Month: January 2025

Mysterious Mars mounds may bolster case for ancient Red Planet ocean

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Thousands of hills and mounds on Mars have been found to contain layers of clay minerals, which formed when running water interacted with the rocks during a period when Mars’ northern reaches were flooded. “This research shows us that Mars’ climate was dramatically different in the distant past,” Joe McNeil of the Natural History Museum in London said in a statement. “The mounds are rich in clay minerals, meaning liquid water must have been present at the surface in large quantities nearly four billion years ago.” Mars is a planet…

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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 145 —We’re ‘Star Bound’ with a guide to America’s space program

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On Episode 145 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik meet the authors of a new book about spaceflight called “Star Bound: A Beginner’s Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard’s Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between,” Emily Carney and Bruce McCandless III. Related: ‘Star Bound’ serves up a ‘snarky approach to space history’ and the American space program (exclusive) Emily started the popular Facebook group Space Hipsters, now 66,000 members strong, and Bruce is a retired lawyer and space enthusiast who also happens…

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Invisible ‘flickering’ on the sun could predict potentially dangerous solar flares hours in advance

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Shining loops of plasma on the surface of the sun “flicker” hours before they unleash potentially dangerous solar flares, a new study shows. The new findings could help create more reliable space weather forecasts, researchers say. Solar flares are violent outbursts of electromagnetic radiation that shoot from the sun when invisible magnetic field lines at the sun’s surface get twisted up until they eventually snap. These outbursts most commonly occur around sunspots — dark patches where magnetic field lines poke through our home star’s surface — and often pull up…

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What is Section 31? The ‘Star Trek’ spy organization explained

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The United Federation of Planets may hold itself up as a futuristic utopia but it also has a dark underbelly. Covert intelligence organization Section 31 carries out the missions Starfleet pretends don’t happen, bending the rules in the name of keeping everyone else safe. Since making its first appearance in “Deep Space Nine“, Section 31 has broken cover in numerous “Star Trek” TV shows and movies. Now, Starfleet’s guilty secret is getting its very own movie, as Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou is brought back into service with an all-new team…

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Scientists discover exoplanet with supersonic winds — the fastest in the known universe

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Astronomers have found winds on a distant world that blow at a phenomenal 5.6 miles per second (9 kilometers per second), or 20,500 miles per hour (33,000 kilometers per hour) — the fastest winds ever measured on a planet. The faraway world, a gas giant called WASP-127b that was discovered in 2016, orbits a star 520 light-years from Earth. It zips around its host star in just four days, following a slightly skewed orbit. The exoplanet is also likely tidally locked to its star the same way the moon is…

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NASA Invites Media to Expedition 71 Crew Visit at Marshall

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) From left, NASA astronauts, Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps, who served as part of Expedition 71, will discuss their recent missions to the International Space Station during a visit to Marshall Space Flight Center on Jan. 29.  NASA NASA will host four astronauts at 9 a.m. CDT Wednesday, Jan. 29, for a media opportunity at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Tracy C. Dyson…

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Blue Origin to simulate moon gravity on Jan. 28 New Shepard suborbital launch

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Blue Origin will launch the 29th mission of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle next week, on an uncrewed research flight that will simulate lunar gravity conditions. The mission, known as NS-29, is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin‘s West Texas launch site on Tuesday (Jan. 28) at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT; 10 a.m. local Texas time). The company, which was founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, will webcast the action live, beginning 15 minutes before liftoff. New Shepard is a reusable rocket-capsule combo named after Alan Shepard, the first…

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NASA Invites Media to Second Intuitive Machines Launch to Moon

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Caption: As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Intuitive Machines’ second delivery to the Moon will carry NASA technology demonstrations and science investigations on their Nova-C class lunar lander. Credit: Intuitive Machines For the second time, Intuitive Machines will launch a lunar lander to deliver NASA technology demonstrations and science investigations to the Moon for the benefit of all. Media accreditation is open for the IM-2 launch, part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term presence…

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NASA to Brief Media on Asteroid Sample Mission Findings

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Jason Dworkin, project scientist for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, views a portion of the asteroid Bennu sample in the center’s astrobiology lab under microscope in November 2023, shortly after it arrived from the curation team at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credit: NASA/Molly Wasser NASA will brief media at 11 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 29, to provide an update on science results from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission, which delivered a sample of asteroid…

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