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A Day in Astronomy: Mariner 9 Launched Towards Mars
On this day in 1971, the Mariner 9 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. It would become the first spacecraft from Earth to orbit Mars (or any other planet). It arrived at Mars on November 14, 1971. The Soviets were also working on their own program, launching their two Mars-bound spacecraft even…
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Profile: Asteroid Bennu
Back in 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected samples from asteroid Bennu, named after the ancient Egyptian mythological bird associated with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. These samples are scheduled to return to Earth until next year, but in the meantime there is already a lot that NASA knows about this asteroid. Some of the key points are listed…
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TV: Obi-Wan Kenobi
While Star Trek is generally a better fit for an astronomy site, I did not want to ignore the release this week of Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. As with the other similar releases in the last few years, including The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Disney is mining the Star Wars stories for new…
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Black Holes in the Center of Galaxies are More Common Than We Thought
We already knew a supermassive black hole sits at the center of our galaxy and others like it, but what about dwarf galaxies? SciTechDaily reports that astronomers in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Department of Physics & Astronomy have found that large black holes are also more common than previously thought in dwarf galaxies.…
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Pic of the Week: Eerie Crater Marks the Spot
This week’s pic is an eerie crater within the Airy Crater on Mars that marks an important spot – 0° longitude on Mars. You can see this position of this smaller crater, Airy-0, within the larger crater below. NASA posted this image on Instagram with a few more details: The larger crater that sits within…
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SpaceX is Worth About $125 Billion
Even though Tesla is having valuation issues these days as Mr. Musk pursues Twitter, SpaceX seems to be doing well. Nasdaq news reports that the company had no issues raising $1.5 billion in new funding. The valuation for the company is now $125 billion, up from $100 billion last year. While the company is earning…
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Hubble: Galaxies Are Moving Away Even Faster Than Expected
Astronomers using data from the Hubble Space Telescope have determined that the universe is expanding at a faster rate than estimated earlier. Using the Hubble data, the press release stated: After 30 years of meticulous work using the Hubble telescope’s extraordinary observing power, numerous teams of astronomers have narrowed the expansion rate to a precision…
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You Stole My Dark Matter!
ScienceDaily reports that astrophysicists found some small galaxies lack Dark Matter after encounters with larger galaxies. In the article, “How Galaxies Can Exist Without Dark Matter,” we learn that the astrophysicists found seven galaxies stripped of dark matter after collisions with galaxies about 1,000 times more massive. Astrophysicist James Bullock from the University of California,…
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In Case You Missed It: Public Views on the Space Program
Back in July 2019, the Pew Research Institute issued the results of earlier surveys about the US space program. Let’s look at the answers to six of the questions: Most Americans think sending astronauts to Mars or the Moon should be a lower priority for NASA – or say it should not be done at…
