Month: December 2021

You can still save 20% on Lego Star Wars The Child (aka ‘Baby Yoda’) building set with this deal

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There’s no doubt that the star of the Disney Plus series “The Mandalorian” is the character that viewers have affectionately dubbed “Baby Yoda.” Now fans of the series can enjoy building their very own Lego model of the Star Wars icon.  If you were looking for a Lego Grogu (it’s his real name, after all) to call your own and missed the deep sales on Black Friday, you’re in luck. This Lego Star Wars The Child build-and-display model is still on sale right now at Walmart for $64.00 at Walmart.…

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James Webb Space Telescope successfully deploys antenna

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NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope successfully deployed a critical antenna Sunday (Dec. 26)  just one day after its Christmas launch into space. The space telescope unfolded what scientists call a gimbaled antenna assembly that carries the high-rate data dish responsible for beaming Webb’s observations of the early universe back to Earth. Webb launched into space Saturday atop an Ariane 5 rocket that lifted off from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. “This antenna will be used to send at least 28.6 Gbytes of science data down from the observatory,…

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’29 days on the edge:’ What’s next for NASA’s newly launched James Webb Space Telescope

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NASA’s next big space observatory is finally aloft, but it’ll be a while before it starts its highly anticipated science mission. The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana yesterday (Dec. 25), kicking off a long-delayed, potentially transformative mission to study the early universe, nearby exoplanets and more. Telescope team members (and the rest of us) will have to remain patient, however, for Webb has a lot of work to do before it gets up and running. The telescope is headed for…

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5 space missions to look forward to now that Webb has launched

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The James Webb Space Telescope was a decade late and $10 billion over budget, but it has finally launched.  Now that the telescope is in space, what’s next for astrophysics done from beyond Earth’s surface? Here are five future missions to get excited about. Related: How the James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures Nancy Grace Roman Telescope  This telescope — named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer — was originally called the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope, or WFIRST. Its main purpose is to map large swaths of…

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‘Wind’ from Earth’s middle layer blows through a secret passage beneath Panama

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A geological secret passage beneath Panama may explain why rocks from Earth’s mantle are found more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from where they originated.  This opening, located some 62 miles (100 km) below Earth‘s surface, may allow a flow of mantle materials to travel all the way from beneath the Galápagos Islands to beneath Panama.  This never-before-discovered form of transport may also help explain why Panama has very few active volcanoes. On the west coast of Central America, the Cocos tectonic plate is diving down and pushes oceanic crust…

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Comet Leonard — A Gift at Christmastime

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Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1), which appeared to stall out around magnitude 5 in early December, has become a surprise performer. Since transitioning to the evening sky, it’s undergone three successive […] The post Comet Leonard — A Gift at Christmastime appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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‘It’s truly Christmas’: James Webb Space Telescope’s yuletide launch has NASA overjoyed

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After years of delays, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and several last minute postponements due to technical and weather issues, the James Webb Space Telescope launched into space in a flawless Christmas liftoff that has scientists overjoyed.  “It’s truly Christmas with all the presents and everything and we have a space mission,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science missions, said after the launch.  The James Webb Space Telescope launched early Christmas morning on an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch…

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In photos: The Christmas launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

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(Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn) But first, James Webb Space Telescope had to leave Earth behind and to do that, it had to get to its launch site.  Here is the cargo ship carrying NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope that arrived in French Guiana on Oct. 12, 2021, after a 16-day sea voyage. The space telescope is so large that it could not fit inside the payload fairings of most U.S. rockets, so NASA and its European Space Agency partners (among others) picked Arianespace’s Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket to carry the…

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