• Study Findings: A Binary Model of Long-Period Radio Transients and White Dwarf Pulsars

    Nature Astronomy abstract of study findings: Long-period radio transients (LPTs) represent a recently uncovered class of Galactic radio sources exhibiting minutes to hours periodicities and highly polarized pulses of seconds to minutes duration. Their phenomenology does not fit exactly in any other class, although it might resemble that of radio magnetars or white dwarf (WD) pulsars. Two…

  • Artemis II Mission Delayed by NASA

    The cold weather on the East Coast continues to cause problems, this time for NASA and its planned launch of the Artemis II mission, which will take astronauts around the Moon. Originally scheduled for February 6th, the mission is being delayed two more days until February 8th to allow NASA more time for its wet…

  • Pic of the Week: 40 Years Since the Challenger Shuttle Disaster

    This week’s image shows the seven members of the Challenger Shuttle crew who perished less than two minutes into their flight on January 18, 1986. NASA determined that a leak in one of two Solid Rocket Boosters ignited the main liquid fuel tank. Following the disaster, President Ronald Reagan had this to say: I’ve always…

  • Television: Blade Runner 2099 Coming in 2026

    It seems two movies covering Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was not enough, so an entire television series is being readied by Amazon Prime for release this year. Of course, Amazon Prime has been talking about this series since at least 2022, with the Motion Picture Association stating back then:…

  • If You Happen to be in Kentucky…

    If you happen to be in Kentucky in late February, you may want to visit Thomas More University’s Observatory for a special lecture on astronomy. The lecture is titled “Please Stop Letting Astronomers Name Things,” and it will occur on Saturday, February 21st at 6pm. Here is the write up for the talk: From planetary…

  • Space Stories: Moon Kills Earth Water Theory, Astronauts in Quarantine, and China Loses Two Rockets

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —Universities Space Research Association: “Our Moon’s 4 Billion-Year Impact Record Suggests Meteorites Didn’t Supply Earth’s Water“ A long-standing idea in planetary science is that water-rich meteorites arriving late in Earth’s history could have delivered a major share of Earth’s water. A new study by Universities Space Research Association…

  • Space Quote: Ongoing Questions about the Orion’s Heat Shield

    “What they’re talking about doing is crazy…We could have solved this problem way back when…Instead, they keep kicking the can down the road.” -Statement by former astronaut Charlie Camarda, who does not believe the upcoming Artemis II mission is safe for the astronauts given his concerns about the Orion’s heat shield, as quoted by CNN.…

  • Movies: The 2025 Golden Raspberry Awards

    It is that time of year to look back at the science fiction movies of 2025 and determine which ones were really bad. We might as well go through this process because I cannot remember any that were really good, particularly in the area of space adventures. The 46th Golden Raspberry Award nominees for Worst…

  • A Day in Astronomy: The Last Word from Pioneer 10

    On this day in 2003, NASA heard its last message from Pioneer 10, the Jupiter space probe. Launched in 1972, it was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter on its way to the outer planets. It is also one of only five spacecraft to leave our solar system. Both…

  • Pic of the Week: Preparing for the Artemis II Mission

    This week’s image shows NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft making its way from the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B via the crawler-transporter. All of this is in preparation for the Artemis II mission, which will take four astronauts around the Moon. The flight could launch as early…