Category: Solar System

Our solar system

SpaceX Polaris Dawn private spacewalk mission: Live updates

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2024-08-20T20:08:06.397Z Polaris Dawn crew 1 week from launch (Image credit: Polaris Program / John Kraus) The four private astronauts of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission are a week away from launch after two years of training for a mission that, they hope, will include the world’s first private spacewalk.  American billionaire Jared Isaacman, who previously backed his private Inspiration4 spaceflight with SpaceX, will command the Polaris Dawn mission, the first of three new spaceflights he’s purchased from SpaceX.  Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon,…

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‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ canceled after just 1 season

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‘The Acolyte’ had a bumpy journey through marketing and release on the small screen, to say the least.  With a number of sites and permanently disgruntled fans that decided ages ago the series would be terrible, (likely false) cancellation rumors started to pile up even before its season 1 premiere. Now, roughly one month after a strong season finale that capped a notable second half of the season, Deadline and Variety are reporting that Disney and Lucasfilm have decided not to move forward with season 2. No matter how you…

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Some rocky exoplanets could have huge amounts of water in their molten cores

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As much as 95% of an exoplanet’s water could be trapped forever deep inside its iron core, transforming what we thought we knew about water worlds and potentially rendering them even more habitable than we realized. “Planets are much more water-abundant than previously assumed,” said Caroline Dorn, who is professor of exoplanets at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, in a statement. When planets are born by accreting rubble and enduring collisions with other protoplanets, they become so hot that their entire surface is covered in an ocean of molten rock. This…

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SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew lands at space center ahead of 1st-ever private spacewalk mission (photos, video)

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Members of the Polaris Dawn mission landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) today (Aug. 19), with as little as a week until their launch to space. Polaris Dawn is the second privately crewed SpaceX mission funded by philanthropist billionaire Jared Isaacman, and the first of at least three launches he hopes to fly under the “Polaris” program. The launch stands as a follow-up to Isaacman’s 2021 Inspiration4 mission, in which he and three other private citizens launched on the first-ever civilian-only spaceflight. Inspiration4 helped raise $250…

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Telescopes capture Jupiter-bound JUICE probe during historic Earth-moon flyby (photos)

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For avid skywatchers around the world, this week begins with trying to get a glimpse of the Jupiter-bound JUICE spacecraft that’s set to swing past both the moon and Earth over the span of just one day — a combination scientists have deemed to be the world’s first. The European Space Agency (ESA) launched JUICE in April last year to explore Jupiter and three of its biggest moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, all of which are thought to contain oceans of liquid water beneath their icy shells. The spacecraft’s…

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What is Weyland-Yutani? The ‘Alien’ universe megacorporation explained

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In the vast sphere of multinational global conglomerates operating with honesty, trust and transparency, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation of the “Alien” franchise would rank at the absolute slimy bottom. This fictional megalomaniacal enterprise had its greedy tentacles into everything from robotics, biotechnology, cybernetics, AI, and interstellar mining, to terraforming, off-world colonization, medical research and developing weapons using extraterrestrial DNA gathered around the galaxy.   But what are the ambitious beginnings of this notorious San Francisco-based company, how have its personnel, facilities, spaceships and machines been integrated into the “Alien” universe and…

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Nikon Trailblazer 8×25 ATB compact binoculars review

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Key specs Optics: BaK-4 roof-prism Magnification: 8x Waterproof/fog-proof: Yes/Yes Objective lens diameter: 25mm Angular field of view: 8.2 degrees Eye relief: 0.39-inch/10mm Weight: 9.9oz/281g The best pair of binoculars is the one you have with you — and the Nikon Trailblazer 8×25 ATB (called the Nikon Sportstar EX 8×25 in the U.K.) waterproof binoculars are so easy to take anywhere and everywhere. However, they lack the aperture to be used at night for much more than the moon.  With so many pairs of binoculars available across all shapes, sizes and…

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ final season lands on DVD, Blu-ray and limited edition Steelbook

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“It has been a hell of a journey!” Now that “Star Trek: Discovery” has wrapped up its last cosmic mission this past spring, it’s time to clear some space in your video library for “Star Trek: Discovery – The Final Season.” It will hit DVD, Blu-ray and have a limited edition Steelbook release when it arrives from Paramount Home Entertainment on Aug. 27, 2024.  Sure, you can always still stream it on Paramount+ to your heart’s content, but the allure of these deluxe 4-disk physical editions for “Discovery’s” last run…

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Dinosaur-killing asteroid was a rare rock from beyond Jupiter, new study reveals

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The space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was a rare strike from an asteroid beyond Jupiter, a new study details. The finding pins down the nature of the fateful space rock and its origin within our solar system, and may benefit technology that forecasts asteroid strikes on our planet. Most scientists agree that the Chicxulub impactor — named after the community in modern-day Mexico near the 90-mile-wide (145 kilometers) crater carved by the rock — came from within our solar system. But its precise origins…

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Perseid meteor shower rains ‘shooting stars’ over Stonehenge in glorious astrophotography image

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The Perseids, one of the year’s most prolific meteor showers, peaked this week, raining dozens of “shooting stars” per hour through Earth’s skies. Some lucky stargazers caught a double feature of meteors and dazzling auroras, which were triggered by a spree of powerful solar eruptions earlier in the week. Others, like U.K.-based astrophotographer Josh Dury, hunted for meteors at thematically appropriate locales — namely, the prehistoric astronomical monument Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge, built about 5,000 years ago to align with the sun on the summer solstice, is one of the most popular and intriguing…

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