Category: Solar System

Our solar system

Russia vetoes UN resolution against nuclear weapons in space

NeRD

Russia vetoed a United Nations resolution that was aimed at preventing a nuclear arms race in space. The resolution was sponsored by the United States and Japan and called upon all nations to never deploy nuclear weapons in outer space. The resolution comes on the heels of recent reports that Russia is developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon of some kind. The furor caused by the reports led the White House to issue a statement that the rumored weapon poses “no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.” Thirteen nations, including the United…

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Beavers are helping fight climate change, satellite data shows

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As global warming intensifies droughts, floods and wildfires around the world, scientists in western United States are turning to beavers to help reverse some of the damage. Scientists at Utah’s Boise State University and Utah State University are using satellite data to identify streams where once-eradicated beavers can be re-introduced to boost vegetation. They’re also recording how water abundance and vegetation bordering those streams changes once beavers return — metrics of environmental health. “The real value of using satellite data for monitoring is that there are people on the ground…

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Astronomers just discovered a comet that could be brighter than most stars when we see it next year. Or will it?

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Jonti Horner is an astronomer and astrobiologist based at the University of Southern Queensland, in Toowoomba, Queensland. Hot on the heels of the disappointing Green Comet, astronomers have just discovered a new comet with the potential to be next year’s big story – C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). Although it is still more than 18 months from its closest approach to Earth and the sun, comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS already has social media buzzing, with optimistic articles being…

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Watch 2 gorgeous supernova remnants evolve over 20 years (timelapse video)

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When we picture what’s in deep space, we often think of static images — colorful composites of distant objects like nebulas and galaxies, frozen in time. The reality is that everything is moving, and it’s moving fast. But given the vast distances involved, it’s hard for us to see that motion. NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, however, has been taking images for decades — long enough to compile timelapses that show the movement of deep space objects. And the team has just released two such “movies,” one of the iconic Crab…

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Boeing Starliner 1st astronaut flight: Live updates

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Refresh 2024-04-26T19:42:30.435Z 1st Starliner astronauts finish dress rehearsal before May 6 launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finished a big dress rehearsal before their historic launch upon Boeing Starliner no earlier than May 6, agency officials said Friday (April 26) hours after the rehearsal finished. “Wilmore and Williams completed a series of launch day milestones including suiting up, working in a flight deck simulator, and operating the same software that will be used during the launch,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post on Friday (April 26). The…

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US Space Force picks Rocket Lab for 2025 Victus Haze space domain awareness mission

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The continued push for space domain awareness comes with contracts between the U.S. Space Force and space services companies to create missions that will align with national security needs.  Earlier this month, Rocket Lab announced a $32 million contract with Space Systems Command (SSC), an organization within the U.S. Space Force responsible for the service’s development and acquisition of new space technologies and capabilities. The contract is to develop a spacecraft and command and control center for the VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission that aims to quicken the…

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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is ‘go’ for May 6 astronaut launch

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Boeing’s new spaceship has been cleared for its first-ever crewed liftoff. Over the past two days, NASA and Boeing held a flight readiness review (FRR) for the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, which will send agency astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to and from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The FRR found no serious issues, meaning CFT is go for launch on May 6 as previously planned, NASA announced today (April 25). “I can say with confidence that the teams have absolutely done their due…

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Russian cosmonauts make quick work of space station spacewalk

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Two Russian cosmonauts completed a spacewalk at the International Space Station, wrapping up all of their tasks with time to spare, including the deployment of a radar that they began last year. Expedition 71 crewmates Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub successfully unfolded and latched the fourth of four panels for a synthetic radar communications system on the Russian Nauka multipurpose laboratory module (MLM) at 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT) on Thursday (April 25), 47 minutes after the spacewalk began.  “I will try first manually,” said Chub, who used his gloved…

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Curiosity rover may be ‘burping’ methane out of Mars’ subsurface

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Since 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover has repeatedly detected methane on Mars, specifically near its landing site inside the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater.  But that Mars methane is behaving erratically. It only appears at night, it fluctuates seasonally and it spikes unexpectedly to levels 40 times higher than usual. To make things more puzzling, the gas isn’t present in appreciable amounts high in the Martian atmosphere, and it hasn’t been detected near the surface in other Red Planet locales. So what’s going on at Gale Crater? A group of NASA…

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Watch China launch 3 astronauts to Tiangong space station today

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China will launch its latest set of crewmembers to Tiangong space station today (April 25), and you can watch the action live. The three-astronaut Shenzhou 18 mission is scheduled to lift off atop a Long March 2F rocket from China’s Jiuquan spaceport at 8:59 a.m. EDT (1259 GMT; 8:59 p.m. Beijing time) on April 25. Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of Chinese broadcaster CCTV. Coverage is expected to begin around 5:45 a.m. EDT (0945 GMT). Related: China rolls out rocket for next astronaut mission to Tiangong space station…

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