hundreds more that could house future astronauts. An Italian-led team reported Monday that there’s evidence for a sizable cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon. It’s located…
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25 years of Space.com: Space exploration and astronomy in the 21st century (special report)
On July 20, 1999, Space.com opened its doors to chronicle humanity’s ongoing mission to understand the cosmos and explore the final frontier. A lot has happened in astronomy and spaceflight over the last 25 years. To celebrate our anniversary, Space.com is running a weeklong special report on some of our favorite topics of space exploration…
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Scientists create space plasmas at CERN
Producing plasma: A proton (far left) from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator at CERN impinges on carbon nuclei (small grey spheres). This produces a shower of various elementary particles, including a large number of neutral pions (orange spheres). As the unstable neutral pions decay, they emit two high-energy gamma rays (yellow squiggly arrows). These…
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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 shortlist
The Galaxy Devourer by ShaRA (Shared Remote Astrophotography) Team El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile “Is this the cosmic sandworm of Arrakis, from Dune, or the terrifying Graboid from the film Tremors?” ShaRa group member Alessandro Ravagnin asks. “CG4 (Cometary Globule 4) is a complex of nebulosity and dust with a very peculiar shape, located…
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Space photo of the week: Warped ‘penguin galaxy’ spotted by JWST is waddling toward certain doom
What it is: The galaxy duo Arp 142, also known as “the Penguin” and “the Egg” Where it is: About 325 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hydra When it was shared: July 12, 2024, the two-year anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first image release Why it’s so special: After two years…
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A Reporter Who Sees Meaning in the Stars
As a science reporter, Katrina Miller covers the cosmos, innovations in physics, space exploration and more. Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Katrina Miller was in her final year of a seven-year Ph.D. program in physics when she thought journalism might…