Category: The Moon

Our moon

Boom’s XB-1 test plane gets FAA green light for supersonic flight

NeRD

Like Tom Cruise’s “Maverick” character in “Top Gun,” Boom Supersonic is feeling the need for speed. The Colorado company has received a first-of-its-kind approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to exceed Mach 1 during test flights of its XB-1 supersonic jet. These flights are slated to occur sometime this year within the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor in Mojave, California. The sleek, delta-shaped XB-1 took its maiden flight on March 22, 2024 from the Mojave Air & Space Port, and now it’s free to go supersonic at Boom’s California…

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What’s left of the 2024 solar eclipse lives in our hearts

NeRD

For a few moments this year, the sun was a lime green portal for Vicki Stirm. It happened while she was standing among tens of thousands of people on an asphalt racetrack in Indiana, on the same day our moon briefly stopped our star from illuminating our world. The ocean of onlookers around her had been watching a total solar eclipse unfold through paper glasses shaped like what you might’ve gotten as a child before a 3D movie, similarly meant to prime the human eye for a new layer of…

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Uranus and Neptune aren’t made of what we thought, new study hints

NeRD

Astronomers have long believed that the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are rich in frozen water. However, a new study suggests they may also have tons of methane ice. The findings could help solve a puzzle about how these icy worlds formed. Much about Uranus and Neptune remains unknown. These ice giant worlds have had just a single spacecraft visitor, Voyager 2, which flew past them in the 1980s. As a result, scientists have only a hazy idea of the ice giants’ compositions — for example, that they contain significant…

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Exotic ‘Einstein ring’ suggests that mysterious dark matter interacts with itself

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A fresh analysis of a remarkably massive yet compact galaxy from the early universe suggests that dark matter interacts with itself. The galaxy, JWST-ER1, which formed just 3.4 billion years after the Big Bang, was first spotted last October in images snapped by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). At over 17 billion light-years from Earth, JWST-ER1g is the farthest-ever example of a perfect “Einstein ring” — an unbroken circle of light around the galaxy, a result of light rays from a distant, unseen galaxy being bent due to the…

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The 2024 solar eclipse was a teachable moment in more ways than one

NeRD

POTSDAM, N.Y. — At first, it seemed like every other college orientation session happening in universities across the country. A handful of prospective students, my teenage daughter Zadie included, listened intently on the eighth floor of the administration building here while an admissions official shared all the amenities that the State University of New York Potsdam has to offer. In the back of the room, near me, were current university students ready to share their college life experiences. A two-hour tour lay ahead for all of us.  But throughout the…

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Iconic British meteorite ‘Winchcombe’ found to have a smashing past

NeRD

The Winchcombe meteorite, which fell to the ground in Gloucestershire in the U.K. after blazing a trail through the night sky on Feb. 28, 2021, came from an asteroid that had been heavily altered by water as well as smashed apart and reformed multiple times. That’s the conclusion of a detailed analysis of the meteorite, fragments of which were found scattered in fields near the village of Winchcombe, and even on one family’s driveway. It was the first meteorite fall in the U.K. to be retrieved since 1991. Thanks to…

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Object that slammed into Florida home was indeed space junk from ISS, NASA confirms

NeRD

The mysterious object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA has confirmed. That home, in the seaside city of Naples, belongs to Alejandro Otero. Shortly after the March 8 incident, Otero said he thought the offending object was part of a cargo pallet packed with 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of aging batteries jettisoned from the ISS in March 2021.  And he was right, according to a new NASA analysis of the object, which was performed at…

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Nuclear fusion reactor in South Korea runs at 100 million degrees C for a record-breaking 48 seconds

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South Korea’s “artificial sun” has set a new fusion record after superheating a plasma loop to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million degrees Celsius) for 48 seconds, scientists have announced.  The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor broke the previous world record of 31 seconds, which was set by the same reactor in 2021.The breakthrough is a small but impressive step on the long road to a source of near-unlimited clean energy.  Scientists have been trying to harness the power of nuclear fusion — the process by which stars…

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1st female ISS program manager looks ahead to new spaceships, space stations (exclusive)

NeRD

Dana Weigel, the first woman to helm the International Space Station program manager, says she’s excited to oversee so much commercial space activity on the orbiting complex. Weigel officially took helm of the International Space Station (ISS) program manager position on Sunday (April 7), succeeding Joel Montalbano. She was previously deputy ISS program manager and has 20 years of experience in numerous high-profile NASA roles. Working directly alongside Montalbano in management since 2021, she said, “I’ve gotten a lot of experience with the challenges that are there,” Weigel told Space.com…

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This little robot can hop in zero-gravity to explore asteroids

NeRD

A three-legged robot named SpaceHopper could help combat the challenges of exploring low-gravity environments, such as those found on asteroids or moons.  The SpaceHopper program was first launched two and a half years ago as a student research project at ETH Zurich university in Switzerland. And recently, researchers tested the hopping robot in a simulated zero-gravity environment during a European Space Agency parabolic flight, according to a statement from the university. The robot consists of a triangular body with an articulated leg at each corner. Each of these three legs…

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