Category: Space Stations

Space stations in orbit or planned

Ancient supermassive black hole is blowing galaxy-killing wind, James Webb Space Telescope finds

NeRD

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have spotted the earliest powerful “galaxy-size” wind blowing from a feeding supermassive black hole-powered quasar. The powerful wind is pushing gas and dust from its galaxy at incredible speeds, killing star birth in its host galaxy.  This quasar, designated J1007+2115, is so distant that it is seen as it was just 700 million years after the Big Bang — when the 13.8 billion-year-old universe was just around 5% of its current age. Though this makes J1007+2115 just the third-earliest quasar ever seen,…

Read More

See Venus rendezvous with the crescent moon in the night sky tonight (Oct. 5)

NeRD

On Saturday evening (Oct. 5) as darkness is falling, be sure to take a look low toward the west-southwest part of the sky for a beautiful celestial tableau formed by a lovely crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus.  The moon will appear to hover about 4-degrees below and to the left of Venus. Your clenched fist held at arm’s length measures roughly 10-degrees. So, the moon and Venus will appear to be less than a “half a fist” apart. These Venus-moon rendezvous occur on roughly a monthly schedule. Indeed, if…

Read More

Blue Origin to debut 2nd human-rated New Shepard rocket on Oct. 7 launch (photo)

NeRD

Blue Origin will debut a new spacecraft on Monday (Oct. 7), if all goes according to plan. Jeff Bezos‘ aerospace company plans to launch its uncrewed NS-27 mission Monday morning, sending its New Shepard rocket-capsule combo on a brief trip to suborbital space. It will be the first mission for this particular vehicle, according to Blue Origin. NS-27 will launch from the company’s West Texas site during a window that opens at 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT; 8:00 a.m. local Texas time). You can watch the action live via Blue…

Read More

NASA’s exoplanet hunter TESS spots a record-breaking 3-star system

NeRD

Using NASA’s exoplanet-hunting spacecraft, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), scientists have spotted a record-breaking triple-star system so tightly bound that it could fit comfortably between the sun and its closest planet, Mercury. The system, designated TIC 290061484 contains twin stars that race around each other once every 1.8 Earth days as well as a third star that orbits this pair once every 25 Earth days. This triple star system’s super-tight orbit, located just under 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the swan, makes it a record-breaker.  The previous…

Read More

This Celestron beginner telescope is 18% off before Prime Day

NeRD

The Celestron 70mm Travel Scope is 18% off on Amazon in this early Prime Day telescope deal. Amazon’s Big Deal Days sales event starts Oct. 8, and we have a roundup of all the best early Amazon Prime Day deals, which you can check out. Save 18% on the Celestron 70mm Travel Scope when you grab it on Amazon ahead of Big Deal Days. Celestron’s 70mm Travel Scope is ideal for beginners, and, at under $90, it’s a low-risk investment if you’re taking your first steps into astronomy. You get…

Read More

James Webb Space Telescope finds supernova ‘Hope’ that could finally resolve major astronomy debate

NeRD

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a stunning image of a distant supernova in a galaxy that looks like it’s being stretched like warm taffy. However, the golden smear hiding this gravitationally lensed supernova, which has been nicknamed “supernova Hope,” isn’t just remarkable for its aesthetic value. The supernova, which exploded when the 13.8-billion-year-old universe was just around 3.5 billion years old, tells us something about a huge problem in cosmology called the “Hubble tension.”  The Hubble tension comes from the fact that scientists can’t agree on…

Read More

When is the next solar eclipse?

NeRD

It’ll be about six months before skywatchers are treated to another solar eclipse — during which only part of the sun will again be obscured from view.  On Oct. 2, an annular solar eclipse was visible from areas in the Southern Hemisphere, including in remote parts of Chile and Argentina. This type of eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, but does not completely cover the sun’s disk because it is at its farthest point from Earth. Therefore, the moon appears smaller than the sun, creating…

Read More

How to watch ULA’s 2nd-ever Vulcan Centaur rocket launch on Oct. 4

NeRD

Oct. 4 LIVE Broadcast: Vulcan Cert-2 – YouTube Watch On United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch the second test flight of its Vulcan Centaur rocket on Friday morning (Oct. 4), and you can watch the action live online.  Vulcan Centaur’s second mission, a test flight called Cert-2, is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window that opens at 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT). You can watch the launch live here at Space.com, courtesy of ULA,…

Read More

NASA Invites Media to SpaceX’s 31st Resupply Launch to Space Station

NeRD

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft approaching the International Space Station Credits: NASA Media accreditation is open for the next launch to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This launch is the 31st SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency and will lift off on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, Oct. 30, to launch the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credentialing to cover…

Read More

How NASA Astronauts Vote from Space Aboard International Space Station 

NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The American flag inside the cupola of the International Space Station (Credits: NASA). Credit: NASA NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the opportunity to vote in general elections through absentee ballots or early voting in coordination with the county clerk’s office where they live.   So, how is voting from space possible? Through NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program.  Similar to most data transmitted between the space station and the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space…

Read More