Category: Solar System

Our solar system

NASA picks 3 companies to design lunar rover for Artemis astronauts to drive on the moon

NeRD

NASA’s next moon car is starting to take shape. The agency has selected three private teams — led by the companies Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab, respectively — to develop their versions of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), the rover that Artemis astronauts will drive around the moon’s southern polar region beginning in 2030. “We look forward to the development of the Artemis generation lunar exploration vehicle to help us advance what we learn at the moon,” Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, said…

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‘Star Trek’s’ Sonequa Martin-Green says goodbye to ‘Discovery’ (exclusive interview excerpt)

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“Star Trek: Discovery” touches down on Paramount Plus for its fifth and final season on April 4. The season features an interstellar treasure hunt that follows “Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries.” Back in 2017, “Discovery” was at the vanguard in returning the popular space fantasy universe to its proper place in pop culture via the small screen, where…

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Solar eclipse sights might vary on the edge of totality: report

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If you plan to watch the solar eclipse April 8 at the edge of the totality path, you might want to move further into the shadow. New amateur calculations of the solar eclipse path suggest that variations in the local terrain might change if you see a total eclipse, or how long the eclipse is experienced, compared to older estimates. The work, first reported in Forbes, is not peer-reviewed, however. So take the findings with a dose of caution. The next solar eclipse will happen in parts of the United…

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Chinese space junk falls to Earth over Southern California, creating spectacular fireball (photos, video)

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A big piece of Chinese space junk crashed to Earth over Southern California early Tuesday morning (April 2), putting on quite a show for observers in the Golden State. The fall created a blazing fireball witnessed by people from the Sacramento area all the way down to San Diego, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS). As of Tuesday afternoon, 81 people had reported sightings of the event to the AMS.  The hunk of space debris was the orbital module of China’s Shenzhou 15 spacecraft, according to astrophysicist and satellite…

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ISS astronauts ready to watch the solar eclipse from space on April 8

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NASA astronauts and weather satellites will watch next week’s solar eclipse from space. SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), alongside at least one of the two Russian Soyuz crews on board right now, will experience a “very unique vantage point” when a total solar eclipse sweeps across Mexico, the United States and Canada on April 8, a senior NASA manager said during a livestreamed eclipse science briefing on March 26. “Instead of looking up at the moon casting the shadow, they’ll also be able to see the…

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Why I’m going to Missouri near the centerline for the solar eclipse on April 8

NeRD

The total solar eclipse on April 8 is just around the corner. After spending months researching different locations to see the total solar eclipse, I’ve landed on Cape Girardeau, Missouri. That’s because the town of some 40,000 people is close to the centerline, which refers to the middle of the path the moon’s shadow will take as it crosses North America. This location therefore doesn’t just lie within the path of totality, but in a spot that allows eclipse-chasers to get 4 minutes and 6 seconds of the totality experience.…

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New ‘Star Wars: Unlimited — Spark of Rebellion’ trading card game strikes our galaxy

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One of the best ways to stay immersed in the world of “Star Wars” between offerings of feature films, TV series, novels and comics is to clear off the kitchen table and indulge in one of the many trading card games (TCGs) set in the “Star Wars” universe. Fantasy Flight Games has you covered with the recent release of its “Star Wars: Unlimited TCG Spark of Rebellion,” a swiftly-paced battle pack game easily learned and strategically deep. This table-top diversion features iconic heroes, villains, spaceships, vehicles and exotic planets from…

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There’s an April Fools’ Day prank about the 2024 solar eclipse — don’t fall for it

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Don’t panic! It’s April Fools’ Day, which means the internet is rife with jokes, including some of the celestial sort. If you happened to stumble across the University of Vermont’s (UVM) press release about the April 8 total solar eclipse, your heart might’ve skipped a beat: “Eclipse Path and Date Miscalculated,” reads the headline. Well, that certainly caught our attention.  Diving into the press release, it states that “[b]y failing to account for the time it takes light to travel from the sun, a laser-based model led by the U.S.…

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Pluto TV will rally to make Pluto a planet again on April 1 (it’s no joke)

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Pluto may have lost its status as a full-fledged planet in 2006, but that doesn’t mean it’s a joke of a world this April Fools’ Day and the folks behind Pluto TV want to make that clear.  On April 1, the free Pluto TV streaming service will host a “sit-in” to revisit the Pluto planethood debate while also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the live TV streaming service. The event, dubbed “Pluto TV’s Rally for Pluto! Make Pluto A Planet!,” runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pacific Time at…

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Hubble Space Telescope finds bucket of cosmic Easter eggs — 500 blue and red stars

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In December 2023, the Hubble Space Telescope completed its largest program since launching in 1990. With this program, the telescope made observations of 500 individual stars over three years — and scientists are now ready to dive into this cosmic Easter egg of data. The comprehensive Hubble Telescope survey is called the Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards, or ULLYSES; Hubble was deemed by ULLYSES operators as the sole active telescope capable of accomplishing such a pioneering endeavor. These ultraviolet-light-observation treats will last way past the Easter holiday,…

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