Category: Solar System

Our solar system

Hurricane Beryl makes landfall as Category 1 hurricane along eastern Texas (video)

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The strongest hurricane to occur this early in the year made landfall in Matagorda, Texas, early Monday morning (July 8) at a Category 1 level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. At 4:00 a.m. local time, Hurricane Beryl roared inland with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (129 kilometers per hour), bringing with it a , dangerous rise in seawater level — up to seven feet (two meters) in some spots along the Gulf coastline in eastern Texas.  The storm also brought “considerable” flash and urban flooding inland…

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‘Star Trek’ legend Jonathan Frakes to direct new series, ‘Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime’

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Filmmaker, author, producer and actor Jonathan Frakes is best known for his portrayal of Commander Will Riker in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” a role he has also played in four “Star Trek” feature films with the acclaimed “TNG” cast. Outside of his co-starring roles in the final frontier, Riker is also an accomplished director, beginning with his dip into filmmaking on “The Next Generation” and continuing with his helming of 1996’s “Star Trek: First Contact” and 1998’s “Star Trek: Insurrection.” Along the way, he has transitioned back to episodic…

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Extreme ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet stinks like rotten eggs and has raging glass storms

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Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered that one of the closest “hot Jupiter” planets to Earth stinks like rotten eggs. The planet is already infamous for its deadly rains of glass, extreme temperatures, and 5,000 mph (8,046 kph) winds that blow sideways, but this discovery makes this world seem even less friendly. The eggy JWST conclusion results from the discovery of hydrogen sulfide, a molecule that gives off the stench of rotten eggs, in the atmosphere of this extrasolar planet or “exoplanet.”  This could tell scientists…

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Space radiation can damage satellites − my team discovered that a next-generation material could self-heal when exposed to cosmic rays

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The space environment is harsh and full of extreme radiation. Scientists designing spacecraft and satellites need materials that can withstand these conditions. In a paper published in January 2024, my team of materials researchers demonstrated that a next-generation semiconductor material called metal-halide perovskite can actually recover and heal itself from radiation damage. Metal-halide perovskites are a class of materials discovered in 1839 that are found abundantly in Earth’s crust. They absorb sunlight and efficiently convert it into electricity, making them a potentially good fit for space-based solar panels that can…

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Astrophotographer captures stunningly detailed photos of our ‘fuzzy’ sun

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These incredibly detailed images of the sun were captured by astrophotographer Mark Johnston from his backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona. As we approach solar maximum, the peak of solar activity during the sun‘s approximately 11-year solar cycle, the sun has been anything but quiet. Spawning huge sunspots, unleashing powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and triggering impressive widespread aurora displays, the sun has certainly been keeping us on our toes.  It’s no wonder astrophotographers like Johnston are turning their attention to our home star, because you never quite know…

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Jumping on an asteroid: How VR is being used to visit worlds we can never reach

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I’m standing so close to JAXA’s Hayabusa2 asteroid lander that I could reach out and touch it. Instead, I jump on top of it. Then I strike a pose. When I leap off, I float for a moment in the low gravity before touching down gently on the surface of Ryugu, a craggy, gray world devoid of life and color.  The “I” in this situation is my avatar, a digital approximation of myself that has a more consistent beard length and isn’t constantly rubbing sleep from its eyes. The Hayabusa2…

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SpaceX’s Starship to fly again ‘in 4 weeks,’ Elon Musk says

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We won’t have to wait much longer to see the most powerful rocket ever built take to the skies again, if all goes according to plan. That rocket, SpaceX’s 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship, has flown four test flights to date. And number five should be just around the corner, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. “Flight 5 in 4 weeks,” Musk said Friday (July 5) via X, the social media platform he owns.  Starship consists of two elements: a first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall…

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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 118 —Understanding the Darkness

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Understanding the Darkness – Dark Matter and Dark Energy – YouTube Watch On On Episode 118 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and guest co-host Isaac Arthur talk with Alina Kiessling and Jason Rhodes, both research scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, about the concepts of dark matter and dark energy and their broader implications for cosmology, exoplanet research, and more. For many of us, dark matter and dark energy are two of the least understood areas of cosmology and astrophysics. Both Kiessling and Rhodes are working on major…

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Watch NASA’s 1st year-long mock Mars mission wrap up today

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NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV – YouTube Watch On NASA’s first year-long mock Mars mission will come to an end today (July 6), and you can watch the action live. That mission, the first in the CHAPEA (“Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog”) series, began on June 25, 2003, when four volunteers were sealed inside a simulated Mars habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. The quartet will exit the habitat today, after a staggering 378 days. You can watch their return to regular Earth life…

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Watch the 1st teaser trailer for new horror game ‘A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead’

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A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead – Reveal Trailer – YouTube Watch On Trying to remain silent in the cacophony of New York City, whose background noise averages over 90 decibels (the measure of a constant human scream), would be a nearly insurmountable obstacle to overcome, especially when trying to flee from extraterrestrials tuned in to the drop of a pin. This whispering dilemma witnessed in Paramount Pictures’ newly released prequel, “A Quiet Place: Day One,” carries over into Saber Interactive’s upcoming video game inspired by the smash sci-fi horror…

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