Nasa has released a mesmerising timelapse video of the sun that condenses an entire solar cycle into an hour of footage, using images of the star taken every hour continuously over a decade. Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the sun, from its launch in February 2010 until June this […]
Read MoreCategory: Space
How aliens could use black holes to power an intergalactic civilization
Remember when I warned everyone that humans would probably destroy all life in the universe like construction workers killing ant colonies to make way for a never-ending series of cosmic strip malls? A team of researchers from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow in Scotland has me concerned that we […]
Read More
A mysterious planet may be hiding at the edge of our solar system
A mysterious planet — called Planet 9 or Planet X — may be hiding at the edge of our solar system. Will we ever find this world? Planet nine may be orbiting far from the Sun, at the edge of our solar system. Astronomers, seeing odd irregularities in the orbits of the outer planets suspect […]
Read More
Space exploration is expensive, but it’s worth the price
I am one of the few African-American aerospace engineers who helped design the Apollo spaceships that took men to the Moon. My great-grandfather was a slave in Claiborne, Alabama, who used primitive tools to work the land. My father was born in Alabama before the Wright brothers made mankind’s first flight. He lived to see […]
Read More
Super-puff worlds: These Jupiter-sized planets are light as cotton candy
Astronomers once believed that most solar systems would be much like our own, with small rocky planets near their sun, accompanied by gas giants orbiting the star at greater distances. Beginning in 1992, researchers began to find worlds orbiting alien stars, and soon found solar systems came in a wide variety of formations. Today, astronomers […]
Read MoreBeyond Pluto: the hunt for our solar system’s new ninth planet
You’d think that if you found the first evidence that a planet larger than the Earth was lurking unseen in the furthest reaches of our solar system, it would be a big moment. It would make you one of only a small handful of people in all of history to have discovered such a thing. […]
Read More
The story of Ed Dwight: the man who nearly became the first African-American to reach space
Born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1933, Dwight’s father, Ed Dwight, Sr, played second base for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. His mother, Georgia Baker Dwight, encouraged the boy from a young age, and Ed Jr. became an avid reader, able to work well with his hands — including creating art, a […]
Read More
The oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be habitable, according to NASA
Europa clipper The Europa Clipper from NASA is scheduled to be the next spacecraft to explore Europa. Image credit: NASA Several spacecraft have, so far, ventured to the neighborhood of this enigmatic satellite of Jupiter. Pioneer 10 was the first to glimpse Europa as it passed by Jupiter, but the craft was too distant to […]
Read More
NASA enlists AI in the hunt for ET
The ExoMars mission to find life on Mars moved a step closer to take-off this week after NASA unveiled the first results of an AI system that will support the search. The former Space Race rivals of Russia and the US plan to use AI to scan rocks on the Red Planet for signs of life. Eventually, […]
Read MoreUK poised to invest £500m in satellite rival to EU’s Galileo system
Britain has begun the process of purchasing its own satellite navigation system for defence and critical national infrastructure purposes, according to reports. The Times says Boris Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, signed off on the purchase of a 20% stake in satellite operator OneWeb on Thursday night, after the UK was unable to access […]
Read More
This Is How Fast A Tesla Roadster Equipped With SpaceX Thrusters Looks Like
Ever wondered how fast a car could potentially go if it had rocket thrusters installed on them? We’re not sure how safe it would be, but thanks to @Pslavi on Twitter, he has put together a concept video that uses a bit of video editing to imagine how fast a Tesla Roadster could go (and […]
Read MoreSpacewatch: China launches last BeiDou satellite to rival GPS
China launched the final satellite of its BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province at 9.43am local time (0243 BST) on 23 June 2020. Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, the satellite is the 30th in the constellation, and was carried into space by a Long […]
Read More
Russia plans to take first tourist on space walk in 2023
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Russia’s Energia space corporation said Thursday it will take the first tourist on a space walk in 2023, under the terms of a new contract with a US partner. Energia has inked a contract with Space Adventures, which promises to take two space tourists to the International Space Station that year. […]
Read MoreDrain brain: Nasa offers prize money for best lunar loo design
“It certainly isn’t the prime focus of the mission,” said Nasa’s Mike Interbartolo. “We’re not going back to the moon so we can say we pooped on the moon, but we don’t want an Apollo situation either.” Interbartolo, is project manager for the Lunar Loo Challenge, a Nasa competition launched on Thursday that hopes to […]
Read More
Drones help calibrate radio telescope at Brookhaven Lab
To calibrate the BMX radio telescope, researchers mounted a small radio source to a quadcopter drone and then flew it over the telescope, making a zig-zag pattern over the telescope’s entire field of view. By comparing the drone’s known flight path from GPS signals to the radio signals picked up by BMX, the researchers are […]
Read More
Hubble sees a cosmic flapping ‘Bat Shadow’
Sometimes nicknames turn out to be closer to reality than you might imagine.
