Current theories of the Moon’s formation favor both the Earth and Moon forming from the debris created by the collision of a Mars-sized world with the proto-Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. New research, however, suggests that the Moon later underwent a second melting event that reset the apparent age of many geological samples. Credit: … Read more
Skeleton Crew continues to be the rare sort of on-screen Star Wars that’s content with just doing its own thing. Somehow, we’re already at the halfway point of the season, and while we’re still crossing our fingers that a deepfaked Luke Skywalker doesn’t show up to derail this fun romp with a link to the … Read more
New research suggests that a troubling disparity in the rate of expansion of the universe, known as the Hubble constant, may arise from the fact Earth sits in a vast underdense region of the cosmos. The issue has come to be known as the “Hubble tension.” It arises from the fact that there are two … Read more
WASHINGTON — Axiom Space is revising the assembly sequence for its commercial space station, a move it says will allow it to get to a free-flying station sooner while addressing NASA’s needs to prepare for the deorbiting of the International Space Station. The company announced Dec. 18 a revised sequence of modules it will deploy … Read more
This is a customer submitted press release. Submit your press release. Gothenburg, Sweden (16 December 2024) – Under a newly signed contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), Frontgrade Gaisler is leading an ambitious initiative to secure European sovereignty in advanced semiconductor technologies for space applications. This project aims to develop foundational technology for some … Read more
Even if you knew nothing about astronomy, you’d understand that exploding stars are forceful and consequential events. How could they not be? Supernovae play a pivotal role in the Universe with their energetic, destructive demises. There are different types of supernovae exploding throughout the Universe, with different progenitors and different remnants. The Zwicky Transient Facility … Read more
This image gazes toward the heart of the Milky Way, in the direction of its core. Credit: ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard) Veiled in gas and clouds, the Milky Way’s center does not easily give up secrets. The initial detection of its supermassive black hole (SMBH) decades ago posed as many riddles as it solved, including the … Read more
Pearl Young, second from left, at the NACA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1927. Credit NASA Langley Archives Thirteen years before any other woman joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics – or the NACA, NASA’s predecessor – in a technical role, a young lab assistant named Pearl Young was making waves in the agency. Her legacy … Read more
It is robotic moon machinery on steroids. Tagged as the Endurance sample return mission, it would collect bits and pieces from key lunar locations for later retrieval by future astronauts in NASA’s Artemis program. Furthermore, high-value collectibles snagged from those distant spots would be hauled back to Earth by astronauts. NASA has begun blueprinting the … Read more
WASHINGTON — In a mission veiled in secrecy, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Dec. 16 at 7:52 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, sending a military Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to a medium orbit about 12,000 miles above Earth. Named Rapid Response Trailblazer-1 (RRT-1), this mission was a U.S. … Read more