Space & Spaceflight

NASA Delays Flagship Space Telescope Mission Once Again

Is this dang telescope ever going to launch? NASA has announced that, once again, it will be pushing back the launch date of the much-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope. Just a few months ago, NASA announced in a press release that it would push the launch back, from late 2018 to early 2019. Now, the…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Here Is FEMA’s Plan If the Falling Chinese Satellite Takes Aim at a US City

China’s defunct space station Tiangong-1 will soon plummet toward Earth, likely this weekend. You will almost certainly not be harmed in any way by it—the odds of it striking an individual person are worse than winning the lottery or being struck by lightning. You should not worry about it. But we’re humans. We’re all probably…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Rare Type of Supernova Extinguishes Star at Unprecedented Speed

Supernovae produce some of the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, expelling a doomed star’s contents at velocities reaching 10 percent the speed of light. It usually takes a few weeks or months for a supernova to fade into nothingness, but astronomers have now documented a record-setting case in which a star was extinguished in…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Giant Planet Orbiting a Brown Dwarf Spotted, Re-Opening Debate Over What Makes a Planet

Scientists have discovered a planet a lot like Jupiter orbiting a dim star, if you can even call it a star—it’s nothing like our sun. The finding once again makes us wonder: what is a planet, anyway? A team of researchers from two collaborations, KMTNet and the OGLE, or Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, announced their…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Six Months After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s Famous Telescope Is Still Under Threat

ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO—The drive to the Arecibo Observatory from San Juan is breathtaking in both beauty and treachery. The hour-long journey follows a roller-coaster-like path of humps and switchbacks through the dense tropical forest on what should be, but is not, a one-way road. Houses remain covered in tarps, awaiting repairs to their storm-ravaged roofs, and…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Soyuz Rocket With Three ISS-Bound Astronauts Heads Into Orbit

Earlier today, a Soyuz MS-08 rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying with it two NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut bound for the International Space Station. Here’s what they’ll be up to for the next five months. The rocket launched at 1:44 pm ET today, or 11:44 pm Baikonur time, successfully…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

Around the same time our ancestors left Africa, a dim red dwarf star came to within 0.8 light-years of our Sun, marking the closest known flyby of a star to our Solar System. New research suggests Scholz’s Star, as it’s known, left traces of this interstellar encounter by perturbing some comets in the outer Oort…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

The ‘Oumuamua Asteroid Likely Came From a Tatooine-Like Star System

Last October, astronomers detected the very first interstellar object, an asteroid dubbed ‘Oumuamua. New research suggests this visitor from afar likely came from a binary star system, and that astronomers should be on the lookout for both interstellar asteroids and comets. Traveling at a mind-bending speed of 67,100 miles per hour (the equivalent of mach…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Instead of Nuking an Asteroid Headed Toward Earth, We Could Just Splash It With Paint

Recent headlines have contained lots of asteroid-nuking talk. There’s a team of Russian scientists zapping mini asteroids in their lab, and supposedly NASA is thinking about a plan that would hypothetically involve nuking Bennu should it threaten Earth in 2135. It’s true that NASA is drafting up ideas on how one might nuke an incoming…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Whoever Stole This Meteorite From a Science Museum Really Should Have Googled It First

Police are searching for the thief, or thieves, who stole a meteorite from the Science Museum of Virginia last week. In most circumstances, a science museum heist to steal celestial space dust would sound like a plot for the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War or even Ocean’s Eight. This is not one of those circumstances: Museum…

Space & Spaceflight Sidney Fussell

Russian Scientists Are Devising a Plan to Nuke Asteroids

You may have thought, “Hey, if we’re threatened by an incoming asteroid, we should just nuke it!” You’re not alone: a team of Russian scientists are working on a plot to do so, by detonating miniature asteroids in a lab. In fact, several groups of researchers are now toying with the idea of asteroid nuking…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Astronaut Scott Kelly’s DNA Did Not ‘Change in Space’ the Way You Think

It seems like pure science fiction. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly goes to space for nearly a year, comes back, and suddenly has turned into a mutant with different DNA from his twin. As Newsweek wrote, his DNA “changed in space.” Except that’s not what happened. The saga began last week with the Newsweek story, covering…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Has Only a Few Months to Live

