• More on Black Holes

    The earlier article on a black hole binary system was pretty amazing, yet the video accompanying the story was created to demonstrate the phenomena. I found an even more amazing real video of stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center or the Milky Way galaxy. You can see the 20-year time-lapse video here…

  • Space Adventures with Exotopia

    The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute has devised a fun way to ponder extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the galaxy. The adventure, Exotopia, allows you to follow a fictional exoplanet voyage for 30 days utilizing real SETI scientific data. The specially-crafted narrative includes unique digital art along the way illustrating the adventure. You can learn…

  • Space Stories: Black Holes, X-Rays, and Exploding Stars

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —SciTechDaily.com: “Astronomers Have Discovered an Especially Sneaky Black Hole“ VFTS 243 is a binary system, which means it is composed of two objects that orbit a common center of mass. The first object is a very hot, blue star with 25 times the mass of the Sun, and the second…

  • JWST Image: Swirling Galaxy

    Here is another recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This one is a unique close-up view of a spiral galaxy looking from above (or below) rather that from the side. It is NGC 628, which is about 32 million light years away. You can see more such JWST images by visiting the…

  • Space Mission: Preparing for a Launch to Europa in 2024

    Earlier this year, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory started assembling the Europa Clipper spacecraft so it is ready for its launch in 2024 (you can find the latest update here). Once it arrives at Jupiter, the spacecraft will have at least 50 flybys to study the Jovian moon and learn more about its inside, outside, and…

  • Pic of the Week: Artemis I Heads for the Launchpad

    This week’s image highlights NASA’s actions to launch the first phase of the Artemis Mission. The image shows the Space Launch System and Orion capsule moving towards launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch of the six-week unmanned mission around the Moon is planned for August 29th. The full mission for this…

  • A Young Exoplanet Spotted

    Last week’s news that a young exoplanet has been spotted has generated quite a bit of interest. The discovery was reported in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Of course, if you read the abstract of the study itself, you may be confused with all the scientific jargon: We report the discovery of a circumplanetary disk…

  • China Also Has a Secret Space Plane

    You may have heard of the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) X-37B unmanned mini-space shuttle that has been sent into orbit many times in the past. It performed secretive missions for the USAF, yet it now falls under the U.S. Space Force. The X-37B is currently orbiting the Earth and has been doing so since May…

  • Where is This? August 15, 2022 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 menu and selecting the “Where is this?” page.

  • South Korea Shoots for the Moon

    Last week, South Korea launched a spacecraft towards the Moon via a SpaceX rocket. As with other nations and programs (the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan, China, Luxembourg, Israel, and India), South Korea hopes to learn more about the Moon and share it with the scientific community. NASA also has a role in…