• A Day in Astronomy: Letter to General Secretary Brezhnev

    The U.S. has plenty of issues regarding the pace of its space programs in the face of Chinese achievements, as noted multiple times in posts on this site. We should not see this as anything new. U.S. politicians and citizens had plenty of similar complaints during the space race with the USSR, and we also…

  • Space Stories: Earth’s Second Moon, Organic Molecules on Enceladus, and Mysterious Gullies on Mars

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —The Economic Times: “NASA Confirms Earth Has a Second Moon, And It Will Stay With Us Until 2083“ Earth has received a new cosmic partner, a small asteroid designated as 2025 PN7. NASA confirmed this week that the object, initially found by the University of Hawaii, qualifies as…

  • Space Quote: SpaceX May Lose the Moon

    “If SpaceX is behind, but Blue Origin can do it before them, good on Blue Origin…But … we’re not going to wait for one company. We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese.” –Statement by acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy regarding ongoing delays with SpaceX’s Starship, which was…

  • We Need Mr. Musk to Concentrate on Starship

    Now that Mr. Musk is done with his misadventures in Washington, DC, everyone was hoping he would start to focus more on SpaceX and the Starship tests that are critical to NASA’s Artemis mission. That may be too reasonable. First, we see that Mr. Musk is getting involved in British politics again. That has never…

  • A Comet You Will Not See for Another Millennium

    Now is your chance to view Comet Lemmon before it cycles its way though the solar system over the course of 1,350 years. You might even be able to view it over the next few weeks with the naked eye if you are lucky. Wired magazine has a story about this comet that tells you…

  • Potential Exomoon Being Studied by JWST

    We hear plenty about all the exoplanets being studies at the moment, but we hear very little about exomoons, though several astronomers are eager to find them and learn more about them. This time last year I highlighted a paper that discussed a possible exomoon circling an exoplanet called WASP-49Ab located about 635 light-years away…

  • Pic of the Week: The Sculptor Galaxy

    This week’s image is from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in northern Chile. It shows the Sculptor Galaxy, which is about 11 million light-years away. Here is a description of what you are seeing: This image shows a detailed, thousand-colour image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at…

  • NASA Cuts Endanger Mars Rover Missions

    First the White House dropped the idea of retrieving soil samples from Mars. Now it is going after the rover collecting those samples. This week NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which manages the rovers on Mars, announced the layoff of 550 workers, stating: In order to best position JPL going forward, we are taking steps…

  • Starship Has Successful 11th Launch

    The Starship launches have been going a little better, with yesterday’s 11th launch meeting its goals, including the release of a practice satellite. Following the launch, SpaceX stated: Every major objective of the flight test was achieved, providing valuable data as we prepare the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy…Focus now turns to the…

  • Space Stories: Layoffs at NASA’s JPL, Rocky Giants in our Solar System, and New Findings from Apollo 17

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —NBC News: “NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lays Off 550 Workers“ NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced Monday that it will cut around 550 jobs — around 10% of its staff. In a statement posted online, the lab’s director, Dave Gallagher, said the layoffs are part of a broad “realignment…