Category: Solar System

Our solar system

Can Rocket Lab come to NASA’s rescue with new Mars sample-return plan?

NeRD

NASA’s troubled Mars sample-return program may have a new lifeline, in the form of a proposal from private space company Rocket Lab to help save the mission. When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021, the plan was to follow up with a mission in the early 2030s that would retrieve the canisters containing samples of Martian dirt, rocks and atmosphere collected by the rover, and bring them to Earth for detailed study. The hope is that the samples will be able to tell researchers about conditions on Mars…

Read More

Dragon’s-eye view: Astronaut captures amazing shots of Hurricane Milton from space (photos)

NeRD

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has given us dramatic, Dragon’s-eye views of Hurricane Milton churning its way toward landfall. Dominick posted a timelapse video on X (formerly Twitter) today, showing Hurricane Milton through the window of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, which is docked to the International Space Station (ISS). Endeavour is flying SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission for NASA; in early March, the capsule carried Dominick to the orbiting lab along with fellow NASA astronauts Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Alexander Grebenkin of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. Zoomed-in view of…

Read More

Satellite images capture Hurricane Milton intensifying into Category 5 storm (videos)

NeRD

In the heart of the Gulf of Mexico, a new hurricane is brewing. Hurricane Milton, now having intensified into a Category 5 storm, was caught in incredible space-based imagery from spacecraft such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-East satellite.  Hurricane Milton comes just ten days after Hurricane Helene, the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Katrina, made landfall in the southeastern U.S.  Milton poses a solid threat to the regions it will impact, and the National Hurricane Center is urging residents of Florida to take…

Read More

Save 50% on your first month of Paramount Plus

NeRD

Paramount Plus is 50% off the first month when you get your subscription via Sling TV. While we’re struggling to find many Prime Day streaming deals this time round, and this offer isn’t strictly that, it does allow you to watch a variety of sci-fi favorites for less. Get 50% off your first month of Paramount Plus when you get it via Sling TV. If you’re a trekkie, this is the deal for you. Paramount Plus is the home to a Starship load of Star Trek content including The Original…

Read More

‘The Ark’ creators on Season 2’s finale, alien artifacts and the colonists’ next destination (exclusive)

NeRD

Danger: Spoiler-ey Territory Ahead! Explorers aboard the colony spaceship Ark One in the sophomore season of SYFY’s outer space saga, “The Ark,” have been through a lot on their troubled mission to find a healthy new home after leaving Earth 100 years into the future.   Their first destination of Proxima b unfortunately exploded at the end of the series’ debut season in 2023, but the characters finally arrived at an alternate exoplanet suitable for supporting life in the Trappist System during the Season 2 finale that aired this week…

Read More

SpaceX, NASA stand down from Oct. 10 Europa Clipper launch due to Hurricane Milton

NeRD

We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see NASA’s Europa Clipper probe get off the ground. The $5 billion Europa Clipper mission had been scheduled to launch on Thursday (Oct. 10) atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. But Hurricane Milton has nixed that plan. “NASA and SpaceX are standing down from the Thursday, Oct. 10, launch attempt of the agency’s Europa Clipper mission due to anticipated hurricane conditions in the area,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Sunday…

Read More

What it was like to experience the ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse on Easter Island

NeRD

RAPA NUI (EASTER ISLAND), Chile — Eclipse-chasers from across the globe gathered on remote Rapa Nui — also known as Isla de Pascua and Easter Island — to witness a fabulous “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse for about six minutes. It was the island’s first in 236 years and last for 321 years.  I was there with eclipse-chaser experts Astro Trails, who I joined in Santiago, Chile to take a five-hour flight to the tiny Chilean island, 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) east of Pitcairn Island and 2,200 miles (3,540…

Read More

SpaceX will launch Europe’s Hera asteroid probe today: Watch it live

NeRD

ESA’s Hera mission launch (Official broadcast) – YouTube Watch On SpaceX will launch Europe’s Hera spacecraft toward the asteroid Dimorphos for a post-impact evaluation on Monday (Oct. 7), and you can watch the liftoff live. The European Space Agency‘s Hera mission will visit Dimorphos — the asteroid that NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft knocked off course in September 2022. Hera will assess the aftermath of that impact and study both the surface and internal structure of the asteroid in greater detail.  The main Hera spacecraft and its two…

Read More

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 131 —The Star Wars vs. Star Trek Food Fight

NeRD

The Star Wars vs. Star Trek Food Fight – Vulcan Launches, Voyager 2 Powers Down, the Sun Powers Up – YouTube Watch On On Episode 131 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik tackle a question that rivals the meaning of life itself: which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars? Of course, they are very different, and that’s really the core of it–one is a sweeping fantasy adventure incorporating the “Hero’s Journey,” while the other is a science fantasy wrapped around a morality play. In the…

Read More

Ancient supermassive black hole is blowing galaxy-killing wind, James Webb Space Telescope finds

NeRD

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have spotted the earliest powerful “galaxy-size” wind blowing from a feeding supermassive black hole-powered quasar. The powerful wind is pushing gas and dust from its galaxy at incredible speeds, killing star birth in its host galaxy.  This quasar, designated J1007+2115, is so distant that it is seen as it was just 700 million years after the Big Bang — when the 13.8 billion-year-old universe was just around 5% of its current age. Though this makes J1007+2115 just the third-earliest quasar ever seen,…

Read More