NASA’s X-59 research aircraft moves from its construction site to the flight line – or the space between the hangar and the runway – at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on June 16, 2023.
Read MoreMonth: July 2023
Secret Invasion season 1 episode 3 review: Nick Fury and Talos go on the offensive
Recommending Secret Invasion to anyone other than Marvel Studios completionists has been a bit hard. Last week’s episode felt much more solid and sincere than the premiere, yet the show as a whole has been struggling to justify its existence beyond serving as a well-deserved star vehicle for Samuel L. Jackson. The basic premise sounded like the perfect fit for a cinematic universe that had already hit a home run with paranoid action thrillers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. However, Secret Invasion just doesn’t have the same level of…
Read More‘Star Trek: Picard – The Final Season’ warps onto home video with exclusives and extras
Make it so. After a moderately satisfying but slightly polarizing third and last season, Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Picard – The Final Season” is beaming directly onto home video with its Blu-ray, DVD, and limited-edition Blu-ray SteelBook release on September 5, 2023 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Back in January 23, 2000, “Star Trek: Picard” arrived on what was then called CBS All Access, later to be renamed Paramount+. Season 3 ended its own run on April 20, 2023 with the final episode, “The Last Generation” with a stellar cast of Patrick…
Read MoreBlast off for less with 20% off LEGO City Lunar sets at Walmart
Looking for Lego discounts for the kids or big kids in your life? You’ve come to the right place, with Walmart slashing prices of NASA-inspired Lego sets. The best Lego space sets inspire creativity and evoke nostalgia alike. We’ve certainly built a fair few in our time, but there’s always room in the collection for me – doubly so if your child is starting to see the potential in the blocks. These Artemis mission-inspired sets are some of our favorites, though collecting the whole set can get expensive. Thankfully, Walmart…
Read MoreSpace Blocs: The future of international cooperation in space is splitting along lines of power on Earth
Even during times of conflict on the ground, space has historically been an arena of collaboration among nations. But trends in the past decade suggest that the nature of cooperation in space is shifting, and fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted these changes. I’m an international relations scholar who studies power distributions in space – who the main players are, what capabilities they possess and whom they decide to cooperate with. Some scholars predict a future in which single states pursue various levels of dominance, while others foresee a scenario in which commercial entities bring…
Read MoreHubble telescope checks on the Milky Way galaxy’s lonely neighbor (photo)
The Hubble Space Telescope is spying on the neighbors again. In a newly released image, the space telescope took an extraordinarily detailed look at one of the Milky Way galaxy’s closest neighbors. In the image, the irregular galaxy ESO 174–1 looks like a wispy cloud of milky white gas that is alone in space apart from a background of bright stars. Other stars can be seen within the cloud-like body of ESO 174–1, as can a dark tendril of gas and dust. At 11 million light-years away, the galaxy ESO…
Read MoreOur infant solar system may have survived a nearby supernova explosion
A supernova that exploded close to our newly forming sun could have destroyed what became our solar system — if it weren’t for a shield of molecular gas. Scientists reached this conclusion by studying isotopes of elements discovered in meteorites. These space rocks are pieces of asteroids, which formed from material that was around when the sun and then the planets of the solar system formed. As such, meteorites are fossils of a sort, allowing scientists to reconstruct the evolution of the solar system. The research team found varying concentrations…
Read MoreA Full Moon Illuminates Artemis I
A full moon was visible behind the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon.
Read MoreOne of these 19 amazing night sky images will win 2023 Astronomy Photo of the Year
The largest astrophotography competition in the world is wrapping up its 15th year. The contest’s officiating organization, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, has released nineteen photographs officially in the running, one of which will be announced as the overall winner during a September 14 award ceremony. In addition to the overall winner, the competition awards top photographers from nine different categories, and two “special prizes.” The categories include Skyscapes, Aurorae, People and Space, Our Sun, Our Moon, Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae, Planets, Comets and Asteroids, and also an award for…
Read MoreThe universe is humming with gravitational waves. Here’s why scientists are so excited about the discovery
The very fabric of the universe is ringing with gravitational waves from its earliest epoch, and researchers have finally “heard” this cosmic symphony. On Thursday, June 28, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) revealed the detection of low-frequency gravitational waves, a historic breakthrough that represents 15 years of searching. Yet, this isn’t the first time that humanity has detected gravitational waves. Scientists have been detecting these ripples in the fabric of space using facilities like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) since 2015. So, with that in…
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