Category: The Moon

Our moon

Science and music festival Starmus 2025 will return to the Canary Islands

NeRD

The ambitious science and music festival Starmus will return to the Canary Islands in April 2025 for a historic edition, both for the festival and the island of La Palma.  Starmus combines art, music and science to elevate science communication and engage humanity in some of the biggest questions of our time. It was founded by astrophysicist Garik Israelian and Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May.  The festival traditionally occurs every two years and recently celebrated its seventh edition in Slovakia in April 2024; Starmus Earth was attended by more…

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‘It’s heart-forward:’ Q&A with ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ creators about Season 2 (exclusive)

NeRD

Fortified with an optimistic spirit and settling into its new home on the Netflix streaming platform, “Star Trek: Prodigy” is boldly shifting into second gear for its 20-episode sophomore season. This season finds our crew of intergalactic alien teenagers under the protective wing of Vice Admiral Janeway as they embark on a daring series of adventures in the final frontier aboard the Voyager-A starship. Here’s the official Season 2 synopsis: “In Season 2, these six young outcasts who make up the ‘Prodigy‘ crew are assigned a new mission aboard the…

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Astronaut ice cream turns 50: freeze-dried treat still popular (even if it never flew)

NeRD

Perhaps the most popular example of space food that possibly never was, astronaut ice cream is now 50 years old. The crunchy, room temperature treat, which melts as the freeze-dried ice cream rehydrates in your mouth, was first introduced in 1974 by American Outdoor Products. According to Astronaut Foods, the brand under which the Space Age snack is still marketed, the idea came about after a NASA center requested it for its visitors. “Our founder, Ron Smith, told Serious Eats that in 1974, ‘Goddard Air and Space Museum contacted us…

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NASA announces Artemis 2 moon mission backup astronaut — Andre Douglas will support 2025 lunar liftoff

NeRD

NASA has a backup astronaut standing by for the first human moon mission in more than 50 years, which will lift off no earlier than 2025. NASA astronaut Andre Douglas will serve as backup for the three U.S. astronauts on the Artemis 2 round-the-moon flight, the agency announced today (July 3). Douglas will back up commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch. Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who is also a mission specialist on Artemis 2, already has a backup: astronaut Jenni Gibbons, also…

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Former cryptocurrency company plans reality TV competition to pick next Blue Origin spaceflight crew

NeRD

A former cryptocurrency company plans to launch a reality television series that will follow its efforts to send people from underrepresented nations to space aboard a Blue Origin suborbital vehicle. The Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), formerly called the Crypto Space Agency, plans to send people from India, Nigeria and a region known as the Small Island Developing States on a future Blue Origin flight, the U.S. company announced Monday (July 1). Spaceflight candidates will first be chosen through a public voting system, then the finalists will participate in…

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Giant river system that existed 40 million years ago discovered deep below Antarctic ice

NeRD

Geologists digging into the massive ice sheet of West Antarctica have discovered the remains of an ancient river system that once flowed for nearly a thousand miles. The discovery offers a glimpse into the Earth’s history and hints at how extreme climate change could alter the planet, according to their findings, published June 5 in the journal Science Advances.  “If we think about a potentially severe climate change in the future, we need to learn from periods in Earth’s history where this already happened,” Johann Klages, study co-author and a sedimentologist at the Alfred…

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Watch SpaceX catch Starship Super Heavy booster with ‘chopsticks’ in this animation

NeRD

A new SpaceX video gives us a glimpse of the future — the very near future, perhaps. Late last week, Elon Musk‘s company posted on X a 60-second animation showing Super Heavy — the first stage of SpaceX’s giant new Starship rocket — coming back down to Earth after a liftoff.  SpaceX has made rocket landings relatively routine, commonly bringing back the first stages of its workhorse Falcon 9 and powerful Falcon Heavy vehicles. But the touchdown in the animation is different: It’s a midair catch performed by the “chopstick” arms of…

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Watch Firefly Aerospace launch 8 cubesats to orbit tonight

NeRD

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket will fly for the fifth time ever early Tuesday morning (July 2), and you can watch the action live. The mission, which Firefly calls “Noise of Summer,” is scheduled to launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:03 a.m. EDT (0403 GMT; 9:03 p.m. on July 1 local California time). Firefly will host a launch webcast with NASASpaceflight.com, beginning 30 minutes before liftoff. Space.com will carry it here and on our home page, courtesy of Firefly and NASASpaceflight. “Noise of Summer” will send eight cubesats…

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Once-in-a-lifetime star explosion, visible from Earth, could happen any day now

NeRD

If you’ve always wanted to witness a stellar explosion, your time is about to come.  T Coronae Borealis, also known as T CrB (pronounced tee-core-bore) or the “Blaze Star,” is on the precipice of a massive explosion — one that should be visible from Earth. According to calculations by Brad Schaefer, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at Louisiana State University, along with data from amateur astronomers affiliated with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), the nova should occur within a few months of May 2024. T CrB is a binary…

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See the sun rage behind the ISS in epic time-lapse photo

NeRD

Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “Skyscapes” that connect both Earth and the night sky.  This image shows the silhouette of the International Space Station (ISS) as it crosses in front of the sun’s disk at a distance of 274 miles (441.5 km) from us and at a speed of about 4.5 miles…

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