An image of the Cepheid variable star RS Puppis. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-Hubble/Europe Collaboration) The most accurate observation to date of distant stars that periodically change in brightness may spark a rethink of the rate at which the universe expands — perhaps by settling a longstanding problem in cosmology, or deepening it. The observation confirms a disparity that exists between the two major methods of measuring how fast the universe is expanding, conforming with one but not the other, a new study reports. Researchers…
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What time is Europe’s JUICE Jupiter mission launch on April 13?
An animation depicting Europe’s JUICE spacecraft approaching Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. (Image credit: ESA/ATG MediaLab) Europe will soon fly its first-ever mission to the Jupiter system. If all goes well, the spacecraft will arrive at the gas giant in 2031. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, is slated to launch on Thursday (April 13) from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff is scheduled from pad ELA-3 at 9:15 a.m. local time (8:15 a.m. EDT; 1215 GMT), weather permitting. The spacecraft is currently cocooned inside the fairing of its Ariane…
Read MoreTransformers movies ranked, worst to best
Despites it many difficulties, the Transformers movie franchise has accumulated over $4.8 billion at the global box office, so it makes sense that both Hasbro and Paramount are interested in keeping the Autobot-Decepticon war going on the big screen. This summer, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts arrives with a globe-trotting adventure inspired by the Beast Wars storyline, which focuses on the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons. The largely derided five-movie saga directed by Michael Bay, which ran from 2007 until 2017, has been embraced by pop culture regardless, and…
Read MoreGet ready for a rare hybrid solar eclipse on April 20
On April 20, parts of the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions will experience a rare type of event called a hybrid solar eclipse. Hybrid solar eclipses shift from total to annular as the moon’s shadow races over Earth; in some places, the moon completely blots out the sun, whereas in others a ring of light is visible around the edge of our natural satellite. These eclipses are quite rare, occurring just a few times every century — and one will grace our planet’s skies less than two weeks from now. While…
Read MoreJames Webb Space Telescope studies wreckage of titanic cosmic explosion (video, photo)
A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows in stunning detail the wreckage of a cataclysmic supernova explosion. The supernova remnant, known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A), formed about 340 years ago from our perspective here on Earth. This makes the 10-light-year-wide Cas A one of the youngest clouds of supernova wreckage we know of. With images like this, scientists can perform “cosmic forensics” to better understand what happens when stars die. Material expelled by supernovas such as this goes on to disperse throughout galaxies and becomes…
Read MoreStar Wars Celebration 2023: Plans, previews and launch dates for new ‘Star Wars’ movies and series
Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London is hitting hyperdrive with a flurry of news and announcements from the Lucasfilm presentation and panel on Friday (April 7). Disney and Lucasfilm’s four-day gala kicked off the global fan event at the ExCeL Centre in London as Kathleen Kennedy and other key Lucasfilm executives and creators mounted the main stage to unwrap their roster of “Star Wars”-centric studio projects either in the can or in the works. Here’s a rundown of all the highlights revealed to the 4,500 fans in attendance. Related: ‘Star…
Read MoreNew ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ trailer brings ‘Rebels’ heroes to live action — and confirms identity of main villain (video)
The new trailer for “Star Wars: Ahsoka” has given us a first look at the live-action versions of the heroes from the animated series “Star Wars Rebels.” The teaser (opens in new tab), which debuted at Star Wars Celebration in London today (April 7), reunites Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), ace pilot Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and — very briefly — trainee Jedi Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) for an all-new fight against Imperial forces. The show is set in the same part of the “Star Wars” timeline…
Read MoreZoom in on Mars like never before with this epic 3D map of the Red Planet
If you’re the kind of person who can spend hours upon hours clicking around Google Earth, there’s a new toy for you. NASA has just released the most detailed 3D map of Mars ever made. Created by the Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the interactive Global CTX Mosaic of Mars map (opens in new tab) is a mosaic created from images taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — more specifically, its black-and-white Context Camera. The team developed the map over a…
Read MoreSpace Station Science Highlights: Week of April 3, 2023
Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of April 3.
Read MoreBattling Bots
Industrial-size robots built by high school teams compete against each other in a game at Rocket City Regional, Alabama’s annual FIRST Robotics Competition, in this March 16, 2018, image.
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