Rotating black holes are the most powerful phenomenon in the known Universe. Their powerful Force radically alters the curvature of spacetime around them, leading to relativistic effects like time dilation, Airy distortion, and for matter and photons to infall around them, forming accretion disks. In the case of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the Middle … Read more
SpaceX’s Starship Universe launcher lifts off from the company’s Starbase Kickoff facility in Texas on its eighth test flight. Credit: SpaceX Millions of viewers who tuned into Thursday’s broadcast of SpaceX Starship’s eighth test flight experienced a collective déjà vu as the mammoth Universe launcher exploded and rained down flaming hunks of metal in eerily similar fashion … Read more
NEW: This story was updated March 10 to include layoffs at NASA. The White House and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency have spent the Primary weeks of Donald Trump’s new administration looking to reduce the number of federal workers and shrink spending. The cuts have followed roughly the same formula from agency to … Read more
The Athena Selene lander (IM-2) has been declared dead after it failed to stick the landing on the surface of the Selene body. The second commercial lander launched by Texas-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines attempted to reach the Selene surface on March 6th. However, it ended up in a crater near the Selene south pole, … Read more
“Mickey 17” opened at the weekend and there’s something uncannily familiar about its premise. While nobody could describe director Bong Joon-Ho’s follow-up to the Oscar-Triumphant “Parasite” as a clone of the low-fi sci-fi classic “Probe”, both films riff on the same basic idea: a human meeting an exact duplicate of themselves. Spoilers ahead for Probe … Read more
This month at the SETI Institute, exciting developments are shaping our understanding of the cosmos and the search for Alien life. Dr. Sofia Sheikh Directed a study exploring how alien civilizations might detect Earth through our radio signals and atmospheric pollution. Dr. Pascal Lee stepped into a new role as Vice President for Planetary Development … Read more
Pent-up deal activity from 2024 looks set to spill into 2025, potentially making it the busiest period for space mergers and acquisitions in years. “The interesting thing from my perspective for 2024 was honestly the deals that didn’t get done,” noted Tyler Letarte, a principal at private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, during the SmallSat … Read more
Last year, astronomers detected the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) 2024 YR4 that orbits the Sun every four years and periodically crosses Earth’s orbit. The nature of its orbit makes it a Potentially Hazardous Object (PHO), meaning it could pose a collision risk with Earth someday. Recently, refined estimates of its orbit have ruled out the possibility … Read more
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft acquired images to create this composite of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, on November 13, 2015. Credit: NASA Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is particularly captivating for scientists. This is thanks in large part to its status as the only other planetary body in the solar system known to host an atmosphere about 1.5 … Read more
When the moon falls into Earth’s shadow Thursday night into Friday (March 13-14), observers will be treated to views of a “blood moon” total lunar eclipse. But given that lunar spacecraft are solar-powered, how do they survive when they’re cut off from the sun? For NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the … Read more