Category: The Moon

Our moon

SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites to orbit from California, lands rocket at sea (video)

NeRD

SpaceX launched a stack of Starlink internet satellites to orbit from California and returned the booster to Earth Friday afternoon (March 26). The Falcon 9 rocket flying the mission, Starlink 11-7, carried a total of 27 satellites to orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California. The SpaceX rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex-4E at 6:11:40 p.m. ET (2211 GMT). A little more than eight minutes later, the rocket’s first-stage booster, B1063, touched down on the SpaceX droneship “Of Course I Still Love You,” stationed in the Pacific Ocean.…

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Hold onto your hats! Is the ‘blaze star’ T Corona Borealis about to go boom?

NeRD

A new set of predictions for the so-called “blaze star,” T Corona Borealis suggests the star might go nova on either March 27, November 10, or June 25, 2026. However, other astronomers are skeptical about these predictions, which are based on an implied pattern in the explosive system’s orbital configuration, “T Corona Borealis [T CrB] is a unique object that has fascinated amateur and professional astronomers for more than a century,” Léa Planquart of the Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, told Space.com. T…

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What will happen during the partial solar eclipse of March 2025?

NeRD

What a difference a year makes! Just a year ago, countless millions across North America were anxiously awaiting the “great North American total eclipse of the sun” on April 8. Now, less than a year later, on Saturday, March 29, another eclipse of the sun will take place, but it’s quite likely that the prospective viewing audience will be considerably smaller. To produce this eclipse, the moon’s shadow falls chiefly on the north polar regions of Earth. Keep up to date with the latest solar eclipse news and events with…

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“The monster will come for us all!” Mon Mothma rouses the rebels in new ‘Andor’ Season 2 trailer

NeRD

Andor | Official Trailer | Final Season Streaming April 22 on Disney+ – YouTube Watch On We’re a mere month away from the climactic second season of Disney+’s “Andor: A Star Wars Story” that will take us straight up to the beginning of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” A fresh Disney-delivered trailer has just dropped, and it makes us want to join those pesky rebels and charge blindly into the fray in defense of galactic freedom. Well, until we see the dreaded Death Star! Arriving on April 22, “Andor”…

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‘Earth to Space’ art festival set to launch at Kennedy Center this week

NeRD

A nearly month-long space mission is ready to lift off, with final preparations being made at the Kennedy Center. To be clear, not NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but rather the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. “Earth to Space: Arts Breaking the Sky” is set to transform the United States’ national cultural hub into a launch pad for three weeks of live performances, films, art, interactive exhibits and discussions, all inspired by spaceflight and the wonders of the universe. The festival will see…

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NASA completes SLS core stage stacking for Artemis 2 moon mission (photos)

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NASA’s next moon rocket is coming together, piece by piece. The core stage of NASA’s next Space Launch System (SLS) rocket recently completed integration with the vehicle’s side boosters inside the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida. SLS will launch NASA’s Artemis 2 mission to fly four astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft around the moon and back sometime next year. “Technicians joined the core stage March 23 with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC),” NASA officials wrote in a statement Monday (March…

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‘Cosmic tornado’ swirls in breathtaking new James Webb Space Telescope image

NeRD

A cosmic coincidence has led to one of the most amazing images ever captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The dramatic outflow from a newborn star, known as Herbig-Haro 49/50 (HH 49/50), just so happened to align perfectly with a distant spiral galaxy, creating this mesmerizing celestial scene. Herbig-Haro objects are glowing clouds of gas and dust shaped by newborn stars or protostars. They form when jets of charged particles, ejected from young stars at immense speeds, slam into surrounding material, creating brilliant, ever-changing patterns in the sky.…

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Rare ‘solar horns’ will appear during partial solar eclipse on March 29 — Here are 6 of the best places in the US and Canada to see the unusual phenomenon

NeRD

There’s something special about the partial solar eclipse on March 29, 2025. For North Americans in the right place at the right time — and who get clear skies — there’s a chance to see the unique spectacle of “solar horns,” a phenomenon where the cusps of an eclipsed crescent sun appear as two distinct points above the horizon during sunrise. For observers in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada aiming to witness this rare event, selecting the optimal location is crucial. Selecting a location for ‘solar horns’ “Solar horns”…

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NASA says removal of ‘first woman, person of color’ language from Artemis websites ‘does not indicate’ moon mission crew change

NeRD

NASA websites no longer state that the Artemis 3 lunar mission will aim to land the first person of color and the first woman on the moon — a longstanding goal of the Artemis program that the agency has consistently called upon when discussing lunar plans. The change appeared this weekend as NASA continues to cancel programs dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) as well as purge its websites of any language related to these efforts. These decisions are guided by the Trump administration’s push to end programs…

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Ouch! Carlo Rambaldi’s original screen-used ‘E.T.’ model might reach $1 million at Sotheby’s auction

NeRD

Why is it so wet-looking? He looks like a professional wrestler covered in baby oil. We can’t answer that question, but if you’re willing to stump up a million dollars, you can own this incredibly glossy piece of sci-fi history. It might be slightly scary, but this rare remnant of Hollywood’s illustrious past was actually used in the filming of director Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi fantasy, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” and could fetch nearly one million dollars when Sotheby’s auction bidding finally closes on the historic lot next month. An authentic shooting…

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