China’s first interplanetary mission marked its second anniversary in orbit around Mars on Feb. 10, but there was no update on the status of the mission’s rover. The Tianwen 1 mission’s Zhurong rover entered hibernation in May 2022 due to declining solar power available to the spacecraft during winter in Mars’ northern hemisphere. Zhurong was expected to wake up in December, around the time of the spring equinox, but China and its space authorities have remained silent on the status of the rover. Related: Will China’s Zhurong Mars rover wake…
Read MoreMonth: February 2023
Kerbal Space Program 2 makes it easier than ever to launch — and crash — rockets (exclusive 1st look video)
I am not a rocket scientist. If that wasn’t clear before I spent three hours trying out Kerbal Space Program 2 in a sneak preview, it’s pretty clear now and I had a blast figuring it out. KSP 2, the long-awaited sequel to the popular space simulator Kerbal Space Program, will launch into early access on Feb. 24 and it has never been easier to launch rockets and space planes. First, some background. I got a sneak peek at KSP 2 from its makers Private Division and Intercept Games in…
Read MoreInside SyFy’s ‘The Ark’: Creator Dean Devlin on his spirited new sci-fi survival series (exclusive)
The new science fiction survival series “The Ark” launched onto the SyFy channel this month, bringing us the latest space adventure from the successful braintrust of Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner. If these names sound familiar it’s because the prolific pair has been an instrumental part of the sci-fi genre’s resurgence over the past three decades. Devlin co-wrote the screenplay for 1994’s “Stargate” as well as “Independence Day,” “Godzilla” and “Geostorm,” which he directed. Glassner helped adapt “Stargate” into the TV show “Stargate SG-1” and revived “The Outer Limits” for…
Read MoreChina to send 2 astronaut crews, 1 cargo ship to Tiangong space station this year
China plans to launch a pair of crewed missions to its new space station this year, with supplies also heading to orbit on a Tianzhou cargo ship. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced (opens in new tab) on Wednesday (Feb. 15) that it plans to launch the Shenzhou 16 crew mission to the newly operational Tiangong space station in May, with Shenzhou 17 following nearly six months later, in October. Each Shenzhou crew spacecraft will carry three astronauts, whose identities usually remain secret until the day before their launch…
Read MoreHidden lights on the sun could help crack solar atmosphere mystery
New X-ray observations of the sun could help crack the mystery of the star’s inexplicably hot outer atmosphere, the corona. The sun is an unmistakable and unmissable feature in the sky over Earth, bathing our planet with light. Yet, not all of this light is visible to our eyes, which see only a relatively narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum. New observations by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) have revealed high-energy light from our star that our eyes are incapable of spotting. In an image, released by NASA (opens…
Read MoreNew auroras detected on Jupiter’s four largest moons
Astronomers have discovered new auroras over Jupiter’s four largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, observable at visible wavelengths. The new auroras reveal in greater detail the composition of the thin atmospheres of these Jovian moons, including traces of oxygen and sodium, but only minimal water vapor. The team made the discovery while observing the moons as they sat in the shadow of Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, using the Keck Observatory’s High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) as well as high-resolution spectrographs at the Large Binocular Telescope and Apache Point…
Read MoreRussian Progress cargo ship undocks from space station despite coolant leak
A robotic Russian cargo ship stricken by a coolant leak undocked from the International Space Station late Friday (Feb.17) while a cosmonaut snapped photos of it looking for signs of damage. The Progress spacecraft, known as Progress 82 by NASA and Progress MS-21 by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, cast off from the space station’s Poisk module at 9:26 p.m. EST (0226 GMT) after nearly four months at the orbiting lab. Its departure came seven days after Roscosmos engineers reported a coolant leak on the uncrewed Progress ship on Feb. 11,…
Read MoreLeonardo da Vinci’s lost sketches show early experiments to understand gravity
Leonardo da Vinci’s centuries-old sketches reveal he may have understood key aspects of gravity long before Galileo, Newton and Einstein. A recent study from the California Institute of Technology examined diagrams in da Vinci’s notebooks that had been long forgotten about. These notebooks, which have now been digitized, show experiments from the early 1500s of particles falling from a pitcher, demonstrating gravity is a form of acceleration, according to a statement (opens in new tab) from the university. “It wasn’t until 1604 that Galileo Galilei would theorize that the distance…
Read More‘Fantastic Voyage’ and ‘One Million Years B.C.’ star Raquel Welch dies at 82
Award-winning American actress Raquel Welch has died at the age of 82 following a short illness after a prolific career in Hollywood that included starring roles in a pair of classic science fiction and fantasy films with “Fantastic Voyage” and “One Million Years B.C.” Per Deadline (opens in new tab), Welch passed away on Wednesday (Feb. 15) leaving a legacy of more than 50 feature films and dozens of TV series appearances that included roles in “McCale’s Navy,” “Bewitched,” “The Virginian,” and even a later 1997 cameo on “Seinfeld.” Born…
Read MoreRare red auroras explode over America’s and Europe’s north, and more are on their way
A stream of solar plasma arrived at Earth last night (Feb. 16), supercharging the atmosphere with particles from the solar wind that triggered rare red aurora displays across vast portions of Canada, northern U.S. and Europe. And space weather forecasters promise that more is on its way. Twitter has been virtually awash over the past days with skywatchers’ images and accounts of spectacular aurora sightings. The latest wave of dancing polar lights has been especially striking, as it arrived in rare shades of red that require higher concentrations of solar…
Read More