Category: Space and Astronomy

  • Meteorites Were A Likely Source Of Nitrogen For Early Earth

    Meteorites Were A Likely Source Of Nitrogen For Early Earth

    a, Backscattered electron image of a fine Ryugu grain. The white boxes correspond to the areas shown in b and c. b, Secondary electron image of framboidal magnetite showing granular texture. c, Secondary electron image of porous iron sulfide surrounded by phyllosilicate. The arrow points to an iron whisker on the iron sulfide surface. Sample…

  • Kolkata: Museum of Space Science to allow public visits from Sunday

    Kolkata: Museum of Space Science to allow public visits from Sunday

    PTI | Dec 02, 2023 09:13 PM IST Share Via Copy Link A single ticket for the museum visit has been priced at ₹100. Schools buying 100 tickets will get a discount of ₹20 for each ticket. The Museum of Astronomy and Space Science in Kolkata, which was inaugurated by Astronaut Rakesh Sharma in October,…

  • This Week In Space podcast: Episode 89 — Who’s in Charge in Space?

    On Episode 89 of This Week In Space, Tariq and Rod discuss the challenges of regulating spaceflight. With an increase in commercial and private spaceflight comes the need to regulate it, and the FAA has had a major role in newspace flight rules to date… but should it be the primary regulator moving ahead? Many…

  • Where did the water on Mars go?

    Where did the water on Mars go?

    Valles Marineris, the grand canyon of Mars, slices its way across this view of the Red Planet made with the Viking Orbiter 1. Credit: NASA In movies, Matt Damon can grow potatoes on the Red Planet. But in reality, Mars is an extremely hostile environment. We know of only a single abode that suits fragile…

  • Amazon Taps SpaceX For Kuiper Launch

    An anonymous reader writes: Amazon just inked a deal with chief competitor and Elon Musk-helmed SpaceX to launch internet-beaming satellites — a move that comes even as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pursues his own space dreams with his own rocket company, Blue Origin, and as SpaceX builds its own internet constellation. While Musk and Bezos…

  • Amazon Taps SpaceX For Kuiper Launch

    An anonymous reader writes: Amazon just inked a deal with chief competitor and Elon Musk-helmed SpaceX to launch internet-beaming satellites — a move that comes even as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pursues his own space dreams with his own rocket company, Blue Origin, and as SpaceX builds its own internet constellation. While Musk and Bezos…

  • The light echoes of Black Holes

    In the center of a typical galaxy lies a “supermassive” black hole, a beast several millions of times more massive than our own Sun. While light that is fully engulfed by one of these monsters will never escape, hence the name “black hole”, the surrounding neighborhood can in some cases be dramatically bright.  In these so-called…

  • The light echoes of Black Holes

    In the center of a typical galaxy lies a “supermassive” black hole, a beast several millions of times more massive than our own Sun. While light that is fully engulfed by one of these monsters will never escape, hence the name “black hole”, the surrounding neighborhood can in some cases be dramatically bright.  In these so-called…

  • Where did I put that? Astronauts who lost a tool bag can’t get it back because it’s in orbit

    Where did I put that? Astronauts who lost a tool bag can’t get it back because it’s in orbit

    A bag of tools that drifted away from astronauts on Nov. 1 while on a maintenance spacewalk outside the International Space Station is in a slowing orbit around the Earth – and for now is giving stargazers an extra artificial object to look for in the night sky. During a spacewalk that lasted six hours…

  • JWST detects methane in atmosphere of blistering hot WASP-80 b

    JWST detects methane in atmosphere of blistering hot WASP-80 b

    An artist’s rendering of the warm exoplanet WASP-80 b whose color may appear bluish to human eyes due to the lack of high-altitude clouds and the presence of atmospheric methane identified by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, similar to the planets Uranus and Neptune in our own solar system. Image credit: NASA. The James Webb…