See Jupiter, Moon and Star Spica in the Pre-Dawn Sky Thursday
In the eastern predawn sky from 1:30 am to dawn on Thursday, Dec. 22, the waning crescent moon will sit less than 5 degrees west of (above) Jupiter. Both bright objects will be easy to see with naked eyes. The following morning, the moon will be 7.5 degrees below Jupiter. If you’re up late tonight […]
Space Station greetings
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s season’s greetings from the International Space Station To source
Sci-Fi Gets Science Right: 'Passengers' Nails the Physics
The new science fiction film “Passengers” takes viewers on a journey to the future, when glitzy interstellar starships can transport thousands of hibernating passengers to planets in neighboring star systems. While aspects of its story line may seem like pies in the sky to skeptics, creators of the futuristic space thriller certainly outdid its predecessors […]
'Mars Ice Home': Team Chips Away at Off-Earth House's Design
Artist’s illustration showing crewmembers arriving at their pre-deployed Mars Ice Home. The first pioneers on Mars may build their homes using the ice beneath their feet. In November, a University of Texas research team reported that Mars’ Utopia Planitia region contains about as much water, in the form of buried ice, as Lake Superior does […]
Dim Ursid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight: What to Expect
This NASA graphic shows where the Ursid meteor shower will appear to radiate out from a part of the northern night sky during the 2016 Ursids peak on Dec. 21 and 22. When meteor enthusiasts think of the month of December, they immediately conjure up visions of the Geminids , which over the years has […]
NASA Transition Team Might Get New Members
The new personnel would focus on commercial space issues at the behest of Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who supported Trump during the campaign and is now advising the incoming president, out of concerns that the current landing team was too focused on “legacy” space projects. The Trump transition team has yet to formally announce […]
Winter Moon
Operations image of the week: ESA’s tracking station at Maspalomas seen by the light of a winter Moon To source
JunoCam Showcases Citizen Scientists' Psychedelic Jupiter Art
When scientists with NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter decided to add a camera to the spacecraft, they didn’t exactly know who would be using it. The point of JunoCam was to let the public take pictures of the solar system’s biggest planet in hopes of sharing the thrill of exploration with a wider group of people. […]
Beaming Moon Over Denver: Skywatcher Snaps a Long Supermoon Exposure
Astrophotographer Jeff Warner took the image of the supermoon rising over Denver as captured from Green Mountain in Lakewood, CO on Nov. 14, 2016. A beam of light appears to pierce through the sky in this stunning long-exposure of the supermoon full moon of November. Astrophotographer Jeff Warner took the image of the moon rising […]
Former DA's Photos Capture Space Shuttle Tank's Journey to California
As captured in one of Gil Garcetti’s photos from the exhibition, a truck towed the external tank through the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center. One and a half million people turned out four years ago to watch as space shuttle Endeavour slowly navigated the streets of Los Angeles to be delivered […]
Winter Solstice: The Science of the Shortest Day of 2016
On the winter solstice, the sun is at its southernmost point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter officially kicks off Wednesday (Dec. 21), which marks the December solstice — the day with the fewest hours of sunlight of 2016. Although the solstice gets an entire day of recognition, it happens in an instant: […]
A Deep Space Illusion: Mimas, Saturn's Rings and Cassini
Mimas, one of Saturn’s moons, seems to be on a collision course with the planet’s rings. No fear though, it’s simply an illusion in this image snapped by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Collision course! … or not. Saturn’s battered moon Mimas appears to be headed for a crash through the planet’s trademark rings, but it’s all an […]
Bizarre Antimatter Emits Same Light As Regular Matter
One of the big questions lingering about our universe is why there is so much more matter than antimatter. For the first time, physicists have shown that atoms of antimatter appear to give off the same kind of light that atoms of regular matter do when illuminated with lasers, a new study finds. More precise […]