Category: Solar System

Our solar system

Rocket Lab aborts launch of 5 ‘Internet of Things’ satellites at last second (video)

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Rocket Lab aborted a launch at the last second today (Sept. 18). The company’s Electron rocket was scheduled to launch five “Internet of Things” satellites for the French company Kinéis today at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) from New Zealand. The countdown clock reached zero, and Electron appeared to fire up its first-stage engines. But they immediately shut down, resulting in an abort. A Rocket Lab Electron vehicle stands on the pad just after a last-second launch abort on Sept. 18, 2024. (Image credit: Rocket Lab) “Since today’s mission required…

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NASA’s ‘Hidden Figures’ women awarded Congressional Gold Medals

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Although they may never completely shed the label, the women who worked for NASA as human computers during the space race are no longer “hidden figures,” and they now have a medal to prove it. On Wednesday (Sept. 18), the women as a group and four individuals who have come to represent their collective experiences were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest civilian honors in the United States. As authorized by Congress, the medals were bestowed to Christine Darden and posthumously to Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and…

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‘Transformers One’ is an end of summer sensation certain to please fans (review)

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Transform and roll out! Exploring the nature of a fractured friendship between a young Optimus Prime and Megatron, once known as Orion Pax and D-16 billions of years ago on the living machine planet of Cybertron, Paramount’s new “Transformers One” (Sept. 20) is a supremely entertaining animated film showcasing a visual banquet of next-generation CGI from Industrial Light & Magic. What began as a Hasbro toy line and animated series in the ’80s has exploded over the decades as one of the premier sci-fi intellectual properties in the world, a…

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SpaceX launches 2 European navigation satellites, lands rocket (video)

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two European navigation satellites tonight (Sept. 17) and then landed safely, acing its 22nd mission. The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying two spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo satnav constellation, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight at 6:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT).  The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth safely as planned, landing at sea on the SpaceX droneship “Just Read the Instructions” about 8.5 minutes after launch. According to a SpaceX mission description, it was the 22nd liftoff and landing for this…

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A ‘primordial’ black hole may zoom through our solar system every decade

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If microscopic black holes born a fraction of a second after the Big Bang exist, as some researchers suspect, then at least one may fly through the solar system per decade, generating tiny gravitational distortions that scientists can detect, a new study finds. These findings suggest that if astronomers can discover and confirm the existence of such gravitational disruptions, they may be able to solve the mystery behind the nature of dark matter, the unseen material that many researchers suspect makes up about five-sixths of all matter in the cosmos.…

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FAA plans to fine SpaceX $630,000 for alleged launch violations

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to fine SpaceX more than $630,000 for allegedly failing to comply with regulations on two launches last year. “Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including a legal responsibility for the safety oversight of companies with commercial space transportation licenses,” FAA Chief Counsel Marc Nichols said in an emailed statement today (Sept. 17).  “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences,” he added. The first launch cited by the FAA is PSN SATRIA, which lofted an…

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IDW’s ‘Star Trek: Lore War’ will bring back Data’s evil brother in 2025 comics crossover event

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In a reality-warping cosmic event two years in the making, IDW Publishing is celebrating all the creative foundational work after relaunching its award-winning “Star Trek” comics with the Eisner-nominated “Star Trek #400” to present an epic new crossover project next year, “Star Trek: Lore War.” Hailing from top-tier creators Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Christopher Cantwell, and illustrator Davide Tinto, this intertwined sci-fi tale arriving in March of 2025 will carry over into the prime “Star Trek” ongoing series, “Star Trek: Defiant,” and several special one-shot tie-in issues to be announced…

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Gas and stars ‘stolen’ from galaxy in striking European Southern Observatory photo and video

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A galaxy is robbed of its gas and stars in a new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).  The spiral galaxy, called NGC 3312, lies within a large cluster known as Hydra I. Located over 160 million light-years from Earth, this cluster contains hundreds of galaxies, the largest of which is NGC 3312.  Using the ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, astronomers captured an up-close view of the spiral galaxy, which appears to be “spilling its contents into the…

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NASA astronaut photographs SpaceX’s private Polaris Dawn capsule reentry from ISS (photo)

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An epic picture of Polaris Dawn’s nighttime reentry has been beamed to Earth from space. NASA astronaut Don Pettit caught the conclusion of Polaris Dawn, a private space mission that included the first-ever commercial spacewalk, during its SpaceX Dragon spacecraft’s return to Earth before dawn on Sunday (Sept. 15). “In addition to the multi-colored entry trail over Florida, the basic cone shape of the Dragon capsule can be seen,” Pettit wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Sunday afternoon about his picture taken from the International Space Station (ISS). Related: Exquisite Star…

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Could we turn the sun into a gigantic telescope?

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We have some incredibly powerful telescopes that have given us spectacular views of the cosmos and allowed us to look back to the early days of the universe. These observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), are amazing feats of engineering that have required billions of dollars and decades of work.  But what if we could access an even better telescope that already exists? This wouldn’t be a typical telescope. It wouldn’t even come with a lens. But it would be by far the most powerful telescope we’d…

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