• Orion Has Returned

    The Orion has landed, or splashed down to be more accurate. The Artemis I mission had a successful finish with the Orion capsule parachuting down into the Pacific at 12:40 p.m. EST today. At the time of this posting, the capsule was still afloat in the water while awaiting a review by engineers before being…

  • ChatGPT and Elon Musk

    You have probably heard of the new artificial intelligence program ChatGPT, which can compose stories and articles. So what happens when you ask it to do a simple task? I asked the program to compose a poem to cover the following scenario: Elon Musk has become frustrated with Twitter, so he takes a rocket to…

  • Orion Re-Entry: Don’t Miss It

    This Sunday, November 11th, will see the return of the Orion spacecraft. Tune into NASA to watch Orion’s re-entry and spashdown. Live splashdown coverage will begin at 11 a.m. EST. The splashdown itself is scheduled for 12:39 p.m. EST. You can watch all of the coverage live on NASA TV, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.

  • Pic of the Week: Orion Over the Moon

    This week’s image of the lunar surface comes from NASA’s Orion spacecraft as it orbited the Moon on December 5th. Orion is now on its way back and is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on December 11th. Regarding the return of the Orion crew module, NASA stated: Earth’s atmosphere initially will slow the spacecraft…

  • A Day in Astronomy: The Blue Marble

    On this day in 1972, the Apollo 17 crew on their way to the Moon took a photograph of the Earth that became known as “The Blue Marble” (shown above). You can see Africa, the Middle East, and Antarctica. It remains one of the most popular images of the Earth. The Orion spacecraft caught its…

  • Space Stories: Eruptions on Mars, World’s Largest Radio-Astronomy Observatory, and Saudi Space Hotels

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —University of Arizona: “Giant Mantle Plume Reveals Mars is More Active Than Previously Thought“ In a study published in Nature Astronomy, scientists from the University of Arizona challenge current views of Martian geodynamic evolution with a report on the discovery of an active mantle plume pushing the surface upward and causing earthquakes…

  • You Too Can Help Find Galaxies

    About 10,000 amateur scientists in 85 countries have already assisted with galaxy-mapping, but more help is needed in locating these distant galaxies billions of light-years away. It is all part of the Dark Energy Explorers project using data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, a 10 meter telescope located at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas. Volunteers…

  • Gift Ideas: Glowing Stars, Planets, and Moons

    If you are looking for a fun gift that will encourage kids to learn more about the universe around them, then you cannot go wrong with a nightlight that illustrates the beauty of the nighttime objects above us. For instance, the Moon lamp shown above (there are many others like it on Amazon and elsewhere)…

  • In Case You Missed It: Poop for the Ages

    Back in July 2019, Vox had a great article about the waste astronauts left behind on the Moon. In the article, “Apollo Astronauts Left Their Poop on the Moon. We Gotta Go Back for That Shit.,” we learn about approximately 96 bags of human waste left behind on the moon. The topic is relevant today…

  • More Musk Clutter in the Sky

    I have written about satellite pollution a few times on this site, and now I need to address it one more time by citing even more bad news. As noted in the news, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is allowing SpaceX to place another 7,500 satellites into orbit. SpaceX wanted permission for about 30,000 new…