The space-based telescope responsible for detecting 2,245 exoplanets, and another 2,342 yet to be confirmed, is running out of fuel and may have just a few months left before its lights go out. The Kepler spacecraft will go down in history as one of the greatest astronomical tools ever used to scan the heavens. “Our…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

NASA Acting Administrator Announces Retirement With Bridenstine Still Unconfirmed

NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot told NASA employees that he will retire on April 30, according to a memo acquired by space policy analyst Marcia Smith. Lightfoot has served as the Acting Administrator since the Trump presidency began on January 20, 2017, succeeding Obama-era appointee Charles Bolden. Lightfoot is was only supposed to serve until the…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Dark Matter May Not Solve This Galactic Mystery After All

Physicists would love to find hints of dark matter to explain the parts of the universe we just haven’t been able to figure out. Dark matter would neatly explain the strange behaviors of galaxies and oddly bent light in our universe. But a new paper may have snuffed out dark matter as a candidate for…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

The Hubble Space Telescope Captured This Beautiful Image of Two Galaxies Merging

NASA and the European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope has been in low Earth orbit for nearly 28 years, but with several repairs and upgrades over the decades it’s still sending back beautiful images. Just a few days ago, the ESA released this Hubble image of a pair of barred spiral galaxies some 350 million…

Space & Spaceflight Tom McKay

California Startup Accused of Launching Unauthorized Satellites Into Orbit: Report [Updated]

The US Federal Communications Commission says Swarm Technologies—a communications startup run by Silicon Valley expats—launched four tiny internet satellites into space back in January. That’s a problem because the FCC never greenlighted the project, saying the experimental satellites are dangerous. If confirmed, it would mark the first known time in history that unauthorized satellites have…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

NASA Wants to Fly Your Name Into the Sun

The fine folks at NASA are sending a spacecraft to the Sun, and they want to send a little piece of you along with it. Here’s how to get your name on the ultimate “fry” list. A memory chip containing a list of submitted names will be inserted into the Parker Solar Probe, which is…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky

Scientists Observe Red Giant Waking Up Neutron Star in a Flash

Neutron stars aren’t the twinkle-twinkle kind you typically see in the night sky. They’re stellar corpses, and incredibly dense sources of gravity, with perhaps 1.5 times the mass of the sun packed into an area less than a dozen miles across. Around 9,000 light years away from Earth, one neutron star seems to have befriended…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

New Observations Reveal a Dramatic Web Structure Inside the Orion Nebula

Perhaps the most recognizable constellation in the night sky is Orion the hunter. Look closely at the three bright orbs lined up below his belt—his sword. The middle one isn’t a star, but an entire nebula, and parts of it have been invisible to researchers until recently. Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum

NASA Delays Flagship Space Telescope Mission Once Again

Here Is FEMA’s Plan If the Falling Chinese Satellite Takes Aim at a US City

Rare Type of Supernova Extinguishes Star at Unprecedented Speed

Giant Planet Orbiting a Brown Dwarf Spotted, Re-Opening Debate Over What Makes a Planet

Six Months After Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s Famous Telescope Is Still Under Threat

Soyuz Rocket With Three ISS-Bound Astronauts Heads Into Orbit

A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago

The ‘Oumuamua Asteroid Likely Came From a Tatooine-Like Star System

Instead of Nuking an Asteroid Headed Toward Earth, We Could Just Splash It With Paint

Whoever Stole This Meteorite From a Science Museum Really Should Have Googled It First

Russian Scientists Are Devising a Plan to Nuke Asteroids

Astronaut Scott Kelly’s DNA Did Not ‘Change in Space’ the Way You Think

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Has Only a Few Months to Live

NASA Acting Administrator Announces Retirement With Bridenstine Still Unconfirmed

Dark Matter May Not Solve This Galactic Mystery After All

The Hubble Space Telescope Captured This Beautiful Image of Two Galaxies Merging

California Startup Accused of Launching Unauthorized Satellites Into Orbit: Report [Updated]

NASA Wants to Fly Your Name Into the Sun

Scientists Observe Red Giant Waking Up Neutron Star in a Flash

New Observations Reveal a Dramatic Web Structure Inside the Orion Nebula

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