NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams are finally headed back to Earth. The duo launched to the International Space Station (ISS) last June on the first-ever crewed…
Category: Astronomy
How climate change could make Earth’s space junk problem even worse
Growing concentrations of greenhouse gases are making the upper atmosphere thinner, decreasing its ability to pull space junk out of orbit. As a result, far fewer satellites will be able…
Arctic ice is melting faster than expected — and the culprit could be dust
NASA’s most ambitious Arctic voyage to date has revealed surprisingly high concentrations of ice particles in clouds over Greenland, a clue that may help explain why Arctic ice is melting…
4 rocky exoplanets found around Barnard’s Star, one of the sun’s nearest neighbors
Scientists have confirmed the existence of four small, rocky planets orbiting Barnard’s Star — the second closest star system to Earth — using a specialized instrument on the mighty Gemini…
James Webb Space Telescope investigates the origins of ‘failed stars’ in the Flame Nebula
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has probed deep into the dusty shroud of a young nebula alight with star formation on the hunt for “failed star” brown dwarfs. Brown…
A total lunar eclipse comes to North America tonight — Here’s everything you need to know about the ‘Blood Worm Moon’
The moon will turn red tonight for skywatchers across the U.S., but to see this total lunar eclipse unfold, you need to be in the right place at the right…
Astronomers crack the case of a mysterious deep space radio signal that repeats every 2 hours
Astronomers have cracked the case of a mysterious repeating radio signal that has been a mystery since it was uncovered last year. The team tracked the signal back to a…
Does exoplanet K2-18b host alien life or not? Here’s why the debate continues
In 2023, debate erupted in the astronomy community about whether life could exist on an exoplanet called K2-18b. It started when a group of scientists published a paper suggesting a…
This month’s ‘blood moon’ eclipse mirrors one Christopher Columbus used to scare indigenous people with in 1504
In 1504, Christopher Columbus, on his fourth trans-Atlantic voyage, was stranded on the shores of Jamaica, with his ships crawling with marine worms and his crew hungry. The Indigenous Arawak…
What will happen during the total lunar eclipse of March 2025?
More than two years have passed since most of North America saw a total lunar eclipse. So be sure to put a big circle on your calendar for Thursday, March…
