• A Day in Astronomy: The Birth of Ray Bradbury

    On this day in 1920, Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois. Mr. Bradybury would grow up to be a famous American author and screenwriter. One of his science fiction works,The Martian Chronicles stories, tells the story of mankind’s colonization of Mars and the ultimate effect on the colonizers. He wrote numerous other famous…

  • Television: The End of The Acolyte

    I cannot say I am surprised that Disney’s new Star Wars television series The Acolyte has been cancelled after only one season. I watched a few episodes and gave up. Given that Disney has decided to spread the Star Wars series very thin over multiple storylines, it seems that the goal has been more TV…

  • Space Stories: Oceans on Ariel, Dinosaur-Killer Asteroid from Beyond Jupiter, and the Launch of the Polaris Dawn Mission

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Forbes: “NASA’s Webb Telescope Finds Evidence For An Ocean World Around Uranus“ New observations by the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that an icy moon around Uranus may have an underground liquid ocean. Ariel is one of 27 moons around Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun and the…

  • One More Wrinkle Related to the Starliner Delay

    As if NASA needed another issue with the Boeing Starliner stranded at the International Space Station (ISS), the media (particularly the Indian media) is now reporting that one of the Starliner astronauts is having eyesight issues. According to one media source, Astronaut Sunita Williams is experiencing eyesight problems that may be linked to her exposure…

  • Movie Quote: Not Such an Alien World

    “The production design harkens back to both Scott and Cameron’s ALIEN movies. It’s a world we recognize so there’s not much new world-building except for the brief glance at an active mining colony. What’s different is the cinematography by Galo Olivares…ALIEN: ROMULUS works as a stand-alone movie, and is probably a better experience if you…

  • Progress MS-28/89 Spacecraft Docks with the ISS

    The Progress MS-28 (or Progress 89 per NASA) spacecraft successfully attached itself to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday so that three tons of supplies could be unloaded. As with previous resupply spacecraft, it will remain attached to the station for the next six months before being ejected back towards Earth where it will burn…

  • Study Findings: Feasibility of Keeping Mars Warm with Nanoparticles

    Science Advances abstract of the study findings: One-third of Mars’ surface has shallow-buried H2O, but it is currently too cold for use by life. Proposals to warm Mars using greenhouse gases require a large mass of ingredients that are rare on Mars’ surface. However, we show here that artificial aerosols made from materials that are…

  • Volunteer Work Pays Off: Sighted Star on Course to Escape the Milky Way

    NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 program allows interested volunteers to search earlier data to potentially locate an extra planet or new brown dwarfs near our solar system. Well, one of these volunteers found something unusual – an object with a mass similar to or less than that of a small star that was traveling fast…

  • Pic of the Week: Russian Launch to Resupply the ISS

    This week’s image is from earlier today when the Russian’s successfully launched its Progress MS-28 cargo spacecraft via a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station (ISS). The resupply mission was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft will rendezvous with the ISS on Saturday. Note: NASA identifies the mission as Progress…

  • Senate Bill to Assist Astronomers with the Night Sky

    On August 1, Senators John W. Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced a bill called The Dark and Quiet Skies Act (S.495) to assist astronomers with the night sky. In a press release from Senator Hickenlooper’s office, we learn the Act would …create a Center of Excellence overseen by National Institute of Standards and…