• Second Launch by German Rocket Company Happens Soon

    You may remember the name Isar Aerospace from its attempt last year to launch a rocket from the Andoya Space Centre in Norway. It was the first test of the German company’s Spectrum two-stage rocket, and it lasted for less than a minute into launch. That’s how these tests often go. The second launch, labeled…

  • Pic of the Week: Close-Up View of the Helix Nebula

    This week’s image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows an up-close view of the Helix Nebula, which is about 650 light years away. Taken by the JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera, we see the colors of the gases moving away from the exploding star. NASA notes: Here, blistering winds of fast-moving hot gas from the…

  • Musk Madness: Tying SpaceX to xAI

    It was German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who said: If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel full of sewage, you get sewage. If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel full of wine, you get… sewage. As much as Elon Musk interferes in German politics, I am not sure whether he…

  • Artemis II: Another Delay Until March

    It appears we will need to wait until next month for the Artemis II launch due to a liquid hydrogen leak during the wet dress rehearsal. As a result, the four astronauts can come our of quarantine and rejoin their families. In its blog, NASA noted other issues as well: In addition to the liquid…

  • Space Stories: Another Artemis II Delay, AI Discovers Cosmic Oddities in Hubble Data, and AI Drives a Martian Rover

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —CBS News: “Artemis II Moon Rocket Fueling Test Runs into Problems with Hydrogen Leak“ A hydrogen leak at the base of NASA’s Artemis II moon rocket Monday threw a wrench into a carefully planned countdown “wet dress” rehearsal, but engineers were able to manage a workaround and the…

  • Podcast: We Need To Talk About AI

    The recent Cool Worlds Podcast is basically a rambling talk about the use of AI in the scientific community. Titled “We Need To Talk About AI,” this dialogue by Professor David Kipping follows his visit to the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton where he heard about how his colleagues are using AI in their…

  • Study Findings: A Binary Model of Long-Period Radio Transients and White Dwarf Pulsars

    Nature Astronomy abstract of study findings: Long-period radio transients (LPTs) represent a recently uncovered class of Galactic radio sources exhibiting minutes to hours periodicities and highly polarized pulses of seconds to minutes duration. Their phenomenology does not fit exactly in any other class, although it might resemble that of radio magnetars or white dwarf (WD) pulsars. Two…

  • Artemis II Mission Delayed by NASA

    The cold weather on the East Coast continues to cause problems, this time for NASA and its planned launch of the Artemis II mission, which will take astronauts around the Moon. Originally scheduled for February 6th, the mission is being delayed two more days until February 8th to allow NASA more time for its wet…

  • Pic of the Week: 40 Years Since the Challenger Shuttle Disaster

    This week’s image shows the seven members of the Challenger Shuttle crew who perished less than two minutes into their flight on January 18, 1986. NASA determined that a leak in one of two Solid Rocket Boosters ignited the main liquid fuel tank. Following the disaster, President Ronald Reagan had this to say: I’ve always…

  • Television: Blade Runner 2099 Coming in 2026

    It seems two movies covering Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was not enough, so an entire television series is being readied by Amazon Prime for release this year. Of course, Amazon Prime has been talking about this series since at least 2022, with the Motion Picture Association stating back then:…