• Pic of the Week: The Morning Star

    This week’s image is the most distant star ever detected. It is from light that traveled 12.9 billion years to get to us, representing a star that existed about 1 billion years after the formation of the universe. It has been named Earendel, or “morning star” in Old English. You can learn more about this…

  • Do We Need Pete Davidson in Space?

    Okay, I can understand shooting actor William Shatner into space on a Blue Origin rocket given his work with Star Trek and his interest in space itself, but Pete Davidson from SNL fame? Really? Luckily, his part in the mission was scrubbed. So who will go up into space tomorrow on Blue Origin’s New Shepard…

  • Starlink Assists with Ukrainian Battles

    SpaceX’s Starlink system, shared with Ukraine last month, is already proving to be a boost to Ukrainian fighters. While the focus of the new system was to keep Ukrainians connected to the Internet, it has also been used by drones attacking Russian military tanks and trucks. The NY Post quotes one Ukrainian source as stating,…

  • Moon Craters and the Russians

    So who owned the rocket stage that hit the Moon earlier this month? I had earlier noted the speculation pertaining to both SpaceX and then the Chinese rockets. Surprisingly, it is still is not clear who owned that rocket stage and maybe we will never know. That is not a good answer for the European…

  • Status of NASA’s Martian Mission

    Now that we have learned a little more about China’s Martian rover, maybe we should check on NASA’s Perseverance Rover. According to a recent press release from NASA, earlier this month Perseverance started its three-mile trip to the river delta on the rim of Jezero Crater after already exploring the Martian surface for about 13…

  • Chinese Martian Rover Images

    The China National Space Administration (CNSA) Watcher site posted the above before and after selfies taken by the Zhurong Mars Rover. The top shot was taken on May 19, 2021 and the bottom shot on January 22, 2022. You can see the dust that has accumulated in less than a year on the rover’s panels. The site notes…

  • Movies: A Romance Set on Mars

    On March 31st you can can watch another space-related movie, though this one has a misleading name. Called Moonshot, the setting is actually a space colony on Mars. You can watch a trailer of the HBO Max movie here. While its just a platform for a young adult romantic comedy, it will be fun to…

  • Pic of the Week: Space Triangle

    This week’s image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the collision of spiral galaxy NGC 2445 on the right and NGC 2444 on the left, creating what appears to be a triangle of new stars. Here is a little more on the pair from NASA’s Hubblesite: A spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies…

  • The Future of Mauna Kea and its Telescopes

    Finding the right place to build a telescope is crucial in a time of growing cities and brighter skies, which is why the telescopes atop of Mauna Kean in Hawaii are a great resource. Is that about to change? It is not clear, but a Hawaiian State bill is attempting to transfer ownership of the…

  • What is the Galileo Project?

    After mentioning this organization in a previous post, I thought I would look a little further at its work. The Galileo Project was set up for one purpose: …to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures of Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations (ETCs) from accidental or anecdotal observations and legends to the mainstream of transparent, validated and…