Category: Solar System

Our solar system

DC’s new ‘Superman Unlimited’ comic lands prior to James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ movie

NeRD

2025 is shaping up to be a banner year for the Man of Steel as director James Gunn’s tentpole “Superman” feature film is streaking towards lucky cinemas this summer faster than a speeding bullet. But before we see strapping actor David Corenswet don the iconic red-and-blue costume as the latest Hollywood incarnation of the Last Son of Krypton, DC Comics will deliver a brand new “Superman Unlimited” ongoing series on May 21, crafted by Eisner Award-winning writer Dan Slott, superstar “American Vampire” artist Rafael Albuquerque, and ace colorist Marcelo Maiolo.…

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Scientists discover ‘sunken worlds’ hidden deep within Earth’s mantle that shouldn’t be there

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Potential patches of Earth’s ancient crust, sometimes called “sunken worlds,” may have just been discovered deep within the mantle, thanks to a new way of mapping the inside of our planet. However, these mysterious blobs appear in places they should not, leaving researchers scratching their heads. For decades, scientists have been building up a better picture of Earth’s interior by using seismographs — 3D images created by measuring how seismic waves from earthquakes reverberate deep within our planet. This method has helped scientists identify ancient sections of the planet’s crust,…

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How ‘quantum foam’ may have inflated the early universe

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The early universe experienced a phase of rapid expansion, known as inflation. For decades, cosmologists assumed that this expansion was powered by a new entity in the universe, known as the inflaton. But new research suggests that it may have been possible to inflate the universe without anything new powering that inflation. In the 1970s, physicist Alan Guth concocted a radical picture of the extremely early universe. Originally intending to solve some troublesome properties exhibited by the high-energy physics in the young, dense, hot universe, he conceived of a model…

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World’s largest telescope gets its protective shell (photos)

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The frame of the dome that will house the world’s largest telescope has been completed, marking another key milestone in the observatory’s construction. The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — the world’s largest visible- and infrared-light telescope — is currently under development on the Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The mighty telescope is expected to see its “first light” by 2028. New photos from the ESO show that the dome’s frame is now completed, while the outer shell that will fully enclose the telescope is…

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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 144 —The great lunar armada

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The Great Lunar Armada – 2025 Will Be a Big Year Moon Missions – YouTube Watch On On Episode 144 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik take a look a pair of private moon missions by Firefly Aerospace and ispace that lifted off this week and so much more. 2025 is the year that introduces the Great Lunar Armada! A small fleet of private and publicly-funded orbiters, landers, and rovers are heading off to explore Luna Incognita this year, and it will only speed up after…

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Nikon 5×15 HG monocular review

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With the promise of its stablemates, the Nikon 5×15 HG Monocular has a lot to live up to. We were amazed by the quality of this little monocular’s images, which were clear and very sharp. The chassis is very solidly made and feels very comfortable. Although the unit isn’t waterproof, it’s so tiny that it can be stowed in a plastic bag and placed in a pocket, where it will be safe on beaches and long walks. With a magnification of 5x, the Nikon 5×15 HG is more for casual…

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Satellites watch ‘ghost island’ solidify in the Caspian Sea before disappearing (photos)

NeRD

We like to think of land as a fairly static thing, considering that’s where we spend the majority of our lives. And to think that the ground is ever-changing, well, that’s a bit unsettling. But the reality is land is always changing — perhaps nowhere more so than at the Kumani Bank mud volcano, also known as Chigil-Deniz, some 15 miles (25 km) off the coast of Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea. The NASA Earth Observatory has released a series of images taken with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and…

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Space Force to march in Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a 1st for the new military branch

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On Monday (Jan. 20), the U.S. Space Force will participate in a presidential inauguration for the first time. Representing the military branch will be 45 Guardians, the official name for U.S. Space Force personnel, who work in a wide range of careers across the country. The 45 Guardians, who are volunteers, recently arrived at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, a large military installation in Washington, D.C., where they’ve been practicing drills for Monday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. They’ve come together with the Space Force Honor Guard, which was founded 17 months…

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Major telescope makers hit by class action lawsuit over alleged price fixing

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Skywatchers who purchased telescopes from leading suppliers may be entitled to a payment from a $32 million class action settlement. The settlement is a result of a lengthy legal saga involving telescope manufacturers controlled by Chinese family firms Synta Technologies and Ningbo Sunny, which, according to allegations in available documents, actively conspired to monopolize and divide up the U.S. amateur telescope market to fix prices and push out competitors. The brands covered in the class action include the popular Celestron, Meade, Olivon and Sky-Watcher telescopes, which have for years been…

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FAA requiring investigation into SpaceX Starship’s Flight 7 explosion

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into what went wrong during the seventh-ever test flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket yesterday (Jan. 16). The launch, from SpaceX‘s Starbase site in South Texas, went well at first. Starship got off the pad successfully, and its two stages — the Super Heavy booster and Ship spacecraft — separated on time. And the giant booster came back to Starbase, where it was caught by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. Ship was less successful, however. The flight plan called for the…

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