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NASA Tracking Asteroid
that could ruin valentine’s day in 2046
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Asteroid known as 2023 DW is 50 metres wide and has a 1-in-607 chance of striking Earth – but not for two decades at least.
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Telescope on Moon’s Far Side
will peer into universe’s dark ages
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The LuSEE-Night pathfinder is scheduled to launch a few years from now.
A few years from now, a small radio telescope on the far side of the moon could help scientists peer into the universe’s ancient past.
The moon instrument, called the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night), is a pathfinder being developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
LuSEE-Night is currently scheduled to launch on a private robotic lunar lander in late 2025. After it touches down on the moon’s far side, it will attempt to gather first-of-their-kind measurements from the “Dark Ages” of the universe.
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NASA Webb Telescope
Spots Giant Galaxies From Not Long After Big Bang
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“These objects are way more massive than anyone expected.”
Scientists used new observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to find a half dozen galaxies from not long after the Big Bang. The distant masses of stars are so gigantic they could force a rethink about the very origins of galaxies.
“These objects are way more massive than anyone expected,” Penn State astronomy professor Joel Leja, said in a statement. “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.”
The galaxies appear to be about 13 billion years old, meaning they were already mature just 500 million to 700 million years after the Big Bang.
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James Webb Space Telescope
spots galaxy from early universe rich in star formation
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‘We found this galaxy to be super-chemically abundant, something none of us expected.’
Using the JWST, astronomers were able to get a clearer view of SPT0418-47. Then they spotted a curious blob of light shining near the galaxy’s outer edge. As it turns out, the blob represents a companion galaxy previously overshadowed by the light of the foreground galaxy,
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James Webb Space Telescope
Searches for Life in Our Solar System
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Can NASA’s most powerful telescope detect key ingredients for life as we know it?
There are three places in our solar system, beyond Earth, that are good candidates to look for life: Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, Enceladus, and Titan, two of Saturn’s moons.
Watch the amazing video!
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Moon Trajectory
New Eye on the Universe
See the latest stunning images and discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope.
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In July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released its first images, looking further back in time than ever before to show our universe in stunningly beautiful detail. But that was just the beginning: With tons of new data and spectacular images flooding in, Webb is allowing scientists to peer deep in time to try to answer some of astronomy’s biggest questions. When – and how – did the first stars and galaxies form? And can we see the fingerprints of life in the atmospheres of distant worlds–or even within our own solar system?
Watch the amazing video!
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These Upcoming Missions to Deep Space
Have Us Stoked About the Future
By George Dvorsky — GIZMODO
From trips to Venus and Jupiter to investigations of asteroids and methane-soaked moons, the future of space exploration looks incredibly bright.
Our investigations of the final frontier have only just begun. Our immediate neighborhood—the solar system—has barely been touched by our species, with many places still grossly under-explored. Thankfully, a number of missions planned for the coming years and decades will help us to fill some of these gaps.
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NASA Prepares To Take the Plunge
and explore venus with davinci
By NASA — SciTechDaily
DAVINCI will send a meter-diameter probe to brave the high temperatures and pressures near Venus’ surface to explore the atmosphere from above the clouds to near the surface of a terrain that may have been a past continent. During its final kilometers of free-fall descent, the probe will capture spectacular images and chemistry measurements of the deepest atmosphere on Venus for the first time.
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International Space Station
fires thrusters to avoid collision with satellite
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The International Space Station had to maneuver out of the way of an Earth-imaging satellite on Monday (March 6).
At approximately 7:42 a.m. (12:42 GMT), thrusters on the Progress 83 resupply vessel currently docked with the International Space Station (ISS) fired for a little more than six minutes, raising the station’s orbit to prevent the potential collision with an Argentinian Earth-observation satellite launched in 2020
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China’s T-Shaped Tiangong Space Station
By Andrew Jones — Space.com
The country’s three Shenzhou 14 astronauts have entered the latest addition to their space station home.
The basic construction of China’s space station is complete, following a maneuver to shift the recently arrived Mengtian module to its permanent docking port.
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The Moon and Earth Viewed from Orion
NASA Moon Base Camp
By Justin Stabley — PBS News Hour
Less than 40 miles from the Grand Canyon, NASA has been testing what daily life on the moon might feel like, including the commute.
Along the barren, volcanic landscape of northern Arizona, NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) tried out a prototype last month for a pressurized lunar rover that will travel with the Artemis mission when astronauts eventually return to the lunar surface.
