NASA has investigated humanity’s impact on a number of our home planet’s natural resources and recently explored our impact on freshwater resources.
Read MoreMonth: March 2021
Test pilot Brian Binnie recounts his historic flight on SpaceShipOne and the future of private space travel in new book
Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and test pilot for SpaceShipOne, the experimental space plane created by aeronautical pioneer, Burt Rutan, and his innovative company, Scaled Composites. SpaceShipOne was the product of a joint venture between entrepreneur Paul Allen and Scaled Composites. On Oct. 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne was released from its White Knight mothership, and with Binnie at the controls, he made the second suborbital flight in one week’s time to snag the $10 million Ansari X Prize flight purse. That pioneering passage of space and time…
Read MoreBright Nova Erupts in Cassiopeia
A new nova in Cassiopeia, discovered on March 18th, is bright enough to see in a small telescope. The post Bright Nova Erupts in Cassiopeia appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreThe biggest asteroid to visit Earth in 2021 zooms by our planet unusually fast today
The biggest asteroid to visit Earth this year is zoomimg by our planet today (March 21) and it’s a real speed demon. The asteroid 2001 FO32 is hurtling through space at an unusually fast speed for a space rock, about 77,000 mph (124,0000 kph), and will pass by Earth at a safe range of 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers), according to NASA. It won’t come this close to Earth again until 2052. Asteroid 2001 FO32 is up to 2,230 feet (680 meters) wide and poses no impact risk to…
Read MoreGlowing ‘dawn storm’ auroras that blaze in Jupiter’s morning skies are born in darkness
Jupiter’s otherworldly glimmer of polar auroras is periodically brightened by brief but intense early morning displays known as dawn storms. Now, for the first time, scientists have figured out where dawn storms come from, how they grow, and that they’re even more powerful than expected. Scientists knew about dawn storms from telescopes in space and on Earth. But most of those instruments only provided partial glimpses of the storms, showing whatever was visible on the side of Jupiter that faced the sun. Enter the Juno mission. The Ultraviolet Spectrograph on…
Read MoreAsteroids named for diverse group of 27 trailblazing astronauts
A group of astronauts who are trailblazers for their respective ethnicities are now true “rock stars,” having asteroids named for them. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) Minor Planet Center, which oversees the designation of small bodies in the solar system, recently released the list of official asteroid names honoring 27 space travelers of African American, Hispanic and Native American descent. The namesakes include active and former NASA astronauts, U.S. Air Force astronaut candidates and one Soviet-era cosmonaut. All 27 astronaut-named asteroids were discovered in the asteroid belt between Mars and…
Read MoreIn the Space.com forums this week: The best space shows, can Elon Musk’s SpaceX reach Mars and more!
This week, the Space.com forums community shares some of their favorite space-themed TV shows. We also wonder about Elon Musk’s future ambitions and imagine life in another galaxy. What are your favorites? “Star Trek” is a favorite of the Space.com team as well. (Image credit: CBS) Join the conversation Let us know what you think of SpaceX, science fiction and more in our Space.com Forums here! This week’s Community Question focused on the space-themed TV shows that we loved the most. As any space enthusiast can imagine, there were some…
Read MoreNASA likely to stay the course to the moon under Bill Nelson, if confirmed
Don’t expect big changes at NASA if Bill Nelson does end up leading the space agency. On Friday (March 19), President Joe Biden announced that he intends to nominate Nelson, a former three-term U.S. senator from Florida and longtime space policy player, as NASA administrator. The choice signals that shakeups are unlikely in big-ticket NASA projects, such as the Artemis program of crewed lunar exploration, said space policy expert John Logsdon. “One of the buzz phrases during the [presidential] transition was ‘continuity of purpose,’ and I think that’s what one…
Read MoreWow! This incredible image of the Milky Way took 12 years to create
Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsavainio spent 1,250 hours over the course of about 12 years creating a single image that reveals the magnificent beauty of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Back in 2009, Metsavainio began this project, which is a 100,000-pixel mosaic of the Milky Way composed of 234 individual images all stitched together. The resulting image (which you can see below) captures the entire galaxy, speckled with about 20 million of the Milky Way’s roughly 200 billion stars. The entire Milky Way, as imaged by J-P Metsavainio. (Image credit: J-P…
Read MoreAstronomy in Pictures: Jupiter’s Aurora, Cosmic Threads & Newborn Stars
This week in pictures: Astronomers have watched auroral storms at Jupiter, imaged strands of the cosmic web, and seen stellar fireworks off the sword of Orion. The post Astronomy in Pictures: Jupiter's Aurora, Cosmic Threads & Newborn Stars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
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