Legacy Effects wizard J. Alan Scott on creating the Gorn for ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ (exclusive)

Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” just wrapped its impressive second season . The season’s final episode, titled “Hegemony,” ended in an unsatisfying cliffhanger that angered some fans after a brilliant season filled with exceptional episodes like “Ad Astra per Aspera,” “Among the Lotus Eaters” and the historic singing and dancing chapter, “Subspace Rhapsody.” Despite some narrative hiccups in that climax, there’s no argument regarding the return of the Gorn and the reveal of the snarling, 7-foot-tall (2.1 meters) alien decked out in an ultra-cool helmet and spacesuit. Related: ‘Star Trek’…

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Hubble images a museum of galaxies, and some are gravitationally warped (photo)

No matter how often the Hubble Space Telescope provides us with mind-numbing views of our universe, the excitement of seeing a new one always feels fresh. Such is the case for an image released by NASA on Friday (Aug. 18).  In this portrait, we’re witnessing a massive galaxy cluster named Abell 3322, which is a menagerie of realms that collectively sit some 2.6 billion light-years from our planet. As one light-year equals the distance light travels in one year, even adjusting for the universe’s expansion rate, this cluster therefore appears…

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SpaceX shows off newly modified Starship Super Heavy booster (photos)

SpaceX has added some new hardware to its latest Starship rocket prototype, which is being prepped for a test flight in the near future. Starship, SpaceX’s next-gen deep-space transportation system, consists of two fully reusable elements — a huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft called Starship. The pair has flown together only once to date, on an April 20 test flight from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas that aimed to send Starship partway around Earth. That didn’t happen, however: Starship and Super…

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‘Foundation’ space advisor on keeping Asimov’s fictional galaxy realistic (exclusive)

Apple TV+’s sprawling sci-fi saga, “Foundation,” is hitting its mid-season stride for this second outing and the Imperium is facing certain annihilation against Hari Seldon’s feisty resistance movement known as the Foundation. Besides the exceptional performances on display from stars Lee Pace, Jared Harris, Laura Birn, Lou Llobell, and Leah Harvey under David S. Goyer’s (“Blade,” “Man of Steel,” “The Dark Knight Trilogy”) steady hand at the helm as its executive producer, the remarkable attention to detail involved in “Foundation’s” visual effects, cosmology and worldbuilding is truly impressive.   Acting as…

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Neptune’s clouds have vanished, and the sun may be to blame (video)

On Thursday (Aug. 17), astronomers announced quite an unexpected update about one of our solar system’s ice giants, Neptune: It would appear that the azure world’s clouds have all but disappeared.  Basically, after looking at images taken of the planet between the years 1994 and 2022, the team noticed a strange pattern beginning in 2019. Around the planet’s mid-latitudes, cloud coverage seemed to start fading. Eventually, all evidence of clouds totally vanished. “I was surprised by how quickly clouds disappeared on Neptune,” Imke de Pater, an emeritus professor of astronomy…

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Maui satellite photo shows full scale of deadliest US fire in more than a century

A new satellite photo has captured a somber aerial view of the devastating wildfire that burned through the town of Lahaina on Hawaii’s Maui island last week. On Aug. 8, fast-moving flames appeared on Lahaina’s border and rapidly spread through the town, burning down buildings, exploding cars and filling the air with ash and smoke. Many survivors, who either fled the town or escaped into the ocean, reported knowing almost nothing about the fire until the flames were almost right on top of them, CNN reported. At least 99 people…

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Take an interstellar cruise into the cosmos in new limited series ‘The Space Between’ (exclusive)

Embarking on a deep-space odyssey toward a prospective new home, Boom! Studios’ “The Space Between” is penned by the Hugo and Eisner nominated writer Corinna Bechko (“The Expanse,” “Star Wars: Legacy,” “Green Lantern: Earth One”), and illustrated by artist Danny Luckert (“The Red Mother,” “Ghostlore”).  It’s an absorbing, generation-spanning epic concerning the lives of valiant human voyagers inside an interstellar colony ship zooming toward a suitable exoplanet. We’ve got an exclusive preview of the debut issue’s covers and series details to share before it launches on Nov. 1, 2023. Related:…

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STEM Essay Contest Winners Earn Close-Encounter Visit to NASA

3 min read STEM Essay Contest Winners Earn Close-Encounter Visit to NASA Francesca Esma (left), Rainelle Yasa, Luca Pollack, and Audrielle Paige Esma interact with a NASA plane in virtual reality at NASA Glenn’s Graphics and Visualization (GVIS) Lab. NASA/GRC/Jordan Salkin Three student winners of NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge journeyed behind the scenes at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) in Cleveland after drafting the top papers in the national STEM essay contest. The competition for kindergarten through 12th grade students focused on the potential of radioisotopes. Students were…

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