• Space Mission: A Trip to the Oort Cloud?

    While NASA does not have any plans to send a specific missions to study the Oort Cloud, the most distant region in our solar system containing trillions of frozen objects, it has already sent five spacecraft in that direction. Two Voyager spacecraft, two Pioneer spacecraft, and the New Horizons spacecraft are all heading that way,…

  • Space Quote: Finally Seeing the Individual Leaves

    “It is like humanity just got a brand-new pair of eyeglasses for the distant universe…We are suddenly seeing that those green areas on the tops of trees are actually made of thousands of individual leaves. We suspected it, but we are now seeing it for the first time.” -Statement by planetary astromomer Heidi Hammel in…

  • A Day in Astronomy: Curiosity Rover Arrives on Mars

    On this day in 2012, the Mars rover Curiosity landed on Mars (using Eastern Time). The rover was sent to the Red Planet to to explore the Gale crater and look for evidence that Mars had the conditions needed to support microscopic life in its past. A video from NASA walks you through the rover’s exploration to date and also highlights Maggie,…

  • Profile: The Cosmosphere

    You may have visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum or ventured down to Florida to visit the Kennedy Space Center, but have you heard of the Cosmosphere in Kansas? Started in 1962, the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas claims to host “…the largest combined collection of U.S. and Russian space artifacts in the world…

  • Pic of the Week: The Cartwheel Galaxy

    This week’s picture is one of the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It shows the Cartwheel Galaxy, which is about 500 million light-years away. The Hubble’s view of this same galaxy is provided below. Here is a little more from NASA: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has peered into the chaos…

  • Movie: Mutiny in Outer Space

    If Hollywood is not planning to provide any summertime space movies, maybe it’s time to check the archives for something fun from the past. One such movie is Mutiny in Outer Space, a black and white film from 1965. You can find it on the Internet Archive and Youtube. The story involves a space station…

  • Lunar Pits Offer Refuge

    If you are looking for a comfortable spot on the Moon, you could do much worse than a lunar pit. These pits have shaded portions that maintain a comfortable temperature of about 63 F. That is much better than the surface temperatures of 260 F in the day and minus 280 F at night. Such…

  • China Needs Reusable Rockets

    A few days ago debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket landed in the waters off the Philippine island of Palawan. The 1.8 million pounds of rocket brought a module to the Chinese space station. Such problems with Chinese rocket debris is a clear example that China needs to follow both SpaceX and Blue Origin…

  • RIP: Nichelle Nichols (aka Lt. Nyota Uhura)

    This weekend we lost actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original Star Trek television series. She was 89. Back in 1966, her role as part of the crew on the U.S.S. Enterprise was a risky and eye-opening move by creator Gene Roddenberry in a nation divided by race (as well as…

  • ISS Research Projects

    Have you ever wondered about all of the scientific projects, past and present, on the International Space Station (ISS)? Quite a bit has happened onboard the station since it was first occupied back in November 2000. Fortunately, NASA maintains an inventory of all of these projects. The Space Station Research Explorer provides information on all…