• Most Distant Galaxy on Record

    Just recently I posted about the discovery of the farthest star. Well, now astronomers have spotted the farthest galaxy. The Harvard Gazette reports that a galaxy named HD1 appears to be about 13.5 billion light-years away and may contain the universe’s first stars or even the earliest black hole discovered to date. The contents of…

  • Prepare for Thousands More LEO Satellites

    Watch out SpaceX, Amazon is getting into the Internet satellite business as well. More importantly, beware astronomers and orbiting spacecraft, because the skies are going to be really crazy, and China has not even started with its massive program. This week, Amazon announced plans to more forward with Project Kuiper, which will involve about 83…

  • Pic of the Week: Final Acts of a Monster Star

    This week’s photo is from the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the “puffing dust bubbles and an erupting gas shell,” or nebula, surrounding the monster star AG Carinae. Here is the rest of the story from the European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble site: This giant star is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to…

  • A Day In Astronomy: The Launch of the Mars Odyssey

    On this day in 2001, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter was launched towards Mars to map and search the Red Planet for water. The mission itself took its name from Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Mars Odyssey successfully discovered Martian water. Project Scientist Jeffrey Plaut of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads…

  • Space Quote: Good Feelings in Orbit

    “They were, are and will continue to be very dear friends of mine. We support each other throughout everything. And I never had any concerns about my ability to continue working with them – very good professionals and technically competent and wonderful human beings.” -NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who returned to Earth from the…

  • Where is the International Space Station?

    If you are standing outside in your yard looking for the International Space Station (ISS) at dawn or dusk (which is necessary to see the sun’s reflection on the station), this NASA site called Spot the Station may help. The site provides a global tracking map created by the European Space Agency (ESA) showing the…

  • A Liquid Lense? Ideas for Future Telescopes

    NASA has an interesting story about the development of liquid lenses for space telescopes. It’s a fascinating idea as we watch the slow assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) 18-part mirror. This new approach, which could increase a telescope’s size 100 fold, will be tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Edward Balaban,…

  • Podcast: A Chat with Astronaut Chris Hadfield

    Alan Alda recently interviewed Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to discuss his space work, singing career, and recent book. You can catch all of it on Mr. Alda’s podcast Clear+Vivid. For instance, Mr. Hadfield notes that he used duct tape on the International Space Station (ISS) to cover over bullet-sized holes in the station’s exterior handrails…

  • Movies: Apollo 10 1/2

    Last week’s film was about young adults in space, but now we are hitting elementary school for the right stuff. This Nextflix film, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, is a good weekend movie for the whole family if you are looking for something light. The basic story is that NASA flubbed its Apollo…

  • Strange Happenings on Mars

    Here is what the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) tweeted about this image: Wow! While travelling on the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover found the place where all the missing socks from the dryer end up! Okay, it is from this time last year, but it’s still funny. Happy April Fools’ Day!