Space News & Blog Articles

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SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule returns to Earth after 6-week stay at space station

A robotic SpaceX capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida on Wednesday morning (Jan. 11), wrapping up its six-week cargo mission.

Solar flare hat trick: Sun unleashes another powerful X-flare in less than a week!

The sun has fired off its third powerful X-class solar flare in less than a week, scoring an explosive hat trick.

Everything we know about Star Wars Jedi Survivor: release date, plot & more

Hit the music and start the text crawl - here's everything we know about Star Wars Jedi Survivor.

Russia to launch new Soyuz capsule to replace leaky spacecraft on space station

Russia will launch an empty Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station February to replace a damaged spacecraft that is unsafe to return its crew.

SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule streaks to predawn splashdown in Gulf of Mexico

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule streaks through the atmosphere on the way to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida. Credit: SpaceX

A SpaceX-owned Dragon cargo capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday, returning 4,400 pounds of science equipment and hardware from the International Space Station after a 45-day resupply mission.

The gumdrop-shaped cargo capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, at 5:19 a.m. EST (1019 GMT) Wednesday. The Dragon spacecraft plunged into Earth’s atmosphere over the United States, flying from northwest to southeast as temperatures outside the ship’s heat shield reached 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius).

Four main parachutes opened to slow the capsule to a gentle splashdown. SpaceX’s teams based on the recovery ship “Megan” pulled the spacecraft out of the sea for a trip back to Port Canaveral, Florida, where the Dragon capsule will be transported to a refurbishment facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for preparations for a future mission.

The Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth with a protective vest that was tested by astronauts on the International Space Station to measure how well the garment protects against dangerous radiation. The mission also brought home a plant growth experiment and other scientific research specimens.

The capsule also hauled home high pressure oxygen and nitrogen gas tanks that will be refilled on the ground for a future launch, a catalytic reactor for the station’s life support system, a pressure control and pump assembly for the urine processing system, multifiltration beds for the station’s water processor, a mass spectrometer and hydrogen sensor, and potable water dispenser filters.


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Astronomers Discover Giant Blinking Star

A red giant star thousands of light-years away "blinked," dimming significantly for seven long years, before returning to normal.

The post Astronomers Discover Giant Blinking Star appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Curiosity rover discovers opal gems on Mars with clues to watery past

Opals, which contain a lot of water, have been found on Mars. They might be an indicator of past life and possibly a source of water for astronauts in the future.

Astronomers spot the most distant stars in the Milky Way — a million light-years away

Researchers have discovered more than 200 RR Lyrae stars in our galaxy's stellar halo.

NASA moon camera on South Korean probe takes a peek where the sun doesn't shine

South Korea's first moon mission has delivered a stunning first image from a NASA camera designed to peer into permanently shadowed areas near the lunar poles.

Meet Mirfak, the Supergiant of Perseus

Mirfak, the brightest star in the constellation Perseus, is a yellow supergiant star with an uncertain fate.

The post Meet Mirfak, the Supergiant of Perseus appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

10 ways to save money on astrophotography gear 2023

Here are some great ways to save money on astrophotography gear, whether you're a seasoned astronomer or a newbie stargazer.

Destiny 2 beginner’s guide: joining the fight before Lightfall

As Destiny 2 approaches the end of its first massive saga, many players want to become Guardians. Our Destiny 2 beginner’s guide aims to make the late arrival easier.

See 133 days on the sun in just 2 minutes in this mesmerizing NASA video

A new NASA video reveals the ever-changing surface of the sun in a stunning time-lapse that spans 133 days.

SpaceX stacks giant Starship rocket again to prep for test flight (video)

SpaceX has stacked its giant Starship rocket once again, as a dramatic new video shows.

Smallsat launcher ABL Space Systems fails on 1st-ever orbital mission

ABL Space Systems' RS1 rocket failed shortly after launching on its first-ever orbital mission Tuesday (Jan. 10), resulting in the loss of two small satellites.

The James Webb Links Modern Green Pea Galaxies to Ancient Galaxies in the Cosmic Dawn

When the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off from Earth on Christmas Day in 2021, it carried a lot of expectations with it. One of its scientific goals is to seek the light from the first galaxies in the Universe and to study how galaxies form and evolve.

A new paper shows that the JWST is doing just that and has found a link between the first galaxies and rare galaxies in our backyard that astronomers call “Green Pea” galaxies.

One of the big questions in cosmology is how galaxies first formed and then evolved into the vast spiral-armed structures we see today. The appearance of the first galaxies is tied to the Epoch of Reionization (EOR) and the end of the Universe’s Dark Ages. Before the first stars and galaxies formed in the Universe, there was nothing but an impenetrable haze of primordial gas. Once stars formed inside galaxies, their powerful ultraviolet light reionized the hydrogen, allowing light to travel through the Universe.

