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SpaceX’s Starship makes first successful reentry from space
Starship lifts off June 6 on its fourth test flight from SpaceX’s launch facility at Boca Chica, Texas. Credit: SpaceX. SpaceX’s Starship’s upper stage survived the fires of reentry to make a first-ever successful controlled landing, splashing down in the Indian Ocean this morning (June 6) — but not without drama, suffering damage to one…
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Why do photos of Earth from the Moon show an inky, black sky with no stars?
This view of Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon was taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Credit: NASA. Why do pictures of Earth taken from the Moon show a black sky with no stars? Can the stars only be seen with an atmosphere? Farris W. Bruce Hesperia, California The simple answer to your question is…
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NASA, Global Astronomers Await Rare Nova Explosion
Around the world this summer, professional and amateur astronomers alike will be fixed on one small constellation deep in the night sky. But it’s not the seven stars of Corona Borealis, the “Northern Crown,” that have sparked such fascination. It’s a dark spot among them where an impending nova event – so bright it will…
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1st telescope removed from controversial astronomy hub on Hawaiian volcano
For the first time, a telescope on the Hawaiian volcano Maunakea has been fully decommissioned — it was dismantled, removed, and its site was restored to previous conditions. The effort comes under an agreement between the University of Hawaii and the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, designed to smooth tensions over the construction of a…
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope will function with one gyro
The Hubble Space Telescope above Earth, as taken in 2009 after its servicing mission. Credit: NASA After repeated interruptions due to a faltering gyroscope, the Hubble Space Telescope will transition to operating using only one gyroscope, NASA announced June 4. The telescope’s set of gyros helps measure and control the telescope’s attitude, or orientation, and…
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The JWST is Re-Writing Astronomy Textbooks
When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched at the end of 2021, we expected stunning images and illuminating scientific results. So far, the powerful space telescope has lived up to our expectations. The JWST has shown us things about the early Universe we never anticipated. Some of those results are forcing a rewrite of…
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Oleg Kononenko reaches a record-setting 1,000 days in space
Oleg Kononenko floats through the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station in 2008. Credit: NASA. As Moscow’s clocks tick past midnight to welcome Wednesday, June 5, the world heralds a new hero: a man who already is a national icon in Russia and his homeland Turkmenistan. Six decades after Yuri Gagarin first conquered space,…
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Boeing Starliner launches NASA astronauts on mission to the ISS
The ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and Starliner spacecraft launches on June 5 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credit: NASA. Update: After two previous postponements, NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams are headed to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of NASA’s Boeing Starliner Crew Flight…
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Unusual space signals detected in Western Australia upend what we know about neutron stars
Astronomers in Australia have observed a neutron star spinning more slowly than any other previously detected. Details of the “highly unusual” neutron star’s discovery is published in Nature Astronomy. There have been more than 3,000 radio-emitting neutron stars discovered. The newly found star’s spin is well outside what astrophysicists predict of neutron star behaviour. Neutron…
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An emission-state-switching radio transient with a 54-minute period
Abstract Long-period radio transients are an emerging class of extreme astrophysical events of which only three are known. These objects emit highly polarized, coherent pulses of typically a few tens of seconds duration, and minutes to approximately hour-long periods. Although magnetic white dwarfs and magnetars, either isolated or in binary systems, have been invoked to…