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Space News & Blog Articles
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See three planets, two stars and the moon share the night sky on April 9
The planets Venus, Mars and Saturn appear close together in the southeast predawn sky, while the moon passes near the bright stars Castor and Pollux on April 9.
Astronauts are Practicing Landing at the Moon's South Pole
The European Space Agency (ESA) is learning how to touch down safely at the South Pole of the Moon, without ever leaving Earth. Actual Moon landings seem to be on the horizon in the next decade via the Artemis program, and astronauts are going to have to learn to handle the unique challenges of landing in the Moon’s polar environment. With low angle sunlight and deep, permanently shadowed craters, the Moon’s South Pole poses difficulties no Apollo mission ever faced. To get hands-on experience with this environment without risking human life, ESA is putting astronauts through their paces on high-tech simulators.
Hospital mascot, not Disney rabbit, floats on Ax-1 mission as zero-g indicator
A longed-eared toy dog was mistaken for a famous Disney rabbit when it was revealed as the "zero-g indicator" on the first private mission to the International Space Station.
See Venus, Mars and Saturn shine with bright stars before dawn Saturday
Look up at the sky before sunrise Saturday (April 9) to see a trio of planets, twin stars and the moon entering its next phase.
First-of-its-kind commercial astronaut mission heads for space station
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin the Ax-1 commercial crew mission. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Strapped in the seats of a SpaceX crew capsule, a retired NASA astronaut and three wealthy paying passengers rocketed into orbit Friday from the Kennedy Space Center on the first fully commercial mission to the International Space Station.
It’s Been Three Months in Deep Space, and Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument is Still Cooling Down
The James Webb Space Telescope continues to cool down out at its location at Lagrange Point 2, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Since JWST is an infrared telescope, it needs to operate at extremely low temperatures, about 40 k (-223 degrees Celsius, -369.4 degrees Fahrenheit). But one instrument needs to be even colder.
NASA plans to resume crucial Artemis 1 moon mission test on Saturday
With the private Ax-1 astronaut mission safely on its way to the space station, NASA plans to resume the "wet dress rehearsal" of its Artemis 1 moon mission this weekend.
Dying Star Puffs out six Smoke Rings
Our Sun’s days are numbered. In about 5 billion years the Sun will expand into a red giant, casting off its outer layers before settling down to become a white dwarf. It’s the inevitable fate of most sunlike stars, and the process is well understood. But as a recent study shows, there are still a few things we have to learn about dying Suns.
A 'beautiful, beautiful launch:' Teams celebrate private Ax-1 mission's landmark liftoff
Four private astronauts left Earth this morning (April 8), riding a SpaceX capsule toward the International Space Station on a history-making liftoff that wowed observers.
The Four Private Axiom Astronauts are off to the International Space Station
This morning, at 11:17 AM EDT (08:17 AM PDT), the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Designated Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), this mission consists of four commercial astronauts flying aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft that launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch was live-streamed via NASA’s official Youtube channel (you can catch the replay here).
Giant Space Telescopes Could Be Made Out of Liquid
The Hubble space telescope has a primary mirror of 2.4 meters. The Nancy Grace Roman telescope has one at 2.4 meters and the James Webb Space Telescope has a whopping 6.5 meter primary mirror. These are all fine and well to get the job done that they were designed for, but what if… we could have even bigger mirrors?
Surprise W boson measurement could rewrite particle physics
A tiny subatomic particle called the W boson may be heavier than scientists have previously thought and it could shake up physics' grand theory of everything.
Snap up a huge $500 discount on the Panasonic Lumix S1H camera
Get Amazon's best price on a professional quality mirrorless camera and save a big chunk of money.
A New Record for the Most Distant Galaxy, Seen Just 300 Million Years After the Big Bang
Since the Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilee first studied the heavens using a telescope he built himself, astronomers have been pushing the boundaries of what they can observe. After centuries of progress, they have been able to study and catalog objects in all but the earliest periods of the Universe. But thanks to next-generation instruments and technologies, astronomers will soon be able to observe the “Cosmic Dawn” era – ca. 50 million to billion years after the Big Bang.
Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens review
Is the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G lens the best E-mount lens for wide-field astrophotography?
Heliocentrism: Definition, origin and model
Heliocentrism places the sun at the center of the Solar System. This is the history of how scientists discovered our place and in the Solar System.
SpaceX launches Ax-1, the 1st fully private astronaut mission to the space station
This morning (April 8), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off, launching the first fully private crewed mission to the International Space Station.
James Webb Space Telescope's most heat-sensitive instrument continues cooling to absolute zero
The James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument needs to cool down almost to absolute zero, the temperature where the motion of atoms stops, before it can start observing the universe.
The private Ax-1 astronaut mission heralds an exciting new era in spaceflight (op-ed)
The upcoming Ax-1 mission is perhaps the beginning of a new era in human spaceflight — not because of the identity of the private astronauts, but because of the ecosystem that's emerging around them.
The sun's atmosphere: Photosphere, chromosphere and corona
The sun's atmosphere has three layers: The photosphere, the chromosphere and the corona.
