Category: The Moon

Our moon

Dark skies and epic Winter Star Party — why the Florida Keys are more than just a Spring Break destination

NeRD

If you’re looking for the best locations for astrophotography and skywatching, look no further than the Florida Keys. A 125-mile string of tropical coral islands linked by bridges that stretches into the shallow waters of the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico, it’s home to fishing, boating and snorkeling, but also stargazing. Related: Night sky for tonight: Visible planets, stars and more in this evening’s sky As well as some of the darkest skies on the U.S. East Coast, it’s also the nation’s southernmost point. At 24.5 degrees north,…

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Is Netflix’s ‘The Electric State’ a sci-fi retelling of ‘The Wizard of Oz’?

NeRD

The Russo Brothers, those money-making MCU maestros and their mega-budgeted sci-fi adventure, “The Electric State,” are receiving much unkind criticism from fans and pundits, some of it possibly deserved and some unfairly served up in a complicated miasma of vitriolic opinion. Ah, such is the state of modern Hollywood these days as it seems there’s always misdirected anger afoot aimed at most popular entertainment. Whatever your opinion is of Netflix’s loose $320 million adaptation of visionary Swedish artist and author Simon Stålenhag’s 2018 illustrated novel of a war-torn America in…

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China now has a ‘kill mesh’ in orbit, Space Force vice chief says

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The United States is approaching a turning point in space security, and needs to step up its game before Russia and China close the gap in capabilities, a U.S. Space Force general said. Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein spoke at the 16th annual McAleese “Defense Programs” Conference in Arlington, Virginia on Tuesday (March 18), warning the Space Force needs to rethink how it defends the country’s satellites. Space Force should shift its focus from managing spacecraft in support of defense infrastructure on the ground, to growing its…

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How the James Webb Space Telescope is helping size up tiny dwarf planets

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A surprising chemical difference between Pluto and Sedna, another dwarf planet in the distant Kuiper Belt, is helping scientists nail down their respective masses, a new study reports. The Kuiper Belt is a region in space beyond the orbit of Neptune that’s home to Pluto and most of the known dwarf planets, as well as some comets that are thought to be relics of the solar system’s planet-formation era. “Kuiper Belt objects are icy worlds [that] can tell us what conditions were like billions of years ago,” explained study lead…

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Which is better for astrophotography? Sony, Canon or Nikon?

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It can be a complex decision to choose the right camera brand for astrophotography. With new technology and an ever-increasing rate of camera development, the major photographic brands that we see regularly popping up, like Canon, Nikon, and Sony, each bring district strengths to the table. Telling these strengths apart and knowing what to pay attention to can sometimes be difficult. In astrophotography, key factors like low-light performance, high ISO capabilities, noise reduction, and any included specific astro-centric features are paramount. If you are in the market for a camera,…

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When space meets sea, Crew-9 Dragon meets dolphins: Space photo of the day

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A pod of bottlenose dolphins circled and surfaced nearby SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom after it splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber) As it turns out, more than humans were interested in the return of SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronauts after an extended mission on board the International Space Station. An unexpected welcome committee arrived soon after the Crew Dragon “Freedom” splashed down on Tuesday, March 18. What is it? SpaceX support team members work around and on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft…

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SpaceX to set new rocket-reuse record on March 21 launch of US spy satellites

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SpaceX will set a new rocket-reuse record early Friday morning (March 21), if all goes according to plan. A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base Friday at 2:49 a.m. EDT (0649 GMT; 11:49 p.m. on March 20 local California time), on the NROL-57 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). This rocket’s first stage also lofted the SPHEREx space telescope and PUNCH solar probes for NASA on March 11, according to a SpaceX mission description. An on-time liftoff for NROL-57 would…

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Aliens abduct space-crazed kid in wild new trailer for Pixar’s ‘Elio’ (video)

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After making a course correction with a number of reshoots and directorial shuffling, “Elio” is poised to be Disney & Pixar’s next potential blockbuster when the kid-centric sci-fi comedy drops into our galaxy with a rescheduled release date of June 20, 2025 and we’ve got a vibrant new trailer to share. “Elio’s” family-friendly plotline orbits around its aliens-obsessed 11-year-old hero who dreams of venturing into the heavens on intergalactic adventures when he’s suddenly beamed up into the midst of the “Communiverse.” This vast interplanetary institution is a consortium of representatives…

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The MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops for astronomers and it’s just hit its lowest-ever price

NeRD

The MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops for astronomers, delivering processing power, portability, and incredible display quality. For professional and amateur stargazers it’s an invaluable asset offering some of the best-in-class image processing, data analysis, and telescope control. Save $200 and buy the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch for just $1,399 at Amazon. Regardless of the model, the MacBook Pro is always in demand but it comes with a hefty price tag. If you’re looking to upgrade your current laptop or a Mac is on your wishlist, then this…

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Alien life could survive on Earth-like planets circling dead stars, study suggests

NeRD

White dwarfs may be stellar corpses, but that doesn’t mean that everything around them has to be lifeless. That’s the conclusion of Florida Institute of Technology researcher Caldon Whyte, who’s particularly fascinated by these stellar remnants. Until now, scientists have generally thought that planets orbiting white dwarfs would be unsuitable for life because the dynamic temperature decrease of their dead parent star makes their atmospheres too unstable. As the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) increasingly investigates white dwarf systems, however, Whyte and colleagues developed a model capable of assessing if…

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