Category: The Moon

Our moon

10 new dead star ‘monsters’ discovered at the heart of the Milky Way

NeRD

Astronomers have discovered ten strange dead stars, or “neutron stars,” lurking near the heart of the Milky Way. These weirdo neutron stars are also spinning, meaning they are “pulsars.” Scientists suspect the overly dense nature of this oddball globular cluster, located 18,000 light-years from Earth, could result in these rapidly spinning dead stars taking on bizarre and twisted forms. The lot, for instance, includes several “spider pulsars” that destroy stars with plasma webs and a speed demon vampire star greedily feasting on its companion stars. Pulsars are neutron stars that…

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The sun fires off 2 powerful X flares in less than 2 hours (video, photo)

NeRD

The sun showcased its immense power yet again this morning (August 5), firing off not one but two X-class flares. X flares are the strongest solar flare class. Today’s first X blast, which launched from a sunspot called AR3767, reached its peak around 9:40 a.m. EDT (1340 GMT), clocking in at X1.7 on solar scientists’ flare scale. Then, less than two hours later, the sunspot AR3780 fired off an X1.1 class solar flare, which peaked at 11:27 a.m. EDT (1527 GMT).  Solar flares are often accompanied by huge eruptions of solar…

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SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites to orbit from California (video, photos)

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SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink satellites to orbit early Sunday (Aug. 4), continuing a busy stretch for the company. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 23 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday at 3:24 a.m. EDT (0724 GMT; 12:24 a.m. local California time). The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after launch as planned, landing on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.  A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches…

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New moon of August 2024: Venus in conjunction

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The new moon occurs Aug. 4, at 7:13 a.m. EDT (0113 UTC). In the days following the new moon, our satellite will make a close pass to Venus; after that Venus and Mercury will be close together, making a visible pair in the evening sky.  A new moon describes the moment when the sun and moon share the same celestial longitude; this is called a conjunction. This happens about every 29.5 days. As the illuminated side of the moon faces away from Earth, new moons are invisible to ground-based observers…

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The moon and Venus join close together in the night sky Aug. 5

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Few sights are as memorable as Venus, the brightest planet, passing very close to a crescent moon in a twilight sky. Such an event may have inspired the symbols on the flag of Turkey or the famous lines penned by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner:” Till clomb above the eastern barThe horned Moon, with one bright star Within the nether tip Unfortunately, the very close conjunction of Venus on Monday evening, Aug. 5 will prove far more challenging than most. Indeed, the moon itself will appear…

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Photographer recreates NASA’s epic Artemis 1 launch with Lego (video)

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LEGO Artemis SLS Rocket Toy Photography | How It’s Made? – YouTube Watch On To glance at the images above, you’d be hard pushed to not think you were looking at a real rocket launch. But they’re actually works of art, created by Benedek Lampert using Lego’s NASA Artemis Space Launch System set. By using some clever photography techniques — and the use of some rather nifty lighting — he’s been able to create an incredible likeness without ever stepping foot near the actual NASA Artemis 1 launch. The similarity…

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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 122 —No City on Mars?

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No City on Mars? – A Debate on Human Expansion and the Popular New Book, ‘A City on Mars’ – YouTube Watch On On Episode 122 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dale Skran, COO and SVP of the National Space Society, and video producer Isaac Arthur about the realistic prospects for space settlement. It’s been said that Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids, and that’s certainly the assertion of the popular 2023 book, “A City on Mars” by Kelly…

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Earth from space: Astronauts share photography tips for snapping amazing photos from the ISS

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The view from Earth looking up at the stars is an incredible one, but a select few have the chance to look down at their home planet from space and capture the incredible scenery on camera.  A recent X Spaces (formerly Twitter Spaces) event featured NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Don Pettit revealing the secrets of doing astrophotography from low Earth orbit. Dominick, who is currently on board the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Expedition 71, and Pettit, who will launch to the orbiting outpost in September, passed…

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Canadarm2 was not designed to catch spacecraft at the ISS. Now it’s about to grab its 50th

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A Canadian robot arm on the International Space Station is days from a big milestone. MDA Space’s Canadarm2 will celebrate its 50th cosmic catch no earlier than Aug. 5, when a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship berths with the International Space Station (ISS) with thousands of pounds of experiments, supplies and food for the Expedition 71 astronauts, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today (Aug. 2). Cygnus will launch to the ISS no earlier than 11:29 a.m. EDT (0329 GMT) on Aug. 3, and you can watch the mission here…

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The moon’s thin atmosphere is made by constant meteorite bombardment

NeRD

It is easy to imagine the moon as an atmosphere-less hunk of rock orbiting Earth. However, while lacking breathable air, our planet’s loyal natural satellite companion does have a thin and wispy atmosphere.  Scientists have long puzzled over the existence of this tenuous atmosphere or “exosphere” and have searched for the main process that sustains it, but new research indicates that this tenuous lunar atmosphere or “exosphere” owes its existence to renewal and replenishment caused by the violent bombardment of space rocks upon the moon.  The team behind the research…

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