• Pic of the Week: Webb’s First Deep Field

    This week we have another recent image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) showing a thousands of galaxies, some of which have images distorted by the gravity of other galaxies. It is quite a collection of distant worlds. Here is the story from NASA: Thousands of galaxies flood this near-infrared image of galaxy cluster…

  • Space Stories: Approaching Lucy, Chinese Space Ambitions, and Conan the Bacterium

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —NASA.gov: “NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Captures Images of Earth, Moon Ahead of Gravity Assist“ On October 13, 2022, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured [the above] image of the Earth and the Moon from a distance of 890,000 miles (1.4 million km). The image was taken as part of an instrument calibration…

  • Study Findings: Fusible Mantle Cumulates Trigger Young Mare Volcanism on the Cooling Moon

    Science Advances abstract: [China’s] Chang’E-5 (CE5) mission has demonstrated that lunar volcanism was still active until two billion years ago, much younger than the previous isotopically dated lunar basalts. How the small Moon retained enough heat to drive such late volcanism is unknown, particularly as the CE5 mantle source was anhydrous and depleted in heat-producing…

  • A Day in Astronomy: Motion Pictures of Earth

    On this day in 1946, we saw the Earth from space for the first time in history, and the sub-orbital motion pictures were captured by a V-2 rocket, a deadly German weapon that was finally put to good use. The U.S. launched the missile from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The rocket…

  • Iranian Astronomy Collaboration, Anyone?

    The Iranian National Observatory (INO) is now operational, with its first images now available (see sample below). After 20 years and $25 million, Iranian astronomers now have their own view of the heavens. Fine tuning of the telescope is underway, but it should soon be ready for its initial focus on the evolution of galaxies…

  • The National Air and Space Museum is Open for Business

    If you have been awaiting the refurbishing of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, then you will be happy to know that the museum reopened on October 14th. Only now you cannot simply stroll into the museum. Instead, you need to obtain a free timed-entry pass. Unfortunately, this seems to be the current system…

  • In Case You Missed It/Podcast: Retelling the Story of the Mission to the Moon

    If you are looking for a good story that you to listen to during your next car trip, you cannot do better than the Washington Post’s Moonrise podcast. It has a bit of everything, including science fiction stories, Nazi war machines, Russian persecution, American post-WWII politics, and a bit of astronomy as well. Here is…

  • Pic of the Week: The Pillars of Creation

    This week’s image is a redo of an earlier Hubble Space Telescope image (shown below), but this time we see the Pillars of Creation through the eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The pillars is part of the Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away. Here is more from NASA on the JWST…

  • Space Stories: Volcanic Exoplanets, Medieval Star Maps, and Near-Earth Asteroids

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Universe.com: “Scientists Discover a New Way Exoplanets Could Make Oxygen; Unfortunately, it Doesn’t Require Life“ The researchers have found an abiotic source of oxygen that stems from sulphur dioxide. Sulphur is not rare in celestial bodies, and since volcanoes produce sulphur and pump it into the atmosphere, terrestrial volcanic…

  • Study Findings: Early Mars Habitability and Global Cooling by H2-based Methanogens

    Nature Astronomy abstract: During the Noachian, Mars’ crust may have provided a favourable environment for microbial life. The porous brine-saturated regolith would have created a physical space sheltered from ultraviolet and cosmic radiation and provided a solvent, whereas the below-ground temperature and diffusion of a dense, reduced atmosphere may have supported simple microbial organisms that consumed H2 and CO2 as…