Author: NeRD

‘Doctor Who’ Season 2 premieres this week with a robot revolution and AI terrors

NeRD

Doctor Who | Season 2 Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube Watch On The sands of time might be running out for Ncuti Gatwa’s turn in the TARDIS as the Fifteenth Doctor since rumors circulated this year that he’ll exit for creative endeavors in Los Angeles after this run. But if so, there’s still some gas in the tank for one more trip around the universe as this whirlwind “Doctor Who” Season 2 trailer plainly reveals. Last season saw a significant viewer drop-off and longtime fans’ underwhelming response to the…

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Lyrid meteor shower 2025 peaks this month: Could we be in for a surprise outburst this year?

NeRD

After a lull of some three and a half months, enthusiasts who watch the night sky specifically for “shooting” or “falling” stars will have something to look forward to this month. It will be the return of a faithful meteor shower, recognized as one of, if not the oldest known meteor display: the Lyrid meteors. While there are many dozens of meteor showers that occur during the course of the year, only ten are recognized as the ‘principal’ or very best meteor displays. The last such shower to take place…

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida’s Space Coast (photos)

NeRD

SpaceX sent another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida on Saturday night (April 5). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink craft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday at 11:07 p.m. EDT (0307 GMT on Sunday, April 6). About eight minutes after launch, the rocket’s first stage came back to Earth for a landing on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read the Instructions,” which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 19th launch and landing for this particular booster,…

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The Wildgate reveal trailer looks like Sea of Thieves in space, with more interesting progression (video)

NeRD

Wildgate | Reveal Trailer – YouTube Watch On If you’re one of the millions of players who have sampled Sea of Thieves since its launch way back in 2018, and found yourself thinking “this is fun, but what if it was in space?”, some former Blizzard devs have got some great news for you. Wildgate looks like the kind of multiplayer, ship-vs-ship, loot-hunting action that’s made Sea of Thieves such a roaring success for the last eight years, except set in a frontier region of space called The Reach. In…

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Fram2 astronaut mission’s West Coast splashdown opens new era for SpaceX

NeRD

The West Coast is the best coast for Dragon landings, at least in SpaceX’s books. The company’s four-person Fram2 mission came to a successful end on Friday (April 4) with the splashdown of the Crew Dragon capsule “Resilience” off the coast of Southern California. That was a first for SpaceX, geography-wise: All 16 of its previous astronaut missions had hit the water off Florida, either in the Atlantic Ocean or in the Gulf of Mexico. Resilience is hauled aboard a recovery ship on April 4 after splashdown. (Image credit: SpaceX)…

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Jared Isaacman, Trump’s pick for NASA chief, to get Senate confirmation hearing on April 9

NeRD

Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, the Trump administration’s pick to lead NASA, will appear before a Senate committee on April 9 for a confirmation hearing on whether he will be the next leader of the U.S. space program. Jared Isaacman, who made his billions as CEO of the Shift4 payment processing firm and has flown to space twice on SpaceX missions he financed himself, was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead NASA in December. But his confirmation path has been slow at a time when NASA is facing substantial challenges,…

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NASA’s Perseverance rover watches as 2 Mars dust devils merge into 1 (video)

NeRD

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured a giant dust devil devouring a smaller storm swirling close behind it on the rim of Jezero Crater. Martian dust devils are spinning columns of warm air that pick up dust and debris as they move across the surface of the Red Planet. Perseverance spied the two merging storms on Jan. 25, while exploring the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater at a location called “Witch Hazel Hill.” “Convective vortices — aka dust devils — can be rather fiendish,” Mark Lemmon, a Perseverance scientist at…

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How to see Venus light the sky as the bright ‘morning star’ through fall 2025

NeRD

Early morning risers who head out to work and school before sunrise are likely beginning to notice an extremely bright star-like object appearing low in the eastern sky just before the sun itself. What is somewhat amazing is that just a few weeks ago this object wasn’t there at all, but now it literally stands out with such brilliance as to almost command the attention of commuters who might be traveling in an easterly direction to “Look at me!” That radiant object is the planet Venus. In terms of morning…

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NASA Leaders to Participate in 2025 Space Symposium in Colorado

NeRD

Credit: NASA NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro and acting Associate Administrator Vanessa Wyche will lead the agency’s delegation at the 40th Space Symposium, Monday, April 7 through Thursday, April 10, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Petro will join Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Heather Pringle for a fireside chat to discuss NASA’s current priorities and partnerships at 12:15 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 8. Additional NASA participation in the conference includes a one-on-one discussion with Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, and a lunar science and exploration panel featuring Lori…

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NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim

NeRD

NASA/Josh Valcarcel NASA astronaut Jonny Kim poses for a portrait while wearing a spacesuit on July 17, 2024. In his first mission, Kim will serve as a flight engineer during Expedition 72/73 on the International Space Station. He will launch aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft on Tuesday, April 8. Chosen by NASA in 2017, Kim is a decorated naval officer and medical doctor. He completed two years of training as an Astronaut Candidate; training included technical and operational instruction in International Space Station systems, Extravehicular Activities Operations, T-38 flight training,…

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