Read MoreBlack holes may merge with light of a trillion suns, scientists say
When black holes collide, the ensuing cosmic drama was assumed to play out under the cloak of darkness, given that both objects are invisible. But now astronomers believe they have made the first optical observations of such a merger, marked by a blaze of light a trillion times brighter than the sun. The flare was […]
Read More
Photo Release: Hubble Watches the “Flapping” of Cosmic Bat Shadow
heic2012 — Photo Release 25 June 2020 The young star HBC 672 is known by its nickname of Bat Shadow because of its wing-like shadow feature. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has now observed a curious “flapping” motion in the shadow of the star’s disc for the first time. The star resides in a stellar […]
Read More
Oceans on alien worlds are more common than you think, study reveals
Some like it hot Another quality to look for when searching for worlds with liquid water (and potentially life) is heat — needed to melt ice and drive chemical reactions. This planetary heat typically comes from two sources — radiogenic heat, driven by radioactive decay inside a planet, and tidal forces, the stretching of planets and […]
Read More
China finally completes its own GPS-like navigation system
Yesterday, China launched its 30th and last satellite to complete its own global navigation system BeiDou. The country started the program in the 1990s to launch the first phase. The latest satellite launch is part of the third phase of the program that began in 2015. The launch was initially scheduled for June 16, however it was […]
Read More
A mysterious space signal has been going for over 500 days — and no one knows why
A source of repeating radio waves seen from one point in the sky presents astronomers with numerous mysteries. The source of this signal, where radiation builds and ebbs over a period of 16 days, remains a question. The longevity of these cycles — now seen continuing for over 500 days — could either present another […]
Read More
Life inside Pluto: hot birth may have created internal ocean on dwarf planet
Pluto, along with many other dwarf planets in the outer solar system, is often thought of as dark, icy and barren – with a surface temperature of just −230°C. But now a new study, published in Nature Geoscience, suggests that the body has had a warm interior ever since it formed, and may still have […]
Read MoreChina launches final satellite in Beidou navigation system to rival GPS
China has launched the final satellite in its Beidou constellation that emulates the US Global Positioning System (GPS), marking a further step in the country’s advance as a major space power. The launch of the satellite onboard a Long March-3 rocket was broadcast live from the satellite launch base of Xichang on Tuesday, deep in […]
Read MoreChina launches final Beidou satellite to complete GPS-like navigation system
China successfully launched the final member in its Beidou satellite constellation Tuesday (June 23) completing a new global navigation system decades in the making. A Long March 3B rocket launched the final Beidou Navigation Satellite (BDS) into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. Liftoff occurred at 9:43 a.m. Beijing time (9:43 […]
Read More
Virgin Galactic will work with NASA to train private astronauts for orbital spaceflights
NASA is joining forces with Virgin Galactic to support the future of space tourism. On Monday (June 22), NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas penned a Space Act Agreement with the spaceflight company Virgin Galactic to develop a “private orbital astronaut readiness program.” This initiative is among NASA’s efforts to increase commercial use of the […]
Read More
NASA wants to send astronauts on private suborbital spaceflights
NASA’s chief says he wants to step up flight opportunities for astronauts. In a tweet Friday (June 19), NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said his space agency plans to drop a request for information (RFI) next week to fly astronauts on commercial suborbital spacecraft. “Whether it’s suborbital, orbital, or deep space, NASA will utilize our nation’s […]
Read MoreAstronaut-aquanaut connects with space station after deep sea dive
Kathy Sullivan, the first astronaut to dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, and pilot Victor Vescovo speak to the crew aboard the International Space Station, including NASA astronauts Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Chris Cassidy, while at sea aboard the DSSV Pressure Drop ship on June 7, 2020. (Image credit: Caladan Oceanic/NASA […]
Read MoreSee the moon’s shadow on Earth from the ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse in amazing space views
A “ring of fire” solar eclipse crossed over Africa and Asia this weekend, and the view from space was spectacular. A NASA astronaut living and working in space and a host of weather satellites all spotted the dramatic event as the moon’s shadow passed over Earth’s surface. Although the solar eclipse wasn’t visible from North […]
Read MoreSurprise! Pluto may have had an underground ocean from the very beginning
Though Pluto is now famously frigid, it may have started off as a hot world that formed rapidly and violently, a new study finds. This result suggests Pluto may have possessed an underground ocean since early on in its life, potentially improving its chances of hosting life, researchers said. Previous work assumed Pluto originated from […]
Read More
AI could help astronomers unravel the mystery of dark matter
Your lab results are in… Readying for the study, the neural networks were loaded with data simulating the Universe. These dark matter maps were repeatedly analyzed by the neural network, which extracted as much information as they could from the data. Over time, the AI improved its ability to recognize and differentiate one feature from another. The neural networks eventually […]
Read MoreZodiacal Light meets the Milky Way in stunning night sky photo
This vertical panorama, composed of four images, shows a strong zodiacal light coming from the region where planet Venus was located, in the western sky of Pampilhosa da Serra, Dark Sky Aldeias do Xisto, Portugal. (Image credit: Miguel Claro) Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular […]
Read More