Why won’t the Blaze Star explode? (and how YOU can see it when it does)

Animation of Blaze Star, showing an expanding white dwarf and red giant.

The Blaze Star isn’t one star but 2. It’s a binary system with a white dwarf and red giant. The Blaze Star’s white dwarf has built up material on its surface, siphoned off from the red giant star. Periodically, it “can’t take no more” and explodes, about every 80 years. Despite the powerful explosion, the … Read more

‘Sailing’ satellites of the future could provide early warning of dangerous space weather

A line of NASA engineers posing with a silver solar sail.

NEW ORLEANS — Solar sails that allow satellites to glide on the light from the sun could soon become a reality. The technology would allow scientists to provide earlier warnings of space weather events such as geomagnetic storms, which have the potential to disrupt technological systems on Earth. “A lot of us have experienced sailing; … Read more

Tom Hanks’ ‘The Moonwalkers’ makes US premiere at Space Center Houston

footage from the launch of a rocket is projected onto a giant movie screen as well as the theater's walls and floor

It is not unusual to see a Saturn V launch while viewing a film at Space Center Houston. Never before, though, has that spectacle stretched beyond the center’s five-story-tall screen to fill the theater’s walls and extend out onto the floor. That is what happens now with the premiere of “The Moonwalkers: A Journey with … Read more

How Sen’s 4K live cameras on the ISS offer a new perspective from space (op-ed)

24/7 Live 4K video of Earth and space: Livestream of Earth by Sen’s 4K video cameras on the ISS - YouTube

24/7 Live 4K video of Earth and space: Livestream of Earth by Sen’s 4K video cameras on the ISS – YouTube Watch On Charles Black is Founder and CEO of Sen. Looking at our planet from space gives you a different view of life on Earth, one which has the power to change the way … Read more

Pale Blue Dot 35 years later: Earth in a sunbeam

Pale blue dot: An image of bluish space, with streaks of sunlight crossing it, and with a single dot - Earth - within one of the sunbeams.

View larger. | In this image from Voyager 1 – acquired on February 14, 1990, from a distance slightly past the orbit of Saturn – planet Earth appears as a pale blue dot within the sunbeam, just right of center. As you can see, the blue glow of Earth occupies less than a single pixel … Read more

Signs of life on Enceladus might remain hidden in its ocean

Life on Enceladus: Shadowed edge of planet-like body with several bright plumes erupting from the surface. Small spacecraft close to the plumes.

View larger. | Artist’s illustration of Cassini spacecraft flying through the water vapor plumes of Enceladus. A new study from researchers in the UK has found that Enceladus’ subsurface ocean might have layers that make it difficult to find traces of life on Enceladus. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ Space Science Institute. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has … Read more

Hypervelocity star drags fastest exoplanet through space at 1.2 million mph

a three-dimensional grid with curved lines stretching into space

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s super Neptune! But this Superman-mimicking planet is not blasting through space on its own. It is being dragged along by its parent star. NASA scientists have discovered what they suspect is the hypervelocity star racing through space with a Neptune-like planet in tow. The system … Read more

The Euclid Space Telescope Captures a Rare, Stunning Einstein Ring

Sometimes, things across the vast Universe line up just right for us. The Einstein Ring above, like all Einstein Rings, has three parts. In the foreground is a distant massive object like a galaxy or galaxy cluster. In the background, at an even greater distance away, is a star or another galaxy. We’re the observers, … Read more

Highest energy neutrino observed by undersea telescope

Highest energy neutrino: An orb with multiple small circular cameras all over hanging above the sea.

This is the optical module of the telescope KM3NeT that has captured the highest energy neutrino yet known. It made the discovery from the dark depths of the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Image via KM3NeT (CC BY-NC 4.0). Highest energy neutrino observed from undersea telescope There’s a telescope sitting more than a mile and … Read more

Einstein ring spotted around a nearby galaxy

Many small galaxies and one large, fuzzy almost circular one with a tiny, glowing ring around its bright center.

Look closely. Can you spot the ring of light around the center of this galaxy, NGC 6505? ESA’s Euclid telescope captured galaxy NGC 6505, which is acting as a gravitational lens, bending the light from a more distant galaxy and creating this Einstein ring. See closeup below. Image via ESA/ Euclid/ Euclid Consortium/ NASA. Image … Read more