While the International Space Station orbited over the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 19, 2022, NASA astronaut Bob Hines captured this image of South Padre Island, a barrier island along the coast of Texas.
Read MoreMonth: February 2023
NASA, Partners Clear Axiom’s Second Private Astronaut Mission Crew
NASA and its international partners have approved the crew for Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2).
Read MoreUS shoots down ‘UFO’ over Canada
An American F-22 fighter jet has shot down a car-size unidentified flying object (UFO) over Yukon, Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Saturday (Feb. 11). A fighter jet with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which is run by both the U.S. and Canada, shot down the strange object at the behest of Canada, Trudeau said, according to The New York Times (opens in new tab). “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,” Trudeau wrote on Twitter (opens in new tab). Canada…
Read MoreThe sun just erupted with a major X-class solar flare. Here’s what it looked like on video.
A major solar flare erupted from the sun Saturday (Feb. 11), spawning a radio blackout for parts of Earth and setting the stage for more flares to come. The huge solar flare, which registered as a powerful X1.1-class event on the scale used for such sun storms, peaked at 10:48 a.m. EST (1548 GMT) on Saturday, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) operated by NOAA. It originated from an area of the sun called Active Region 3217 and created a temporary radio blackout over South America, the…
Read More‘Black history is American history’: NASA celebrates African Americans and space achievements at Smithsonian event
In eighth grade, Leland Melvin was a part-time janitor at a Virginia bank to make some extra cash for his family. Melvin, who later became a pro football player and one of NASA‘s Black astronauts, recalled once greeting a senior bank official while cleaning the bathroom, in the late 1970s. “He looked through me like I wasn’t even there, like I was a ghost,” Melvin told a Smithsonian Institution audience Friday (Feb. 10). The livestreamed event from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. celebrated…
Read MoreRussian Progress cargo craft at space station springs a leak
For the second time in two months, a Russian spacecraft docked with the International Space Station (ISS) has sprung a leak. Mission controllers in Moscow have noticed “a depressurization” in the robotic Progress 82 cargo craft, Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos announced on Saturday (opens in new tab) (Feb. 11). The depressurization occurred in the Progress vehicle’s coolant system, NASA officials said. “The reason for the loss of coolant in the Progress 82 spacecraft is being investigated. The hatches between the Progress 82 and the station are open, and temperatures…
Read MoreHubble captures dazzling star cluster that may soon disperse
Hundreds of stars sparkle against the dark backdrop of space in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. This glittering group of stars, known as NGC 2660, is located 8,617 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Vela. NGC 2660 is classified as an open star cluster — a type of star cluster that can contain anywhere from tens to a few hundreds of stars loosely bound together by gravity, according to a NASA statement (opens in new tab). “The stars of open clusters form out of the same…
Read MoreIndia tests recovery of spacecraft for Gaganyaan astronaut mission (photos)
After a string of delays, India’s most ambitious mission is slowly finding its footing again. On Tuesday (Feb. 7), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India’s national space agency, resumed a series of tests needed to perfect procedures and hardware for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program. The agency collaborated with the Indian Navy to recover a mock crew module from a closed pool, it said Wednesday (Feb. 8) in a press release (opens in new tab). The tests are being carried out at the Water Survival Test Facility, a location…
Read MoreUS military shoots down small object over Alaska
For the second time in less than a week, the U.S. military has blasted an intruder out of the nation’s skies. A fighter jet took out a mysterious object just off the coast of northern Alaska at 1:45 p.m. EST (1845 GMT) on Friday (Feb. 10), Department of Defense officials said. “The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet [12,000 meters] and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a press briefing on Friday. …
Read MorePuffy helium planets could explain exoplanet size mystery
Helium could make up almost half the mass of the atmosphere of giant exoplanets that have migrated close to their star, explaining why there is a mysterious size gap in the scale of these worlds. Over 5,200 exoplanets have now been confirmed, and many of these are larger worlds that orbit close to their star, in some cases with orbital periods that last just a few days. However, transit observations first by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and now by TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, have found a puzzling dearth…
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