Space Stories: A Massachusetts Meteor, The Red Dwarf Diet, and an Extra Ice Giant in Our Solar System

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Image (Credit): A exploding meteor off the coast of Massachusetts as captured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper on May 30, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—WCVB5 News: “Meteor That Rattled Massachusetts Was Bigger Than First Thought, NASA Says“

A meteor that created a sonic boom heard by thousands in Massachusetts and parts of the Northeast Saturday afternoon was larger than previously believed, NASA said Monday. Scientists now say the meteor was 5 feet in diameter, up from the initial thought of 3 feet, NASA said. “The meteor was about 5 feet (1.6 meters) in diameter with a mass of 5.6 metric tons and entered Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 42,000 mph,” NASA said Monday. Scientists believe it traveled through the atmosphere from northwest to southeast for 26 miles before breaking up at an altitude of 31 miles and producing a meteorite fall into Cape Cod Bay.

—Royal Astronomical Society: “Red Dwarf Stars Detected ‘Eating’ Earth-like Planets“

Astronomers have found some of the strongest evidence yet that stars can swallow their own planets. A new study, published in Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society, supports the long-held belief that young stars are capable of ‘eating’ nearby worlds as planetary systems form. Researchers from Keele University and the University of Exeter studied thousands of stars and found evidence that six different red dwarfs – the smallest, coolest, and most common type of star in the universe – had engulfed Earth-like rocky planets.

—Phys.org: “One of Our Planets May Be Missing, And it Could Explain Why the Solar System Looks the Way it Does“

Our solar system has two ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, but there may have been a third. According to a new study published in the journal Icarus, this extra world might have triggered a violent planetary shuffling billions of years ago that could have disrupted some of Jupiter’s and Uranus’s moons and possibly led to the formation of others.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Summer Reading: Three Books Discussed by the Planetary Society

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Credit: McNally Editions

Now that we are past Memorial Day, it is time to start thinking about that beach vacation.

To help with your reading selections, below I have highlighted episodes from Planetary Radio’s Book Club Edition that discussed three different books. I have included a link to the podcast as well as a quick summary from each book jacket.

Diane Ackerman and “The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral”

First published in 1973, The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral introduced not only a splendid new poet but a whole new adventure in poetry. With bravura style, unbridled imagination, and a connoisseur’s eye for precise scientific detail, Diane Ackerman’s debut brought us an unforgettable ode to each planet in our solar system, not to mention the moon, the comet Kohoutek, and the asteroid belt, as well as  strange voyages to the stars, the bottom of the sea, through the human body, and into the mind.

Diane Ackerman herself says: “I’ve always been baffled by people who write about nature only in terms of, say, junipers and cornfields, eschewing all things so-called ‘scientific,’ as if science were, per se, the spoil-sport of feeling. So wonderless a view of nature really doesn’t appeal to me.” The Planets is a rare fusion of art and science—one of the great poetic works of cosmic imagination.

Founder and CEO Peter Beck on “The Launch of Rocket Lab”

The Launch of Rocket Lab takes you behind the scenes of one of the most innovative aerospace companies in the world. From humble beginnings in Auckland to launching rockets from the Mahia Peninsula and Virginia and listing on the Nasdaq, this is the remarkable story of Kiwi ingenuity on a global scale.

The book chronicles how Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck and his team challenged traditional aerospace giants to create a revolutionary approach to satellite launches, overcoming extraordinary technical and business challenges along the way.

Through exclusive interviews and unprecedented access, discover how Rocket Lab is redefining our approach to space with their Electron rocket, Photon satellite bus, ambitious interplanetary missions and the new Neutron Rocket. Featuring hundreds of beautiful high quality images from the archives and new graphics.

Caleb Scharf and “The Giant Leap: Why Space is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life”

The story of life has always been one of great transitions, of crossing new frontiers. The dawn of life itself is one; so, too, is the first time two cells stuck together rather than drifting apart. And perhaps most dramatic were the moves from the sea to land, land to air. Each transition has witnessed wild storms of innovation, opportunity, and hazard. It might seem that there are no more realms for life to venture. But there is one: space.  
 
In The Giant Leap, astrobiologist Caleb Scharf argues that our journey into space isn’t simply a giant leap for humankind—it’s life’s next great transition, an evolution of evolution itself. Humans and our technology are catalysts for an interplanetary transformation, marking a disruption in the story of life as fundamental as life’s movement from sea to land, and land to sky.   
 
