The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 49 crew members NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos, and astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016 (Kazakh time). To source
CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope in Australia spotted the first signs of a FRB. Follow-up observations identified its location and host galaxy, the first determination for an FRB. When the SETI community adopted protocols for telling the world that ET exists, people mostly got their news from radio, TV and newspapers. The year was 1989. The […]
The campaign logo for the Airbus Safran Launchers and Arianespace contest MyAriane6. The grand-prize winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to see the launch of an Ariane 5 rocket in French Guiana. An online contest will give one lucky winner a free trip to French Guiana to see the launch of an Ariane 5 rocket. […]
In NASA’s eyes, a record-breaking laser-communications test in 2013 was just the beginning. In 2019, the space agency plans to launch a mission that will extend upon the progress made during that 2013 trial, which was performed by NASA’s LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer ) spacecraft. LADEE’s Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) experiment sent […]
The total solar eclipse of moves through its phases in this collage taken by astrophotgrapher Justin Ng from Palu, Indonesia on March 9, 2016. The big event is set for Aug. 21, 2017: The first total solar eclipse to go coast to coast in the U.S. in 99 years is now less than 10 months […]
In a conversation with “Star Trek” actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg, space station astronaut Kate Rubins said she feels like she’s living in the future — and that the iconic science fiction franchise is fairly accurate in representing life in orbit. Paramount Movies uploaded the full, 25-minute video to YouTube this week as part of […]
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is pictured inside of the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft while conducting routine spacesuit checks. The Expedition 49 trio of Rubins, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin are scheduled to undock their Soyuz on Saturday, Oct. 29, and land at 11:59 p.m. EDT. To source
An artist’s impression of the Milky Way as seen from the outside. New research suggests that the Orion Spur, or Arm, is almost twice as long as scientists had previously thought. The sun’s galactic neighborhood just became a bit more significant. New research reveals that the sun’s branch of the Milky Way may be several […]
The wispy tendrils of a long-dead star curl around a dense sphere of extraordinary power in this spooky view of the Crab Nebula . The star that became the Crab Nebula went supernova centuries ago, from Earth’s perspective — in 1054, it burned so brightly that skywatchers could see it shining during the day for […]
Our week through the lens: 24-28 October 2016 To source
Artist’s illustration of NASA’s New Horizons Pluto probe beaming data home to Earth. New Horizons finished sending all of the data collected during its July 2015 Pluto flyby to mission control on Oct. 25, 2016. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has finally finished beaming home all of the data it gathered during its historic July 2015 […]
Satellite engineers have been puzzling over why GPS navigation systems on low-orbiting satellites like ESA’s Swarm sometimes black out when they fly over the equator between Africa and South America. Thanks to Swarm, it appears ‘thunderstorms’ in the ionosphere are to blame. To source
Pluto, imaged by the New Horizons probe. The heart-shaped region in the lower hemisphere was renamed recently by the mission team, from Sputnik Planum to Sputnik Planitia. The western lobe of Pluto’s famous heart has a new name. Members of NASA’s New Horizons mission team gave unofficial names to the dwarf planet’s features when the […]