Category: The Moon

Our moon

China’s Shenzhou 18 astronauts return to Earth today after 6 months in space

NeRD

China’s Shenzhou 18 crew are ready to return home after more than six months in space. Astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu have been living aboard the Tiangong space station since April 25 this year, but are set to return to Earth on Sunday (Nov. 3) after completing their mission. The trio greeted the incoming Shenzhou 19 crew aboard Tiangong on Oct. 30, meaning China briefly has six astronauts in space. Commander Ye officially handed over the control of the orbital outpost to Shenzhou 19 commander Cai Xuzhe…

Read More

Watch SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts move Crew Dragon spacecraft to new ISS parking spot on Nov. 3

NeRD

Four astronauts will relocate a SpaceX spacecraft at the space station on Sunday (Nov. 3), and you can watch the event live. The SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts, including two crew members formerly aboard Boeing Starliner, will move their Crew Dragon at the International Space Station. ISS procedures dictate that all astronauts assigned to a spacecraft climb on board for relocations, on the tiny chance something arises that would force the group to come early back to Earth. Live coverage begins at 6:15 a.m. EST (1315 GMT) courtesy of NASA+, and possibly…

Read More

Space isn’t all about the ‘race’ – rival superpowers must work together for a better future

NeRD

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Art Cotterell is Research Associate at the School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University. In recent years, a new “space race” has intensified between the United States and China. At a campaign rally last weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump invoked this rivalry when declaring the US will “lead the world in space,” echoing Democratic counterpart Vice President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, the president of China, Xi Jinping, has…

Read More

Black holes that form in ‘reverse Big Bang replays’ could account for dark energy

NeRD

Scientists have strengthened the potential connection between dark energy and black holes. New research suggests that as more black holes were born in “little Big Bang reverse replays” in the 14.6 billion-year-old cosmos, the strength of dark energy grew to dominance and continues to change to this day. Dark energy is the placeholder name given to the mysterious force driving the acceleration of the universe’s expansion in its current epoch. It is troubling because scientists have no idea what dark energy is, yet it dominates our universe, accounting for around…

Read More

‘Boo Deng’ steals the show at NASA JPL’s annual pumpkin carving contest (photos)

NeRD

Who says NASA scientists and engineers don’t know how to have fun?! Every year the fiendishly clever folks at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California hold their annual pumpkin carving contest where brilliant brains concoct all manner of strange and interesting artworks using a fresh supply of seasonal orange squash to deliver some truly fantastic fabrications. The special judged event is meant to not only celebrate the Halloween holiday, but also the anniversary of the founding of the Jet Propulsion Lab, which was first opened on Oct. 31, 1936…

Read More

China’s Shenzhou 19 astronauts take the reins of Tiangong space station (video)

NeRD

China’s Shenzhou 18 crew have passed the keys to the Tiangong space station to its new occupants. The Shenzhou 19 mission launched on a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China on Oct. 29 and arrived at the Tiangong space station 6.5 hours later.  Shortly thereafter, at 12:51 a.m. EDT (0451 GMT) on Oct. 30, the hatch between the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft and Tiangong was opened, allowing the three Shenzhou 18 mission astronauts to greet the trio of new arrivals aboard. The formal handover of the station…

Read More

Small moon of Uranus may have once had a subsurface liquid water ocean

NeRD

Over the last few decades, planetary scientists have been steadily adding to the list of moons in our solar system that may harbor interior oceans either currently or at some point in their past. For the most part, these moons (such as Europa or Enceladus) have been gravitationally bound to the gas giants Jupiter or Saturn.  Recently, though, planetary scientists have been turning their attention further afield, towards the ice giant Uranus, the coldest planet in the solar system. And now, new research based on images taken by the Voyager…

Read More

Boeing can recover from its Starliner troubles, but it can’t afford any other misfires

NeRD

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Loizos Heracleous is a Professor of Strategy at the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. SpaceX has launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft on a “rescue mission” to bring back two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) since June. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams travelled to the space station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which was on its first mission with a human crew. But several engines malfunctioned once in…

Read More

Earth sure looks spooky in these ‘hyperspectral’ images from Europe’s Hera asteroid probe

NeRD

A strange Earth shines in new imagery captured by a European asteroid mission. The Hera spacecraft, which launched this month to study a binary asteroid system up close. turned its gaze back at our planet to capture spooky views of Earth in multiple wavelengths of light. The imagery was captured fro roughly 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) away, using Hera’s HyperScout H hyperspectral imager. Besides being beautiful space art, the imagery “allows us to observe cloud patterns on our planet”, instrument team member Marcel Popescu of Romania’s University of…

Read More

Can ‘failed stars’ have planets? James Webb Space Telescopes offers clues

NeRD

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that planet-forming disks in the Orion nebula actually surround “failed stars,” or brown dwarfs. This is the first confirmation that planet-forming, flattened clouds of gas and dust called “protoplanetary disks” surround these peculiar cosmic objects. The team discovered this while using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to follow up on observations of protoplanetary disks, or “proplyds,” illuminated by ultraviolet light in the Orion Nebula. Those observations were collected by the Hubble Space Telescope. These findings could help scientists understand how…

Read More