“5… 4… 3… 2… 1. Thunderbirds are go!” John Williams fanfares, opening crawls, and Star Destroyers chasing blockade runners are all very well, but Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s puppet classic…
Category: Astronomy
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch paints glowing ‘jellyfish’ across Western US skies (photos, video)
Parts of the Western United States were treated to a cosmic spectacle Sunday evening, as a giant streak illuminated the skies from Los Angeles to Phoenix. Minutes after SpaceX’s Sept.…
To the stars: a stellar trivia quiz
Stars are the glittering beacons of the universe — massive nuclear furnaces that light up the night sky and shape the very fabric of galaxies. From the humble red dwarfs…
Streak seekers: The ultimate meteor shower quiz
There’s something magical about watching a meteor shower—those fleeting bursts of light that streak across the night sky, leaving behind awe and wonder. For centuries, people have looked up during…
Why 2025’s Harvest Moon is a rare October full moon
Our next full moon will occur on Oct. 6, and it will be a somewhat special one for those living in the Northern Hemisphere in that it will also carry…
JWST finds ‘dark beads’ and wonky star patterns in Saturn’s sky: ‘These features were completely unexpected’
For a planet already famous for its beauty and mysteries, Saturn just became even more enigmatic. Fresh observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — the most detailed yet…
NASA’s IMAP spacecraft getting packed up for launch photo of the day for Sept. 24, 2025
Recently, NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), along with the agency’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-1) spacecraft, were encapsulated inside the payload fairing…
Virgin Galactic to launch ‘Purdue 1’ human spaceflight in 2027
The university known as the cradle of astronauts will soon send a few more folks to the final frontier. Twenty-eight alumni of Indiana-based Purdue have flown to space or been…
‘If it’s possible, it must be done’: Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck has his eyes on missions to Mars and Venus
Rocket Lab wants to bring NASA’s Perseverance rover samples back from Mars. As interest in Mars Sample Return (MSR) resurfaces, Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck says his company…
SpaceX launches 28 Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast (video)
SpaceX launched its 119th Falcon 9 mission of the year today (Sept. 21), sending another batch of its Starlink internet satellites aloft from Florida’s Space Coast. A Falcon 9 rocket…
