Muhammad Mirza 
The great solar storm of May 2024, which sparked beautiful auroral displays over much of the world, also created two new radiation belts that were observed with a satellite that came back from the dead. “This is really stunning,” Xinlin Li, a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of … Read more
Astronomers are expressing disappointment and alarm as the federally-funded Rubin Observatory altered the biography of renowned astronomer Vera Rubin, for whom the facility is named, on its website. The amended version curtails her legacy of championing women in science and removes all mentions of the observatory’s efforts to reduce barriers for women and other historically … Read more
U.S. military officials are scrambling to upgrade decades-old systems that track objects in space — a critical capability they say is falling dangerously behind modern threats — as thousands of new satellites crowd Earth’s orbit and rival powers demonstrate increasingly sophisticated space capabilities. Military leaders and industry experts warn that this Cold War-era tracking infrastructure … Read more
Embarking on a Northern Lights cruise is one of those bucket-list voyages we always dream of. If 2025 is the year you finally decide to tick that off your list and explore the stunning Norwegian coast, Hurtigruten offers some unbelievable cruises for travel addicts, astronomy buffs and culture lovers. And for a limited time, enjoy … Read more
Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge posted the wonderful images of Wisdom and her new chick on Facebook on February 7 and 9, 2025. Wisdom is the world’s oldest known wild bird, at approximately age 74. You can tell it’s Wisdom from her well-known leg band, number Z333. Biologists first identified and banded Wisdom … Read more
What would happen if Earth were struck by another catastrophic asteroid? While such an event would be devastating, researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea wondered specifically how Earth’s climate and ecosystems might change in the aftermath of such an impact. They calculated that there is … Read more
An annual safety report to NASA has both praise for the agency and also underscores a number of cautionary woes, including the space agency’s undertaking of the Artemis back-to-the-moon with humans campaign. The annual report from the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) has been released. The report observes that NASA has made impressive progress. Challenges … Read more
Having launched on January 9, 2024 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Einstein Probe detected several new events during its commissioning phase. Last October, Yuan Weimin, the spacecraft’s principle investigator, told China Central Television that the X-ray observatory had already discovered around 60 very strong transient celestial objects, close to a thousand potential transients, … Read more
Back to Article List Although classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, Bennu probably won’t hit Earth. But this study shows the damage a mid-sized space rock of its kind could do. Asteroid Bennu is a rubble pile-type asteroid that was visited by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which took the images used in this composite photo. Credit: … Read more
Scientists have been arguing about a curious topic recently: Did temperatures on the moon dip due to the world’s Covid-19 lockdown? Last year, a pair of researchers claimed that the shockwaves of the shutdown could be felt as far as the moon, causing a slight dip in lunar surface temperatures. Now, a new paper disputes … Read more