NASA’s Mars Sample Return in jeopardy after US Senate report

NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is facing some tough scrutiny.  The Senate Appropriations Committee offered their recommendations on the spending bill for fiscal year 2024, and they do not provide all NASA was hoping for. The Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) spending bill, which allocates funds for NASA and a few other government agencies, was reviewed by the committee in a 28 to 1 vote on July 13. The bill secures funding for NASA’s ongoing Artemis program to the moon and other exploration initiatives, but cuts the space agency’s budget…

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‘Ghost stars’ haunt the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Now we know why

A mysterious alignment of stellar “ghosts” from dead stars haunts the heart of the Milky Way, and scientists may finally know why.  These cosmic specters exist in the form of planetary nebulas, clouds of gas that are expelled by dying stars at the end of their lives. These can resemble butterflies or hourglasses with the smoldering remains of the star at their heart. The sun, when it runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion at its core and after it has swelled out as a red giant and swallowed the…

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The July new moon offers dark skies to see 5 visible planets tonight

The new moon arrives on July 17, at 2:32 p.m. Eastern Time (1832 UTC), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, two days before the waxing moon makes a close pass to Mercury.  New moons occur when the moon is directly between the sun and Earth. Technically, the sun and moon are in conjunction, on the same north-south line that passes through the celestial pole, near the star Polaris. Lunar phases’ timing depends on the moon’s location relative to the Earth, so they occur at the same time all over the…

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