• A 3D Billboard Displaying NASA’s History

    If you want to see something that is both fun and educational, check out the 30-foot 3D billboard display outside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida. Created by Blunt Action, the billboard plays out the history of NASA’s space program from its origins with the Mercury missions all the way to…

  • Pic of the Week: Ghostly Apparitions

    I wanted to share one more image before we leave Halloween behind, this time from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. Here is a description from NASA regarding the image above: The jeweled expanse, filled with faint, starlight-reflecting clouds, drifts through the night in the royal constellation of Cepheus. Far from your own neighborhood on…

  • Television/Book Review: Beacon 23

    You probably already subscribe to half a dozen streaming platforms, but does it include MGM+ (formerly known as Epix)? If not, you will miss the November 12th premiere of a new eight-episode series called Beacon 23. Here is the basic story from MGM+ (and here is the trailer): Beacon 23 takes place in the farthest…

  • Space Stories: Dinosaur Dust, Missing Stars, and SETI Signals

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Royal Observatory of Belgium: “Dust Played a Major Role in Dinosaur Demise“ Fine dust from pulverized rock generated by the Chicxulub impact likely played a dominant role in global climate cooling and the disruption of photosynthesis following the event. This is suggested by a new study published in Nature…

  • Study Findings: A Planetary Collision Afterglow and Transit of the Resultant Debris Cloud

    Nature abstract of the study findings: Planets grow in rotating disks of dust and gas around forming stars, some of which can subsequently collide in giant impacts after the gas component is removed from the disk. Monitoring programmes with the warm Spitzer mission have recorded substantial and rapid changes in mid-infrared output for several stars,…

  • A Day in Astronomy: Flyby of Asteroid Gaspra

    On this day in 1991, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft conducted a flyby of asteroid Gaspra, an asteroid that orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid is about 10.5 miles long. Gaspra was discovered in 1916 by Russian astronomer G. N. Neujmin, who named it after a famous Russian spa retreat in Crimea. The Galileo…

  • Source of ISS Leak Identified on Russian Module

    We know Mr. Putin wants to pursue his own space station, but how about fixing the one Russia is already part of? Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub conducted a spacewalk this week to investigate the third leak aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Luckily, the source of the leak was found – a 2010 radiator…

  • Space Quote: Russia Moves Past Moon Crash and Readies for a New Space Station

    “Mistakes are mistakes. It is a shame for all of us. This is space exploration and everyone understands that. It is experience that we can use in the future.” -Statement by Russia’s President Putin, as reported by Reuters, addressing the Luna-25 crash on the Moon in August. He added that the lunar missions will continue.…

  • Pic of the Week: Get Ready for Halloween!

    NASA has an image for all of us just in time for Halloween. The strange face you see above is a view of Jupiter taken on September 7, 2023 by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on its 54th close flyby of the planet. NASA explains what you are seeing in this northern region of Jupiter: The image…

  • Space Stories: Distant Spacecraft Updates, Lucy Gets Ready for a Flyby, and Lunar Near-Earth Asteroids

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Space.com: “NASA’s interstellar Voyager Probes Get Software Updates Beamed from 12 Billion Miles Away“ About 46 years after NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched on an epic journey to explore space, the probes’ antique hardware continues to receive tweaks from afar. One update, a software fix, ought to…