• 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…

  • Space Stories: Radioactive Ceres, Moon Clues, and Starlink’s Shine

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —SkyandTelescope.org: “Asteroid Ceres Was Radioactive — And That Could Explain a Lot“ A team of U.S. planetary scientists has shown that unexpected surface features on the dwarf planet Ceres can be explained by radioactive decay in its interior long ago. If they are right, their model could explain features…

  • Space Quote: Studying Exoplanets

    “We are interested in understanding the diversity and atmospheric compositions of planets between the size of Earth and Neptune…“‘Super-Earths’ and ‘mini-Neptunes’ are the most common types of planets in our galaxy. But we only have a few examples of atmospheric measurements from these types of planets.” -Statement by Johanna Teske, a staff scientist at the…

  • Pic of the Week: Captain Picard in California

    This week’s image shows Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) and Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher) discussing Star Trek at the 2022 Comic Con in San Diego, CA. You can watch the full panel discussion here. You can also watch the season three (and final season) trailer for Star Trek: Picard here, indicating our favorites from The…

  • Podcast: Avoiding a Nuclear Winter

    If you are looking for a heavy story, just listen into this week’s StarTalk podcast, “Nuclear Winter with Ann Druyan and Brian Toon.” You can hear all about the Future of Life award given to Carl Sagan and others for “reducing the risk of nuclear war by developing and popularizing the science of nuclear winter.”…

  • Russian Rockets No Longer an Option

    Northrop Grumman is switching from Russian-made rocket engines to U.S.-made rocket engines for its Antares rocket ships that bring supplies to the U.S. International Space Station (ISS). Russia has not shipped any engines since March following its invasion of Ukraine, so Northrop Grumman needs an alternative. It can fly two more missions with the Russian-made…