The Original Star Wars Returns: Get Your Tickets

Posted on by onespaceman2000

If The Mandalorian and Grogu was not your favorite film this summer, you have plenty of time to prepare for the release of the original Star Wars film on its 50th anniversary. That’s right, it will be 50 years old next year.

The original Star Wars film was released on May 25, 1977. The re-release on IMAX will be available on February 19, 2027. You can sign up here to be notified when tickets become available in your area.

By original, I mean the version of the film before George Lucas started mucking it up with extra effects, such as the addition of a CGI Jabba the Hutt. You will be able to watch what everyone was watching in 1977.

And if that’s not enough, next year will also see the release of Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling. It will premiere on 28 May, 2027, the same week as the original film in 1977. Starflighter was filmed for IMAX screens, so that will be an option as well.

Pic of the Week: 2026 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Winner

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): “The Quiet Predator” by Ali Alobaidly.

This week’s image is the winning entry in the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026 contest at the Royal Museums Greenwich. The photo of the Shark Nebula is titled “The Quiet Predator,” and it was submitted by Ali Alobaidly.

Here is how Ali Alobaidly describes his photo:

 The Shark Nebula (LDN 1235) prowls 650 light years away in the constellation Cepheus, its silhouette carved not from flesh and teeth, but from interstellar dust dense enough to block starlight.

This predator drifts silently through space, camouflaged against the faint glow of the background stars, lit only by nearby blue-coloured reflection nebulae.

Unlike its oceanic cousins, the Shark Nebula doesn’t bite, but it does photobomb astrophotographers with a molecular cloud big enough to make Earth look like a speck of plankton.

You can see the other winning and shortlisted images at the main site.

Movie: South Korea’s Hope

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Forged Films.

If you are still hoping for one more summer movie about space aliens (it was released on September 9th even if it is officially fall now), South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin has another one to add to your list. The movie, Hope, is a thriller set in a small South Korean town on the border with North Korea. While the residents look north for a fearsome foe, little do they know the foe is from above. That’s right – extraterrestrials.

This preview indicates there will be plenty of action, though in the movie itself the aliens do not show themselves until late in the film. Hope may satisfy your need for alien battles after Disclosure Day portrayed the visitors as ICE captives and The Mandalorian and Grogu proved to be a kiddie film. How American films went from Alien terror to teddy bears this past summer is anyone’s guess.

The film reviews are mixed at best, but still somewhat encouraging.

A Deep Focus Review noted:

To work, Na’s film needed either more or less screen time for his aliens, and given their appearance, less would have been preferable. Still, action junkies and South Korean cinema fans will probably be able to look beyond the poor CGI better than I can, making it worth seeing, even admiring Hope, with caveats abounding.

The Roger Ebert site had this to say:

It’s bold, provocative, and assured filmmaking that oscillates between moments of breathtaking cinematic prowess and satirical characterizations, whose coy rendering turns a mirror toward those who unconsciously lap up hollow action heroes when the far more intriguing story exists in plain sight.

To finish up the summer stretch, you should see it for yourself and decide.

Study Findings: New Lunar Crater Reveals Extensive Distal Regolith Modification

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A zoomed-in view of McGetchin crater, circled on the left, next to a “before” image on the right.
(NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines/Robert Wagner)

Sciences Advances abstract of study findings:

A new ∼222-meter-diameter impact crater formed on the Moon in spring 2024. Discovered in repeat Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images, it provides a unique opportunity to study surface modification by a pristine impact, prior to subsequent fading. Nighttime temperatures measured by the Diviner instrument reveal an ∼7-kilometer-wide cold spot that is 8 to 9 kelvin cooler than its surroundings, consistent with decompaction of the upper centimeters to decimeters of regolith. We investigate all newly formed craters >20 meters identified to date and find that all craters larger than ∼30 meters produce detectable cold spots, indicating that cold spot formation is a common consequence of fresh lunar impacts. Cold spot temperature anomaly increases with crater size, implying deeper regolith modification around larger craters. This scaling suggests that the cumulative effect of cold spot formation may modify the shallow regolith at rates comparable to impact gardening by primary craters, making them a substantial driver of regolith evolution on regolith-covered airless bodies.

Citation: T. M. Powell, B. T. Greenhagen, T. Horvath, et al. New lunar crater reveals extensive distal regolith modification. Science Advances, Vol 12, Issue 38 (2026).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeh9568

Study-related stories:

Discover Magazine – “Newly Discovered ‘Once-in-a-Century’ Moon Crater Larger Than Two Football Field”

Phys.org – “NASA Spacecraft Discovers a Huge New Crater on the Moon”

CNN – “Lunar Orbiter Spots ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ New Crater on the Moon”

Space Stories: Russian Supplies Arrive at ISS, Youngest Exoplanet Detected, and Greater European Flexibility in Space

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Sections of the International Space Station. (Russianspaceweb.com)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Spaceflight Now: “Russian Progress cargo ship arrives at International Space Station”

An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station Saturday carrying supplies and equipment for the orbiting outpost. The Progress M-25 docked at the space-facing port of Russia’s Poisk module at 9:44 a.m. EDT (1344 UTC). It circled the station before making its final approach using the automated Kurs rendezvous system. Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina were standing by to take manual control of the approach using remote controls, but everything went smoothly as the craft closed in, 260 miles above the Black Sea. A series of hooks inside the docking mechanism were driven closed to complete the docking operation.

—Science Daily: “Astronomers Just Found the Youngest Known Planet Ever“

Astronomers have confirmed the youngest known planet yet, a world less than 1 million years old that is still surrounded by the gas and dust from which it formed. The planet, called Elias 2-24 b, was identified using observations preserved in NASA-funded archives. It is still orbiting within its young star’s dusty disk, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study planet formation while it is still happening.

—Radio France Internationale: “Europe Weighs the Cost of Sending Its Own Astronauts into Space“

French President Emmanuel Macron wants Europe to develop its own way of sending astronauts into space within a decade. Europe already builds rockets and satellites and sends astronauts to the International Space Station – but it still relies on American spacecraft to get them there. As the global space sector expands, the question is whether Europe should invest in closing that gap, and what it would take to do so.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.