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Something Strange Is Going On
A different type of chaos
By University of California, Santa Barbara
Physicists have answered a longstanding question concerning interacting quantum particles in a disordered system. How do interparticle interactions impact dynamical localization? The question falls into the category of ‘many-body’ physics, which interrogates the physical properties of a quantum system with multiple interacting parts.
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A Decade in the Life of the Universe
a stunning time-lapse video
By Tereza Pultarova — SPACE.COM
Black holes gobbling gas, baby stars emerging within thick dust shrouds and old stars exploding in powerful supernovas: these are just a few of the types of events witnessed in a decade by NASA’s asteroid and comet explorer NEOWISE and released in a stunning new video.
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Black Holes Have Quantum Properties
dead and alive at the same time
By Tereza Pultarova — SPACE.COM
Black holes have properties characteristic of quantum particles, a new study reveals, suggesting that the puzzling cosmic objects can be at the same time small and big, heavy and light, or dead and alive, just like the legendary Schrödinger’s cat.
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the milky way galaxy
How Fast Is Gravity, Exactly?
By Don Lincoln — Big Think
- Throughout history, scientists have proposed many answers for the exact speed of gravity.
- Broadly speaking, the two main propositions have been that gravity is either infinitely fast or as fast as the speed of light.
- Thanks to observations of gravitational waves recorded in 2017, we now know that gravity and light travel at the same speed.
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Jupiter and his four friends
— Photo by adam james
The Moon Visits Jupiter
By Joe Rao — Space.com
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October moon
— photo by adam james
NASA’s Asteroid-Shifting DART Mission
Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains
By PBS NewsHour
NASA’s recent Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, known as DART, successfully altered the orbit of a planetary object for the first time ever. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and author of the new book “Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization,” joins Geoff Bennett for our Weekend Spotlight to discuss.
Watch the YouTube video!
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We’re Floating Through Space at Dizzying Speeds
where are you really?
By Derya Ozdemir — Interesting Engineering
If you’ve ever wondered about your place in the vast enormity of the universe, this video is for you. In its latest video, Kurzgesagt, which is known for its top-notch animations paired with existential questions and satisfying answers about our universe, takes you on a journey showing how we are hurtling through space at breakneck speeds.
Check out the amazing video!
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February moon
— photo by adam james
Worm Moon / Death Moon
By Gordon Johnston — NASA
The next full moon has many names including Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar, Worm, or Death Moon. Southern Native American tribes called it the Worm Moon because earthworm casts that appeared as the ground thawed at this time of year.
The next full moon will be Tuesday morning, March 7, 2023, appearing opposite the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 7:40 AM EST. This will be on Wednesday morning from Kamchatka and Fiji Time eastward to the International Date Line. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Sunday evening through Wednesday morning (and possibly early Wednesday evening).
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New Eye on the Universe
By Jennifer Robinson — NOVA
With tons of new data and spectacular images flooding in, scientists peer deep in time to answer some of astronomy’s biggest questions. How did the first stars and galaxies form? What role did supermassive black holes and dark matter play? And can we see the fingerprints of life in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets?
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Black Holes Are the Source of Dark Energy
By UK Science and Technology Facilities Council
Observations of supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies point to a likely source of dark energy – the ‘missing’ 70% of the Universe.
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What Does Dark Energy Look Like?
The mysterious substance ripping our universe apart.
By Greg Kestin — NOVA
In 1998, astronomers planned to discover whether the universe would expand forever or eventually collapse under its own gravity. What they found instead shattered every expectation: something was overpowering the pull of gravity and pushing the universe apart. They called it dark energy. But what is this invisible substance that makes up 70% of our universe? Find out in this episode of What the Physics?!
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The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
By Robert Lea — Space.com
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA’s future infrared space observatory that will attempt to tackle some of the most pressing questions in cosmology by addressing the mysteries of dark energy.
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Twisting Up Atoms Through Space and Time
By Dina Genkina — Joint Quantum Institute
One of the most exciting applications of quantum computers will be to direct their gaze inwards, at the very quantum rules that make them tick. Quantum computers can be used to simulate quantum physics itself, and perhaps even explore realms that don’t exist anywhere in nature.
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Bat-People on the Moon
what a famed 1835 hoax reveals about misinformation today
By Kirsty B. Carter — aeon
While the social media age may allow misinformation to spread like a highly contagious virus, ‘fake news’ is, of course, as old as the news itself. And, as The Great Moon Hoax chronicles, the Moon proved fertile ground for misinformation long before the persistent conspiracy theory that the Apollo landings were faked. In this short, the Australian journalist Kirsty B. Carter interviews the US writer Matthew Goodman who explains how a series of stories, originally intended as satire and published in 1835 in the New York paper The Sun, convinced millions that the Moon was teeming with life – including, infamously, a race of bat-people.
