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Astronomy Questions: What Do You Know About SpaceX?
As part of the recent release of financial data related to SpaceX’s upcoming Initial Public Offering, we learned a few things about the company. Here are a few questions pertaining to that data and SpaceX operations in general. True or False: SpaceX had a net loss in 2025. Multiple Choice: SpaceX provides computing power to…
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Study Findings: TESS Planet Occurrence Rates Reveal the Disappearance of the Radius Valley around Mid-to-late M Dwarfs
The Astronomical Journal abstract of study findings: We present the deepest systematic search for planets around mid-to-late M dwarfs to date. We have surveyed 8134 mid-to-late M dwarfs observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite with a custom-built pipeline and recover 77 vetted transiting planet candidates. We characterize the sensitivity of our survey via injection–recovery and measure…
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Space Quote: NASA Has Lessons for Automating American Industry
“At NASA, decades of designing humanoid robots for environments that don’t forgive narrow thinking revealed that the machines that failed were the ones built for a single scenario. The ones that succeeded could multitask and be reprogrammed– for deployment in different settings. The arm built for the Space Shuttle, for example, was designed to position…
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Twelfth Starship Launch Successful
Fortunately, the first SpaceX Starship launch of the year (and the twelfth for the rocket) went well yesterday with only a few bumps along the way. While it was not perfect, given that it was the first test of a new version of the rocket, it was a good night for the rocket-maker and NASA.…
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Sci-Fi Quote: Another Star Wars Movie to Save the Day
“Mainly, I’m tired of the world around us, and I’m tired of everything sucking so much. “The Mandalorian” series, which stylistically harkens back to the great spaghetti westerns of the mid-1960s, has brought great joy and escapism, and I will celebrate this new movie and savor its joy and escapism, no matter what any critic…
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Pic of the Week: Crescent Mars
This week’s image comes from the Psyche spacecraft that is utilizing Martian gravity for its flight plan on its way to the asteroid Psyche in the asteroid belt. This image of a crescent Mars is one of many drive-by photos for both science and our enjoyment. Here is more on this Martian part of the…
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NASA Now Has a Deputy Administrator
Well, better late than never. This week the Senate confirmed Matthew Anderson, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, as the new deputy administrator at NASA. Last year, NASA provided this background information on Mr. Anderson: Throughout his over 24-year tenure in the U.S. Air Force, Anderson culminated his career as the U.S. Transportation Command’s senior…
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Videos: Fungi Homes and More About Life On and Beyond Earth
If you need to stretch your mind, I recommend you check out some of the articles and videos available on the Aeon website. As the website states about its purpose: We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psychology, society and culture.…
