Original full-cast audio dramas harkening back to the golden age of radio are all the rage these days, with impressive productions being mounted for our favorite geek franchises like “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” and “Star Trek.” With the second season of “Star Trek: Picard” now slated to premiere on March 3 on Paramount Plus, an ambitious new radio drama titled “Star Trek: Picard – No Man’s Land” is being delivered by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, the writing team behind IDW’s upcoming “Star Trek: Discovery – Adventures in the 32nd…
Read MoreMonth: January 2022
Tonga eruption was so intense, it caused the atmosphere to ring like a bell
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption reached an explosive crescendo on Jan. 15, 2022. Its rapid release of energy powered an ocean tsunami that caused damage as far away as the U.S. West Coast, but it also generated pressure waves in the atmosphere that quickly spread around the world. The atmospheric wave pattern close to the eruption was quite complicated, but thousands of miles away it appeared as an isolated wave front traveling horizontally at over 650 miles an hour as it spread outward. NASA’s James Garvin, chief scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, told NPR the…
Read MoreChina lays out ambitious space plans for next 5 years
China’s next five years in space may be even busier than the previous five. On Friday (Jan. 28), the nation released a white paper outlining its plans and priorities for the next half-decade of spaceflight and exploration. China has achieved a great deal in the final frontier recently, from returning moon samples to Earth to starting the assembly of a space station, and the document makes clear that the country plans to build on those successes. “In the next five years, China will integrate space science, technology and applications while…
Read MoreThe James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st target star is in the Big Dipper. Here’s where to see it.
The James Webb Space Telescope is setting its eyes towards the Big Dipper. Although the spacecraft is still months away from beginning its official scientific observations, one particularly bright star named HD 84406 will soon be the object of JWST’s attention. “Star light, star bright … the first star Webb will see is HD 84406, a sun-like star about 260 light years away,” NASA officials tweeted on Friday (Jan. 28) via JWST’s official Twitter account. HD 84406 is located in the constellation Ursa Major, which means “Big Bear” in Latin.…
Read MoreHow NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope project chief used Jimmy Buffett quotes to thank mission team
Turns out that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope project manager is a self-described “parrot head.” The term is a playful reference to fans of calypso singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who project manager Bill Ochs recently quoted when congratulating the Webb Space Telescope team. (For his part, Buffett was said to once call his fans “parrot heads” after seeing several at a concert with parrots on their heads; the term stuck.) The $10 billion Webb observatory lifted off Dec. 25 following years of development delays and budget overruns. Happily, however, Webb has…
Read MoreNASA Awards Multiple Construction Contracts
NASA has awarded 12 construction contracts for work to be performed predominantly at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, and at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Read MoreSpace Station Science Highlights: Week of January 24, 2022
Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of Jan. 24 that included several studies of plant growth and development and an examination of how liquid behaves in a tank in microgravity.
Read MoreStar facts: History, formation and classification
Astronomers are constantly learning new star facts as space exploration and technology evolves. To make sense of these new findings, it’s important to know the basics. Stars are giant, luminous spheres of plasma. There are billions of them — including our own sun — in the Milky Way galaxy. And there are billions of galaxies in the universe. So far, we have learned that hundreds also have planets orbiting them. History of observations Since the dawn of recorded civilization, stars played a key role in religion and proved vital to…
Read MoreRemembering Challenger and Her Crew
In this image taken in 1985, four members of the Challenger STS-51L crew train on the flight deck of the shuttle crew compartment.
Read MoreSpaceX will launch an Italian Earth-observation satellite today after weather delay. Watch it live.
SpaceX will launch an Italian Earth-observation satellite to orbit today (Jan. 28), a day later than planned due to bad weather, and you can watch it live when it lifts off. A two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 (CSG-2) satellite is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday at 6:11 p.m. EST (2311 GMT). SpaceX initially aimed to launch the mission Thursday, but postponed it for 24 hours less than hour before liftoff. “Due to unfavorable weather, now targeting…
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