Watch the video!
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The Space Station Sprung a Leak
NASA and Russia just revealed why
By Elisha Sauers — Mashable
The hole is tiny, but significant.
A puncture from a speeding micrometeoroid smaller than a sharpened pencil tip has rendered a Russian spaceship at the International Space Station unfit to fly crew home, including one NASA astronaut.
Watch the video!
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Chinese Moon Mission
SAMPLE HAUL INCLUDES EXOTIC VOLCANIC ROCKS
By Robert Lea — Space.com
The rocks could provide vital information about the geological diversity of the moon’s surface and the processes that create its dust and dirt.
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How Long Does It Take to Get to Mars?
By — Space.com
We take a look at how long a trip to the Red Planet would take using available technology and explore some of the factors that would affect your travel time.
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Meteorites Brought Space Water to Earth
By Elizabeth Rayne — Space.com
Space rocks that fall to Earth are ancient time capsules, and scientists who merged two imaging techniques may be able to tell us if and how they brought water to Earth.
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Secret, Solar-Powered Space Plane
returns to earth after 908 days out there
By Joseph Muna — Science and Stuff
The U.S. Space Force has a top-secret, unmanned space plane that orbits the planet, conducting science experiments. Known as X-37B, the solar-powered space plane has just returned from its sixth mission, which took 908 days. That’s the longest it has ever been in orbit.
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James Webb Space Telescope
proves it’s value in the search for alien life
By Chris Impey and Daniel Apai — University of Arizona
To search for alien life, astronomers will search for clues in the atmospheres of distant planets – and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just proved it’s possible to do so.
The ingredients necessary for life are spread throughout the universe. While Earth is the only known place with life in the universe, detecting life beyond our planet is a major goal of modern astronomy and planetary science.
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Earth Spouts Biosignatures into Space
hinting that other life-bearing worlds may do the same
By Tereza Pultarova — Space.com
An unusual form of oxygen produced by plants and bacteria has been found up to 120 miles above Earth’s surface.
Unusual forms of oxygen created by living organisms has been found in space up to 120 miles above Earth’s surface, A new study hints at a potential new method for tracing life on other habitable planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
The new discovery was made by NASA’s now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a flying telescope mounted on an adapted Boeing 747. A recently published study describes how researchers used the telescope, which is sensitive to warmth-carrying infrared wavelengths of light, to detect so-called heavy atomic oxygen in upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere.
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Robots Are the Future of Exploration
the end of astronauts
A discussion between Martin Rees, the United Kingdom’s Astronomer Royal, and Donald Goldsmith, astrophysicist and science writer
Sending astronauts into space is arguably one of society’s most impressive scientific achievements. It’s a marvel of engineering, and it also taps into the human desire for exploration.
But just because we can send humans into space, should we? Robots are already good space explorers. And they’re only going to get smarter in the near future.
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18 Million Miles Per Hour
Star with the shortest orbital period around black hole discovered
By SciTech Daily
A newly discovered star only takes four years to travel around the black hole at the center of our Milky Way.
Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star, which travels around a black hole in record time. The star, S4716, orbits Sagittarius A*, the black hole in the center of our galaxy, in four years and reaches a speed of around 8,000 kilometers per second (5,000 miles per second) which is about 30 million kilometers per hour (18 million miles per hour).
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Starry Messenger
Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
![Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by [Neil deGrasse Tyson]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fd64RuwdL.jpg)
By Neil deGrasse Tyson
In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science.
After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.
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Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing
![Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing (Foundational Questions in Science) by [James Owen Weatherall]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T2/images/I/41X0djZxb5L.jpg)
By James Owen Weatherall
In this work, Weatherall takes on a fundamental concept of modern physics: nothing. The physics of stuff—protons, neutrons, electrons, and even quarks and gluons—is at least somewhat familiar to most of us. But what about the physics of nothing?
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The End of Everything
(Astrophysically Speaking)
![The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) by [Katie Mack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T2/images/I/51j0s6E0kjL.jpg)
By Katie Mack
We know the universe had a beginning. With the Big Bang, it expanded from a state of unimaginable density to an all-encompassing cosmic fireball to a simmering fluid of matter and energy, laying down the seeds for everything from black holes to one rocky planet orbiting a star near the edge of a spiral galaxy that happened to develop life as we know it.
But what happens to the universe at the end of the story?
And what does it mean for us now?
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