In his famous novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein describes a future lunar settlement where future lunar residents (“Loonies”) send payloads of wheat and water ice to Earth using an electromagnetic catapult. In this story, a group of Loonies conspire to take control of this catapult and threaten to “throw rocks at Earth” unless they recognize Luna as an independent world. Interestingly enough, scientists have explored this concept for decades as a means of transferring lunar resources to Earth someday.
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Supermassive black holes have masses of more than a million suns – but their growth has slowed as the universe aged
Supermassive black holes have masses of more than a million suns – but their growth has slowed as the universe aged
Japanese company to deorbit big hunk of space junk by 2029
Japanese space-sustainability company Astroscale just signed a $90 million contract to take a bus-sized rocket stage out of orbit by the end of the decade.
StarFOX autonomous satellite swarm could level up space exploration
StarFOX is an autonomous satellite swarm that scientists hope to send beyond our planet's orbit someday.
3 decades of satellite images show how cities keep getting higher
Cities around the world are now growing upward more than outward, an analysis of three decades of satellite data has found.
What is the 'Offspring' creature in the 'Alien: Romulus' finale?
An explanation of "The Offspring" hybrid monster in "Alien: Romulus."
200 meteorites on Earth traced to 5 craters on Mars
Astronomers have traced the origins of 200 meteorites to five impact craters in two volcanic regions on Mars, known as Tharsis and Elysium.
Why the 7 worlds of TRAPPIST-1 waltz in peculiar patterns
The complex history of the orbits of the TRAPPIST-1 planets has been revealed, showing how they interacted with the disk of gas and dust that gave birth to them.
NASA will give a Boeing Starliner update on Aug. 24 and you can watch live
ASA leaders will give an update on Saturday (Aug. 24) to outline their plan on how to return Starliner's astronaut crew to Earth.
Get a sneak peek at upcoming 'Avatar Land' in Disney's California Adventure Park
A preview of "Avatar Land," a planned new addition coming to the Disneyland Resort in California.
The Cassiopeia constellation is surrounded by celestial treasures. Here's how to see them
Riding high in the northeast sky as darkness descends is a striking zigzag row of five stars marking the Queen of Ethiopia, Cassiopeia.
The Universe is on the Move
Our universe is defined by the way it moves, and one way to describe the history of science is through our increasing awareness of the restlessness of the cosmos.
How will the stuck Boeing Starliner astronauts perceive time after 6 months in space?
The passage of time can slow to a crawl when you're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. How will the Boeing Starliner astronauts feel time move if they have to stay in space for another 6 months?
Loosening the Hubble Tension
New James Webb Space Telescope observations may have done with one of the longest-standing tensions in cosmology.
First views from Juice’s science camera
Since ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) flew by the Moon and Earth earlier this week, we’ve seen images from its monitoring cameras and we’ve seen images from its navigation camera. Today we reveal the first images from its scientific camera, JANUS, designed to take detailed, high-resolution photos of Jupiter and its icy moons.
Sentinel-2C sealed in the Vega rocket fairing
As preparations continue to launch the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite on 4 September, the team at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has bid farewell to their precious satellite as it was sealed from view within the Vega rocket fairing.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, August 23 – September 1
We're in peak Milky Way season, and the evenings have become dark and moonless. Andromegasus is up. So is Saturn. Before dawn, the late-risen Moon passes over Jupiter and Mars.
Save $120 on the Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 binoculars
The Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 binoculars feature in our best binoculars guide as the best for magnification and now it's $120 off.
New Study Proposes how a Black Hole in Orbit Around a Planet Could be a Sign of an Advanced Civilization.
In 1971, English mathematical physicist and Nobel-prize winner Roger Penrose proposed how energy could be extracted from a rotating black hole. He argued that this could be done by building a harness around the black hole’s accretion disk, where infalling matter is accelerated to close to the speed of light, triggering the release of energy in multiple wavelengths. Since then, multiple researchers have suggested that advanced civilizations could use this method (the Penrose Process) to power their civilization and that this represents a technosignature we should be on the lookout for.
Will our galaxy really collide with Andromeda? Maybe not
A new simulation suggests the possible head-on collision of our Milky Way galaxy with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy comes down to a coin flip.
