Category: Space
See Venus rendezvous with the crescent moon in the night sky tonight (Oct. 5)
On Saturday evening (Oct. 5) as darkness is falling, be sure to take a look low toward the west-southwest part of the sky for a beautiful celestial tableau formed by…
The sun unleashes its strongest flare this cycle
Image of the October 3, 2024 X9 flare seen in extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO Yesterday the sun released a huge solar flare, and it’s heading toward Earth. It’s nothing…
ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket aces 2nd test launch
United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) powerful new Vulcan Centaur rocket is two for two. Vulcan Centaur, the successor to ULA’s workhorse Atlas V, launched today (Oct. 4) at 7:25 a.m. EDT…
Traces of antimatter in cosmic rays reopen the search for ‘WIMPs’ as dark matter
The image shows the predicted flux of antihelium-3 produced from dark matter (WIMPs) that annihilate producing these antinuclei. Each color represents the prediction for a different mass of dark matter,…
Top ISS ‘safety risk’ is a leak that has been ongoing for 5 years, NASA audit finds
A long-running leak is the top “safety risk” affecting the plan to keep astronauts on board the International Space Station until 2030, a new NASA audit found. The affected area,…
South America treated to rare ‘ring of fire’ eclipse
The eclipse starts off looking like a ‘bite’ has been taken out of the Sun. Skygazers on the tip of South America were treated Wednesday to a spectacular “ring of…
How NASA’s bumped SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts felt watching their rocket launch without them
Two astronauts who were supposed to be in space right now say they are still glad to be part of the ground team. Until recently, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and…
New super-Neptune exoplanet discovered
TESS Simple Aperture Photometry of TOI-5005. Credit: Castro-González et al., 2024. An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new super-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star. The newly…
Webb telescope detects traces of carbon dioxide on the surface of Pluto’s largest moon
An SwRI-led team detected carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide spectral signatures on Pluto’s largest moon Charon using Webb telescope observations (white), which extend the wavelength coverage of previous New Horizons…
