• Astronomy Question: Planetary Rotation

    Multiple Choice: Which planet in our solar system rotates in the opposite direction of every other planet? A. VenusB. JupiterC. Uranus Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Astronomy Question Answer Sheet” page.

  • Upcoming Space Policy Conflicts?

    Will Elon Musk have the freedom to muck around at NASA and with space policy in general? It all depends whether VP-elect J.D. Vance is willing to step aside from what could be seen as a duplicative space policy role, as noted in The Conversation: Vice-president-elect J.D. Vance will chair the National Space Council, which…

  • NASA’s Management Challenges

    With NASA now facing a new administration in Washington, it is worth looking at where the agency is at the moment and what may need some attention. The 2024 Report on NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges, released by the NASA Office of the Inspector General (OIG), is a good place to start. Here are…

  • Television: Remember to Tune into “Dune: Prophecy” Tomorrow Night

    One more reminder to tune into HBO’s Dune: Prophecy tomorrow night, with the final trailer gives you one last look at what’s in store. I for one look forward to anything that can take me away from this planet for a little while. You might also enjoy the ScreenRant interview with series executive producer Jordan…

  • Videos: Behind the Scenes Look at the Evil Empire

    If the political news these days is a bit too much, I recommend you sit back and have some fun with a few Star Wars videos. The For the Empire series provides humorous behind-the-scene antics in the Empire. One of my favorite short films is The Battlefield where a storm trooper encounters a Jedi on…

  • Pic of the Week: The Red Monsters

    This week’s image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was highlighted by researchers at the University of Bath. It represents three ultra-massive galaxies about the size of our Milky Way from the first billion years of the universe following the Big Bang. The researchers discuss this in their paper in Nature, Accelerated Formation of…

  • Space Quote: NASA Prepares for Outside “Help”

    “Elon’s interest in small government exceeds Elon’s interest in space architecture…The challenges, I think, NASA faces are much more organizational and cultural than they are technical.” –Statement by Greg Autry, who is currently associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida, but earlier served on the first Trump administration’s NASA…

  • Another Employee Cut at JPL

    Earlier today, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced additional employee cuts: While we have taken various measures to meet our current FY’25 budget allocation, we have reached the difficult decision to reduce the JPL workforce through layoffs. This reduction affects approximately 325 of our colleagues, an impact of about 5% of our workforce. The impacts…

  • Space Stories: Potential Life on Uranus, a Sick ISS Astronaut, and a Feasting Black Hole

    —BBC: “New Study on Moons of Uranus Raises Chance of Life“ The Voyager 2 observations had suggested that its two largest moons — Titania and Oberon — often orbit outside the magnetosphere. However, the new study indicates they tend to stay inside the protective bubble, making it easier for scientists to magnetically detect potential subsurface oceans.…

  • Profile: The SkAI Institute?

    The SkAI Institute is an abbreviation for the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky. It is a new initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Simons Foundation to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into astronomy. According to the SkAI Institute’s website, the vision of this new organization is to bring together about 25 partner…