NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft conducted the first and only flyby of the Pluto system, culminating at the closest approach of that distant world in July 2015. Sailing onward, the probe carried out a Jan. 1, 2019 flyby of Arrokoth, a Kuiper Belt Object, or KBO, located in a region of space beyond Neptune called the … Read more
Using 16 years of data from NASA’s gamma-ray detecting Fermi spacecraft, astronomers have discovered that “microquasars,” systems in which a black hole is slowly devouring a star, may be small, but they pack one heck of a punch. Despite their diminutive nature, this research suggests even microquasars snacking on small stars can have an impressive … Read more
As far as we can tell, life needs water. Cells can’t perform their functions without it. Some have suggested that other exotic liquids, like liquid methane, could do the job on worlds like Saturn’s moon Titan. That idea is highly speculative, though. So, it makes sense that NASA is launching a spacecraft dedicated to the … Read more
Essential info: Price: $99.99/£89.99 Model number: 76313 Number of pieces: 931 Dimensions: 4 x 11 x 2.5 inches (11 x 28 x 7cm) Recommend age: 12+ I don’t think any other Lego set has been quite as ‘what you see is what you get’ as the Marvel Logo & Minifigures set. As the name suggests, … Read more
In an effort to learn more about astronaut health and the effects of space on the human body, NASA is conducting a new experiment aboard the International Space Station to speed up the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, thus improving the health safety not only of astronauts but patients back on Earth. Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant … Read more
After the space community braced for a brutal shake-up at NASA this week, a last-minute decision on Tuesday (Feb. 18) spared over 1,000 agency employees on probationary status from being dismissed. The news comes amid an aggressive push by the Trump administration and so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — spearheaded by SpaceX CEO … Read more
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk reiterated claims in a televised interview that NASA astronauts were “abandoned” on the International Space Station for political reasons, an allegation that appears unsupported by evidence. In a joint interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity broadcast Feb. 18, Hannity noted plans by Musk’s … Read more
Astronomers have uncovered a treasure trove of feeding black holes at the heart of dwarf galaxies — small, faint galaxies containing thousands to several billions of stars but very little gas. The discovery, made with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), contains several “missing link” intermediate-mass black holes. This is both the largest sample of … Read more
A centuries-old technique for making cement may be the key to large-scale carbon capture, according to US chemists. The first step in making cement involves converting limestone to calcium oxide, inside a kiln heated to 1400 degrees Celsius. Calcium oxide is then mixed with sand to produce a vital ingredient for cement. Inspired by this … Read more
Despite what Star Trek and Star Wars may have taught you, the amount of time required to travel between stars is vast. Consider Voyager 1. The spacecraft is traveling at 38,000 mph (61,155 km/h). If Voyager 1 were pointed towards our nearest star, Proxima Centauri (which it isn’t), it would take 73,000 years to reach … Read more