• Pic of the Week: New Crew Launched to the Tiangong Space Station

    This week’s image shows today’s launch of three astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station on the Shenzhou 18 mission aboard a Long March 2F rocket. The crew successfully reached the space station 6.5 hours after launch. One of the new crew members has already spent 182 days in orbit aboard the Tiangong space station. The…

  • New Crew will Help Strengthen the Chinese Space Station Against Space Debris

    China is getting ready to send a new crew to its Tiangong space station tomorrow. The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will carry three new crew members to the station, replacing the crew that has been on the station since last October. The current crew had to deal with space debris that damaged its solar panels and led…

  • A Day in Astronomy: First Spaceflight Fatality

    On this day in 1967, the Soviet Union’s Vladimir Komarov became the first spaceflight fatality when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft crashed during reentry as the result of a failed parachute. The accident occurred during what was his second trip to space, his first being aboard the Voskhod 1. Yuri Gagarin served as the backup cosmonaut on the Soyuz…

  • Space Stories: More on Planet 9, A Collision with Pluto, and Explaining Free-Floating Planets

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —IFLScience: “Astronomers Find Evidence Of A Massive Object Beyond The Orbit Of Neptune“ A team of researchers say they have found the “strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet 9 is really out there” in the solar system after studying a population of distant, unstable objects that cross Neptune’s orbit…In…

  • Juno Views Lava Lake on Io

    The Juno spacecraft is still hard a work in the vicinity of Jupiter, with its latest mission being a flyby of the moon Io earlier this month (shown above). Two recent flybys of the moon were also combined to create an image of a lake of cooling lava (shown below and via the video here).…

  • In Case You Missed It: One Way to Get Kids into Planetariums

    It may be an unusual way to encourage children to visit a planetarium, but it seems to be working. Taylor Swift light shows appear to be the new rage at planetariums across the country. The image above comes from the light show at the Saint Louis planetarium, though you can find similar shows at planetariums…

  • Study Findings: Genomic, Functional, and Metabolic Enhancements in Multidrug-Resistant Enterobacter Bugandensis Facilitating its Persistence and Succession in the International Space Station

    PubMed  abstract of the study findings: Distinct from their Earth counterparts, ISS E. bugandensis strains have exhibited resistance mechanisms that categorise them within the ESKAPE pathogen group, a collection of pathogens recognised for their formidable resistance to antimicrobial treatments. During the 2-year Microbial Tracking 1 mission, 13 strains of multidrug-resistant E. bugandensis were isolated from various locations within…

  • Pic of the Week: Pa 30 – The Temporary Star

    This week’s image is a circular nebula that first appears more than 800 years ago, shocking those observing it on Earth at the time and lasting for about 185 days. The circular nebula, called Pa 30, is shown above as a composite of multiple telescopes, including the Chandar X-ray Observatory, which is now facing a…

  • Movie: Rebel Moon, Part Two: The Scargiver

    If you enjoyed part one of Netflix’s Rebel Moon, then you will be happy to hear that part two will premiere this Friday (April 19). If you are not a fan, then you can simply ignore this announcement. The full name, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, follows last year’s Rebel Moon – Part…

  • Space Stories: Protests to Save Chandra, Problems Retrieving Martian Sample, and TESS is Getting Testy

    Here are some recent stories related to NASA missions. —PhysicsWorld: “US Astronomers Slam Cuts to the Chandra X-ray Observatory“ X-ray astronomers in the US have begun a campaign to save the Chandra X-ray Observatory from budget cuts that would effectively end the mission. They assert that the craft, which was launched in 1999, has plenty of life left in…