• Are We Too Focused on the Goldilocks Zone?

    Astronomers peering into the night sky always talk about exoplanets located in the “Goldilocks Zone,” or “Habitable Zone,” similar to the Earth’s location from the sun. But what if that is too limited? What if we should also be focusing on colder regions as well as exomoons? The new study released this week based on…

  • Pic of the Week: The ISS Transiting the Sun

    This week’s image was taken by French astrophotographer Thierry Legault. It shows the  International Space Station (ISS) transiting the Sun on June 9th. The other three dark objects are sun spots. At the time this image was taken, two NASA astronauts, Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, were installing a new solar array on the station.

  • Podcast: Cool Worlds Labs Has Started a Podcast

    In an earlier posting, I noted that the people at Cool Worlds Lab were planning to create a podcast to further share the Lab’s research. Well, that day has come and you can now listen to the first episode with Professor David Kipping interviewing Rebecca Charbonneau, who is a Janksy Fellow at the National Radio…

  • Space Stories: James Webb’s Partner, the Big Bang Black Holes, and Green Energy on the Red Planet

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Futurism: “NASA Sending Adorable Little Buddy to Hang Out Next to the James Webb“ The space agency recently selected a toaster-sized cubesat that will become the much bigger telescope’s tiny, adorable “sidekick,” according to a statement. NASA chose the $8.5 million space mission, called the “Monitoring Activity from Nearby sTars…

  • Space Quote: A Space Detente with China?

    “With geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing extending into space, it is only to be expected that policymakers are looking back to the Cold War for helpful lessons. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to learn the wrong lessons from space cooperation during and immediately after the Cold War. Certainly, space cooperation was not a…

  • Do We Need to Fear Lunar Organisms?

    If we had a real chance of being harmed by life on the lunar surface, Covid 19 would be child’s play. The New York Times has an article, “Cosmic Luck: NASA’s Apollo 11 Moon Quarantine Broke Down,” indicates we were not really ready for any potential contamination during the Apollo program. The newspaper cites a…

  • Podcast: Richard Dawkins Joins the Podcast Ranks

    Stay tuned for a new podcast from British evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins. It is called The Poetry of Reality, and can be found here and elsewhere. The 2-minute preview clip sounds interesting as he discusses humans colonizing a new planet. This is the write-up accompanying the new podcast: The Poetry of Reality is…

  • Where is This? June 9, 2023 Quiz

    Take a look at the image above. Can you determine where this image originated? Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Where is This? The Answer Sheet” page.

  • Pic of the Week: The Ongoing Perseverance Rover Mission

    This week’s image comes from NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance as it explores the to Jezero Crater. The photo was posted last month. It has been a little while since we directly our attention at the Red Planet. The image shows what may be the result of a fast-moving river some time in the past. In…

  • Space Quote: The Great Filter at Work?

    “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” -Statement by artificial intelligence (AI) experts and public figures in a “Statement on AI Risk” from the Center for AI Safety. This followed an earlier open letter back in March from other AI leaders that…