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Boeing’s Starliner launch – delayed again – will be an important milestone for commercial spaceflight
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…
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Black hole collision ‘alerts’ could notify astronomers within 30 seconds of detection
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…
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China launches Chang’e-6 mission to return samples from the Moon’s far side
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…
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First Friday Astronomy: NASA’s Cold Atom Lab: Six Years of Quantum Science on the International Space Station
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.…
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Fluidic telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the next generation of large space observatories
Artist’s depiction of the Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE). Credit: Edward Balaban The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first generation stars, and early galaxies, are all extremely faint, which presents an ongoing challenge for current missions and is the opportunity space for next generation telescopes:…
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NASA’s tests liquid mirror tech for massive space telescopes
Artist’s depiction of the Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE)NASA The next generation of space-based astronomy hinges on telescopes with colossal apertures. The most critical astrophysics targets, such as Earth-like exoplanets, first-generation stars, and early galaxies, are all incredibly faint. This faintness presents a continuous challenge for current missions and opens up opportunities for next-generation telescopes. Larger telescopes…
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Astronomers close in on the mystery of the erupting Orion star system (video)
Astronomers have puzzled for 88 years about how a pair of binary stars have continued to erupt over the course of a century, but it seems the mystery has finally been solved. The double star system FU Orionis (FU Ori), located around 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Orion, first stunned astronomers in…
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Space scientist becomes new RAS president
An award-winning physicist who specialises in the cutting-edge study of space weather, the Northern Lights and solar radiation has become the new president of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). Professor Mike Lockwood, of the University of Reading, starts his two-year term in the role after taking over from Cardiff University emeritus professor Mike Edmunds. His…
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What lies beneath: unearthing the secret interior lives of planets
Ian Randall reviews What’s Hidden Inside Planets? by Sabine Stanley <a href="https://physicsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-05-Randall-Earth-core-1199314969-iStock_AlexLMX.jpg" data-fancybox data-src="https://physicsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-05-Randall-Earth-core-1199314969-iStock_AlexLMX.jpg" data-caption="Hidden depths We have sent probes to the furthest reaches of the solar system, but much of what lies beneath our feet remains a mystery. (Courtesy: iStock/AlexLMX)”> Hidden depths We have sent probes to the furthest reaches of the solar system,…
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Dusty ‘Cat’s Paw Nebula’ contains a type of molecule never seen in space — and it’s one of the largest ever found
Researchers have detected an unusually large, previously undetected molecule in the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a star-forming region about 5,500 light-years from Earth. At 13 atoms, the compound, called 2-methoxyethanol, is one of the largest molecules ever identified outside our solar system, the scientists reported April 12 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. We often think of…