The evidence for the EOR is buried in the deep, distant past. The light from those early galaxies has been stretched to extreme redshifts by the expansion of the universe since then, and the JWST was meticulously designed to detect that infrared light. It has succeeded, and early in its scientific mission, the JWST has already detected the oldest galaxies ever found, dating to only 350 million years after the Big Bang.

A new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters shows how some of these very early galaxies are remarkably similar to some oddball galaxies that are much younger and live in our cosmic backyard. The paper is “Finding Peas in the Early Universe with JWST.” The lead author is James Rhoads, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.


These images show a green pea galaxy imaged by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey on the left and an infrared picture of an early pea captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. At left is J122051+491255, a green pea about 170 million light-years away that's about 4,000 light-years across. That's a typical size for a green pea. At right is an early pea known as 04590, whose light has taken 13.1 billion years to reach us. 04590 is even compact than the other two JWST galaxies, comparable to the smallest nearby green peas. Image Credit: SDSS and NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
This image is based on data from the paper but has added emphasis to make it more readable for non-scientists. The JWST's NIRSpec instrument captured the chemical fingerprints of selected galaxies behind SMACS 0723, including three faint, distant objects. When corrected for the wavelength stretch caused by the expansion of space over billions of years, the spectra of these galaxies (shown in red) exhibit features emitted by oxygen, hydrogen, and neon that show a stunning resemblance to those seen from so-called green pea galaxies found nearby (in green). Additionally, the Webb observations made it possible to measure the amount of oxygen in these cosmic dawn galaxies for the first time. The spectral lines have been stretched vertically in order to clarify these relationships. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Rhoads et al. 2023
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Newly Found Stars are Technically in the Milky Way, but They’re Halfway to Andromeda

We all know our galaxy, the Milky Way, is big. Really big. But, exactly how far out does it extend? Where are the outer limits? Astronomers aren’t exactly sure, precisely. However, a study of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster accidentally turned up a population of stars in the outer part of the Milky Way. They may answer those questions.

The stars, called RR Lyrae variables, lie in the galaxy’s stellar halo. That’s a shell of stars and dark matter that extends at least halfway to the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s our nearest neighboring spiral and lies about 2.5 million light-years away. The newly found RR Lyraes orbit in the Milky Way’s outer halo at a distance of about 100 million light-years. And, because they’re variables that pulsate regularly in their brightness, astronomers can use them to determine accurate distances in space. Find the distances to these ancient pulsating variables and voila! You’ve found the distance to their position in the halo.

RR Lyrae stars are interesting in their own right, even beyond their role here as distance indicators. They have specific physical properties that cause them to expand and contract in a regularly repeating cycle. It’s almost like a heartbeat. And, their average brightness is the same for all of them. That’s the characteristic that allows them to be used as standard distance “candles” across the gulfs of space. They’re often found in globular clusters. Finding them in the stellar halo is an added plus for astronomers using them to determine the extent of the Milky Way.

This image from European Southern Observatory shows several RR Lyrae stars. They typically reside in ancient stellar populations over 10 billion years old, in globular clusters, and in the halo. Courtesy ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti.

Milky Way Structure

Astronomer Raja GuhaThakurta of the University of California Santa Cruz pointed out that studies of this new population of RR Lyraes carried out by student Yuting Feng clarify the “edge” of the Milky Way. “This study is redefining what constitutes the outer limits of our galaxy,” he said. “[It] and Andromeda are both so big, there’s hardly any space between the two galaxies.”

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Live coverage: Falcon 9, Starlink satellites set for launch tonight from California

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Starlink 2-4 mission with 51 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

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Final 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' trailer dives into the Quantum Realm

A new trailer for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" showcases much more of Kang's chaos as the titular heroes dive into the bizarre Quantum Realm.

Blue Straggler Stars are Weird

All stars follow a particular path in their lives once they start fusing hydrogen. As they live they steadily get brighter and hotter until they turn to fusing other elements. Every star follows this exact same path…except the blue straggler stars.

As their names suggests, blue straggler stars are stars that appear in a cluster that are bluer and brighter than they should be. Specifically, they still lie along the main sequence, which is a specific relationship between brightness and temperature that all hydrogen-fusing stars obey. But the problem with blue stragglers is that they should definitely not be sitting on the main sequence. They should have died long ago. In fact, in the same cluster astronomers will see many other stars of similar mass that have left the main sequence and are fusing heavier elements.

Astronomers do not fully understand how blue straggler stars form. One hypothesis is that they are the leftovers of a merger of two smaller mass stars. In this scenario, the stars coalesce and merge together. Initially that merged star is huge and red, because the extreme rotation bloats it out of proportion. But after enough time that overextended star settles down, forming a massive, bright, blue star.

In other scenario, blue stragglers form when one star cannibalizes a neighbor, sucking down its mass onto its own.

Clusters are the perfect environment for these kinds of mergers to happen. Some clusters can be a million times more dense than our local solar neighborhood.

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