• Saturn is Winning the Moon Contest

    So Saturn now has 145 moons due to the discovery of 62 new moons, which is 50 more than the next closest competitor, Jupiter, with 95 moons. You can thank the University of British Columbia (UBC) for the new moon count. The new discoveries come from a process used by UBC astronomers called ‘shift and…

  • Movie: The Story of Carl Sagan

    Have you heard about the upcoming movie about Carl Sagan called Voyagers? Andrew Garfield of Spiderman fame will be playing Dr. Sagan. Daisy Edgar-Jones will play the part of Ann Druyan. The new film will be one of many shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, starting next week. Here is the basic outline of…

  • Podcast: Two Worlds Collide in This Episode

    If you are looking for a fun podcast this week, you cannot go wrong with Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Startalk podcast when it hosts Cool Worlds‘ creator David Kipping. The episode, Cosmic Queries – Cool Worlds with David Kipping, covers questions related to exoplanets, exomoons, and more. It is fun to hear the two scientists play…

  • Pic of the Week: Mysterious Spiral Over Alaska

    This week’s image was captured in the morning sky over Alaska on April 15. It was later determined to be related to a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch the prior day in California. As The New York Times reported, the spiral was attributed to “…the reflection of the excess fuel it released into the atmosphere.” Below…

  • Space Stories: A Private Space Station, Chinese Space Plane Returns, and Russia Doubts Moon Landing

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Digital Trends: “SpaceX and Vast Aim to be First to Deploy Private Space Station“ As the International Space Station nears the end of its life, SpaceX and Los Angeles-based startup Vast have unveiled a plan to launch the first commercial space station. SpaceX will use a Falcon 9…

  • TROPICS Starts its Mission

    On Sunday, the TROPICS mission was successfully launched after an earlier delay. The Rocket Lab Electron launch took place in New Zealand and involved two small CubeSats tasked with monitoring deadly storms. This is the first pair to be launched, with a total of four satellites planned to accomplish the TROPICS mission. And yes, TROPICS…

  • Where is This? May 8, 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.

  • Podcast: Launch Fast and Break Things

    If you are still pondering the Starship mess in Texas, I recommend you listen to a discussion about the incident in The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio. In the episode, Space Policy Edition: SpaceX’s Starship vs. the Environment, With Eric Roesch, podcast host Casey Dreier, who is Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society, interviews Eric…

  • Happy Black Hole Week!

    Yes, I know. This is too many celebrations over an eight-day period, starting with Astronomy Day last Saturday. But who cannot be excited by Black Hole Week? If you missed the various NASA-sponsored events over the past week, you can find them here. Check out the presentation of the largest black holes from Monday’s presentation.…

  • Video: Cool Worlds and the Fermi Paradox

    A recent video from the YouTube channel Cool Worlds titled “The Fermi Paradox Has An Incredibly Simple Solution” is a fun review of the Fermi Paradox, which asks “Where are they?” in reference to alien visitors. The video goes into the meaning of the question as well as possible interpretations of the paradox itself. Professor…