Inspired by Darwin’s account of his journey on the Beagle, and packed with stories from the past, present, and future of space travel, The Giant Leap thrills at both life’s creativity and the marvels of technology that have propelled us into the cosmos. And it offers an awesome glimpse of the grander vistas that wait in the great beyond.  

Note: An earlier post on this site also discussed Mr. Scharf’s book.

Space Quote: Not All is Lost at Launch Complex 36

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Image (Credit): Photo of Launch Complex 36 (LC-36), located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, prior to Thurday’s explosion. Completed in 2021, Blue Origin invested more than $1 billion to rebuild the launch site from the ground up. (Blue Origin)

“We have regained some access to Launch Complex 36 and are actively investigating the hotfire anomaly. We will start clearing the pad soon and have a good rebuild plan in place. The booster and GS2s in the integration facility appear healthy from quick looks.”

-Statement on Twitter/X by Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp regarding the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36 facility damaged by the explosion of a New Glenn rocket on Thursday. The “GS2s” refer to the New Glenn second stages housed at Launch Complex 36 with the booster. Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, stated:

The company does not have another launch site for New Glenn. It has begun preliminary work on a nearby pad, LC-36B, and has plans to develop another site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. But these projects are just getting started...Rebuilding the company’s pad, or finishing a new one, will likely take at least a year.

It Was Quite a Week for Blue Origin

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Image (Credit): Explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral on Thursday night, May 28, 2026. (Spectrum News 13/Kevin M. Sackett)

It was certainly a mixed week for Blue Origin. The week started with new lunar contracts and ended with a rocket that could not get off the launch pad. Yesterday’s explosion not only destroyed a New Glenn rocket, but also a launch pad. It was reminiscent of the Roscosmos launch pad explosion late last year, as well as the SpaceX launch pad explosion at Cape Canaveral back in 2016 (which took a year to rebuild).

While Blue Origin must be dizzy, NASA is probably panicking. The Artemis III mission is not very likely in 2027 at this rate. Neither Blue Origin or SpaceX seem anywhere near close to ready for a low-Earth orbit display. The much derided Space Launch System (SLS) is looking better and better as time passes. Maybe the planned phase out of that rocket should be put on hold until Blue Origin and SpaceX have a proven replacement.

Given this mess, one can only hope the Chinese are secretly having problems as well with their Moon mission but keeping mums about it. Otherwise, the race to the Moon may be a little too close for comfort.

In addition the Artemis III worries, NASA will be spending the weekend rethinking its upcoming Moon base plans, which includes Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander being launched to the Moon later this year. The idea of exploring the Moon and starting a Moon base seems more difficult now when multiple missions are relying on Blue Origin hardware. This may mean more work for SpaceX at a time it is still struggling with other lunar tasks.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who only this week announced the details of his Moon base program, will be pretty busy in the weeks ahead. The rest of us, including China, will be very interested in his adjusted Moon mission plans.

Pic of the Week: The Crystal Ball Nebula

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Image (Credit): An image of NGC 1514, also called the Crystal Ball Nebula, as captured by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

This week’s image is from the Gemini North telescope located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. NGC 1514, or the Crystal Ball Nebula, is about 1,500 light-years away. It was first discovered in 1790 by German–British astronomer William Herschel, who classified it as a planetary nebula.

Here is a little more about the nebula from NOIRLab:

Planetary nebulae form when a low- or intermediate-mass star ejects its outer layers near the end of its life, forming a somewhat spherical cloud of gas. They typically have smoother, spherical shapes, making the Crystal Ball Nebula unique for its bumpy shells of gas. As the central star casts away this gas, its inner core is exposed. Radiation from the core energizes the gas, giving it a scorching temperature and chromatic glow…While it may appear in this image as if there is a single shining light source at the heart of the Crystal Ball Nebula, as Herschel saw, it actually contains two stars. These two stars orbit each other with a period of around nine years — the longest known for any binary pair within a planetary nebula. Scientists believe that one of these stars, which was once several times more massive than our Sun, released its outer layers while in the throes of death. As the progenitor star and its binary companion orbit each other, they mold the expanding shell of gas with their strong, asymmetrical winds, forming the lumpy layers we see today.