• What’s Going on at the International Space Station?

    It appears that we now have two problematic capsules attached to the International Space Station (ISS). Late last year, we learned about a liquid coolant lead in the Russian Soyuz Crew Return Vehicle (Soyuz MS-22 crew ship), and now we have a leak in the second Russian capsule as well (Progress 82 cargo capsule). This…

  • A Day in Astronomy: Discovery of Pluto

    On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. The 23-year old astronomer was working for the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona at the time of his discovery. Pluto, recognized as the ninth planet in our solar system, was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006 since it was one of many such objects in…

  • Space Stories: Black Holes & Dark Energy, New Forms of Ice, and Dark Dwarf Galaxies

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —University of Hawaii: “First Observational Evidence Linking Black Holes to Dark Energy“ Searching through existing data spanning 9 billion years, a team of researchers led by scientists at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has uncovered the first evidence of “cosmological coupling” –a newly predicted phenomenon in Einstein’s theory of…

  • Space Quote: What are We Shooting at?

    “We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were.  But nothing — nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from other — any other country. The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies,…

  • Pic of the Week: Spiral Galaxy LEDA 2046648

    This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It shows a spiral galaxy that appears much like our own (bottom center), though this one is a billion light-years away. Do occupants of that galaxy also see us? Good luck communicating when it will take 2 billion years to receive a response to…

  • A Day in Astronomy: The Leviathan of Parsonstown

    On this day in 1845, a 72-inch reflecting telescope built by William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, came into use on his estate in Ireland. The telescope remained the largest in the world until 1917, when it was eclipsed by the Hooker reflecting telescope in California. Known as both the Leviathan of Parsonstown and…

  • Television: Hello Tomorrow! Arrives This Week

    Would you buy a lunar timeshare from Billy Crudup? Be careful how you answer. Or would you simply watch a show about Billy Crudup trying to sell lunar timeshares? I think you can answer yes to that with little risk of disappointment. While Elon Musk is trying to sell us on Mars, I like how…

  • The White House Admits UFO but Denies ET

    With a third unidentified object (aka UFO) shot down from the northern skies, the White House thought it was necessary to set the record straight earlier today. According to Politico, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the administration’s position very clear: I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is…

  • Space Quote: Google’s Expensive Mistake Regarding the JWST

    “What new discoveries from the James Webb space telescope (JWST) can I tell my nine-year old about?” -The one question put to Google’s Bard AI program, which was designed to rival Microsoft’s ChatGPT. In response, Bard stated the JWST took the very first pictures of an exoplanet, which was incorrect. The first image of an…

  • Martian Climate in New England

    With all of the excitement last week regarding Chinese balloons, which is continuing into this week with two “unidentified object” incidents in Alaska and Canada, I forgot to mention the -108 F wind chill temperature at the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire on February 3rd. The Washington Post reported that this may be…