Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of August 9 that included using engineered tissues to study muscle loss, advancing plant growth in space, and running a computer-based education program.
Read MoreMonth: August 2021
Solar Orbiter spacecraft sends postcard from Venus in flyby video
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter took this video of the glowing crescent of Venus as it passed the planet at a distance of about 5,000 miles during a gravity-assist flyby in August 2021. (Image credit: ESA/NASA/NRL/SoloHI/Phillip Hess) The sun-exploring spacecraft Solar Orbiter has captured this video of a glowing crescent of Venus as it flew past the planet during an orbit adjustment maneuver on Monday (Aug 9). The video was taken by Solar Orbiter’s Heliospheric Imager, or SoloHI, as the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA satellite zipped by the hot and…
Read MoreInternational Space Station Experiment Expands DNA Research Toolkit Using CRISPR
Studying DNA repair is key to future space exploration, which could expose humans to risk of DNA damage caused by radiation.
Read MoreHow Black Holes Eat Reveals Their Mass
No one knows why quasars flicker — but astronomers are using these wavering beacons to “weigh” the black holes that power them. The post How Black Holes Eat Reveals Their Mass appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreAurora Australis Lights Up the Sky
This image, taken from aboard the International Space Station, shows the aurora australis as it streams across the Earth’s atmosphere.
Read MoreThis Week’s Sky at a Glance, August 13 – 21
The Moon waxes from first quarter to gibbous in the evening sky, offering some of its most interesting telescopic aspects. Venus grows more insistent in the western twilight. And Jupiter and especially Saturn pose well in the southeast to south by late evening. The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, August 13 – 21 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreNASA, Boeing to Provide Update on Starliner’s Orbital Flight Test-2
NASA and Boeing are continuing discussions on the status of the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission, and will host a joint media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 13, to discuss the second uncrewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Read More‘No Man’s Sky’ marks 5th birthday with epic trailer (and a free expansion)
[embedded content] British game developer Hello Games is celebrating the fifth anniversary of their successful space survival game “No Man’s Sky” this month with a free new expansion to its virtual universe.. The new expansion will be called “Frontiers” and a new teaser trailer has given very little away about what we can expect when it is finally released. We do know that it will be available for Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S as well as PC and that it is “coming soon.” Frontiers will be…
Read MoreHow big is a black hole? How messily it ‘eats’ may be a clue.
Astronomers think they have a new way to calculate the size of supermassive black holes: by studying the feeding patterns of these invisible giants. Scientists have long noticed flickering patterns in the brightness of accretion disks, the fat ring of matter pulled in by a black hole’s gravity. But researchers weren’t sure what caused the flickering. Now, by studying dozens of known supermassive black holes, a team of astrophysicists has determined that the flickering of an accretion disk relates to the mass of the black hole swathed inside it —…
Read MorePerseid meteor shower of 2021 thrills skywatchers
Share your photos! (Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA) If you take a cool photo of the 2021 Perseid meteor shower let us know! You can send images and comments to spacephotos@space.com. The expected peak of the 2021 Perseid meteor shower overnight on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 11-12) thrilled amateur astronomers as Earth passed through the debris tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Images, videos and excited comments populated social media platforms as people watched the “shooting star” show, underneath a small crescent moon. You can still catch a good show late Thursday night…
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