Category: Solar System

Our solar system

New moon of July 2024: Dark skies tonight as Earth is farthest from the sun today

NeRD

The new moon of July 2024 occurs today as Earth reaches its farthest point from the sun, known as aphelion. The new moon arrives on July 5 at 6:57 p.m. Eastern Time (2257 UTC), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, and two days later the young moon will make a close pass to Mercury in the evening sky.  Earth reached aphelion today, meaning our was farther away from the sun than at any other period in its yearly orbit. Earth’s orbit around the sun is slightly elliptical, or oval-shaped, meaning…

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Mars orbiter captures Red Planet scar that’s longer than the Grand Canyon (image)

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New images published by the European Space Agency have captured a 600-kilometer-long (373-mile-long) snaking scar on Mars’ surface in greater detail than ever before. The Red Planet is full of scratches and scars, and this one, named Aganippe Fossa, is another of these ditch-like grooves with steep walls — more specifically, however, Aganippe Fossa is what’s called a “graben.”  “We’re still unsure of how and when Aganippe Fossa came to be, but it seems likely that it was formed as magma rising underneath the colossal mass of the Tharsis volcanoes…

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Scientists tap into 2 new quantum methods to catch dark matter suspects

NeRD

The hunt for dark matter is about to get much cooler. Scientists are developing supercold quantum technology to hunt for the universe’s most elusive and mysterious stuff, which currently constitutes one of science’s biggest mysteries. Despite the fact that dark matter outnumbers the amount of ordinary matter in our universe by about six times, scientists don’t know what it is. That’s at least partly because no experiment devised by humanity has ever been able to detect it. To tackle this conundrum, scientists from several universities across the U.K. have united…

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Boiling rocks from Earth’s crust tore an ocean into Mongolia 410 million years ago

NeRD

Over 400 million years ago, an upwelling of hot rock from Earth’s mantle wrenched apart the crust in Mongolia, creating an ocean that survived for 115 million years.  The geological history of this ocean could help researchers understand Wilson cycles, or the process by which supercontinents break apart and come together. These are slow, broad-scale processes that progress by less than an inch per year, said study co-author Daniel Pastor-Galán, a geoscientist at the National Spanish Research Council in Madrid.  “It’s telling us about processes in the earth that are…

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Science and music festival Starmus 2025 will return to the Canary Islands

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The ambitious science and music festival Starmus will return to the Canary Islands in April 2025 for a historic edition, both for the festival and the island of La Palma.  Starmus combines art, music and science to elevate science communication and engage humanity in some of the biggest questions of our time. It was founded by astrophysicist Garik Israelian and Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May.  The festival traditionally occurs every two years and recently celebrated its seventh edition in Slovakia in April 2024; Starmus Earth was attended by more…

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‘It’s heart-forward:’ Q&A with ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ creators about Season 2 (exclusive)

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Fortified with an optimistic spirit and settling into its new home on the Netflix streaming platform, “Star Trek: Prodigy” is boldly shifting into second gear for its 20-episode sophomore season. This season finds our crew of intergalactic alien teenagers under the protective wing of Vice Admiral Janeway as they embark on a daring series of adventures in the final frontier aboard the Voyager-A starship. Here’s the official Season 2 synopsis: “In Season 2, these six young outcasts who make up the ‘Prodigy‘ crew are assigned a new mission aboard the…

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Astronaut ice cream turns 50: freeze-dried treat still popular (even if it never flew)

NeRD

Perhaps the most popular example of space food that possibly never was, astronaut ice cream is now 50 years old. The crunchy, room temperature treat, which melts as the freeze-dried ice cream rehydrates in your mouth, was first introduced in 1974 by American Outdoor Products. According to Astronaut Foods, the brand under which the Space Age snack is still marketed, the idea came about after a NASA center requested it for its visitors. “Our founder, Ron Smith, told Serious Eats that in 1974, ‘Goddard Air and Space Museum contacted us…

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NASA announces Artemis 2 moon mission backup astronaut — Andre Douglas will support 2025 lunar liftoff

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NASA has a backup astronaut standing by for the first human moon mission in more than 50 years, which will lift off no earlier than 2025. NASA astronaut Andre Douglas will serve as backup for the three U.S. astronauts on the Artemis 2 round-the-moon flight, the agency announced today (July 3). Douglas will back up commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch. Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who is also a mission specialist on Artemis 2, already has a backup: astronaut Jenni Gibbons, also…

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Former cryptocurrency company plans reality TV competition to pick next Blue Origin spaceflight crew

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A former cryptocurrency company plans to launch a reality television series that will follow its efforts to send people from underrepresented nations to space aboard a Blue Origin suborbital vehicle. The Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), formerly called the Crypto Space Agency, plans to send people from India, Nigeria and a region known as the Small Island Developing States on a future Blue Origin flight, the U.S. company announced Monday (July 1). Spaceflight candidates will first be chosen through a public voting system, then the finalists will participate in…

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Giant river system that existed 40 million years ago discovered deep below Antarctic ice

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Geologists digging into the massive ice sheet of West Antarctica have discovered the remains of an ancient river system that once flowed for nearly a thousand miles. The discovery offers a glimpse into the Earth’s history and hints at how extreme climate change could alter the planet, according to their findings, published June 5 in the journal Science Advances.  “If we think about a potentially severe climate change in the future, we need to learn from periods in Earth’s history where this already happened,” Johann Klages, study co-author and a sedimentologist at the Alfred…

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