The target chamber at the National Ignition Facility has been the site of a number of breakthroughs in fusion physics. (Image credit: U.S. Department of Energy/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) This article was originally published at The Conversation. (opens in new tab) The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Carolyn Kuranz (opens in new tab), Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of Michigan American scientists have announced what they have called a major breakthrough in a long-elusive goal of creating energy from nuclear fusion. The U.S. Department of Energy…
Read MoreMonth: December 2022
Look up! The Ursid meteor shower starts tonight (Dec. 17)
The annual Ursid meteor shower will begin on Saturday (Dec. 17) and last through the Yuletide period until the day after Christmas day. The Ursid meteor shower will peak on Thursday, Dec. 22, but the following day when the moon is in its fully dark new moon phase might be an opportune time to hunt for bright streaks and fireballs from this meteor shower. Though at their peak the Ursids can produce around 22 meteors per hour, in dark conditions with little illumination from the moon, skywatchers can realistically expect…
Read MoreLeaky Soyuz spacecraft tests thrusters at space station, US spacewalk delayed
A leaky Soyuz capsule at the International Space Station test-fired its thrusters on Friday (Dec. 16) as Russian engineers investigated why it suffered an uncontrolled coolant spill this week. The Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft, called Soyuz MS-22, sprang a coolant leak Wednesday night (Dec. 14) as two cosmonauts prepared to take a spacewalk outside the station. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos canceled that spacewalk and postponed another indefinitely as it investigates the cause of the coolant leak, which sprayed coolant particles into space from an exterior line on the capsule. On Friday,…
Read MoreSpace Station Science Highlights: Week of December 12, 2022
Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of Dec 12 that included analyzing the psychological benefits of growing plants in space, testing a new space crop, and observing liquid behavior in microgravity.
Read MoreHubble Views a Star-Studded Cosmic Cloud
A portion of the open cluster NGC 6530 appears as a roiling wall of smoke studded with stars in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Read MoreNASA Launches International Mission to Survey Earth’s Water
A satellite built for NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) to observe nearly all the water on our planet’s surface lifted off on its way to low-Earth orbit at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday.
Read MoreJames Webb Space Telescope’s best images of all time (gallery)
(Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)) NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Dec. 25, 2021, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Since it arrived at its new cosmic home, Lagrange Point 2, on Jan. 24, 2022, the infrared observatory has been busy sharing some truly breathtaking views of the cosmos. JWST, the largest and most powerful space telescope to date, released its first scientific images on July 12, 2022, but it didn’t stop there. The…
Read MoreSee the final last quarter moon of 2022 rise tonight (Dec. 16)
On Friday (Dec. 16), the moon will enter its last quarter phase for the final time in 2022 with the lunar disk exactly half-illuminated. As seen from New York City, 2022’s final last quarter moon will rise seven degrees above the horizon to the east at around 12:21 a.m. EST (0521 GMT), according to In the Sky (opens in new tab). It will reach its highest point in the sky, 55 degrees above the southern horizon at around 6:00 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) before disappearing in the light of dawn…
Read MoreMars helicopter Ingenuity aces 36th Red Planet flight
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter now has three dozen Mars flights under its belt. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity aced its 36th Red Planet sortie on Sunday (Dec. 10), staying aloft for 60.5 seconds on a flight that covered 361 feet (110 meters) of horizontal distance. Sunday’s hop came just a week after Ingenuity set a new altitude record, soaring 46 feet (14 m) above the floor of Mars‘ Jezero Crater on Dec. 3. The chopper got a maximum of 33 feet (10 m) above the red dirt this past Sunday, according…
Read MoreNASA Awards Contract to Maintain Webb Telescope Operations
NASA has selected Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Redondo Beach, California, to support the James Webb Space Telescope Phase E – Operations and Sustainment contract.
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