The Ax-2 mission is set to lift off on Sunday (May 21) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sending the first private mission commanded by a woman, and the first female Saudi astronaut, to space.
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Axiom’s second crew mission has narrow window for launch
Ax-2 mission commander Peggy Whitson, mission specialist Rayyanah Barnawi, pilot John Shoffner, and mission specialist Ali Alqarni train at the European Astronaut Center in Germany. Credit: Axiom Space / European Space Agency
The second fully commercial astronaut flight to the International Space Station will have just two opportunities to launch Sunday and Monday, or else wait until after an upcoming SpaceX resupply mission next month to deliver a new set of high-priority solar arrays to the complex.
New Climate Model Accurately Predicts Millions of Years of Ice Ages
Earth experiences seasonal changes because of how its axis is tilted (23.43° relative to the Sun’s equator), causing one hemisphere to always be tilted towards the Sun (and the other away) for different parts of the year. However, because of gravitational interactions between the Earth, Sun, Moon, and other planets of the Solar System, Earth has experienced changes in its orientation (obliquity) over the course of eons. This has led to significant changes in Earth’s climate, particularly the recession and expansion of ice sheets due to significant variations in the distribution of sunlight and seasonal changes.
NASA awards Blue Origin $3.4 billion Artemis moon lander contract
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
An Astronomical First! A Radiation Belt Seen Outside the Solar System
In 1958, the first satellites launched by the United States (Explorer 1 and 3) detected a massive radiation belt around planet Earth. This confirmed something that many scientists suspected before the Space Age began: that energetic particles emanating from the Sun (solar wind) were captured and held around the planet by Earth’s magnetosphere. This region was named the Van Allen Belt in honor of University of Iowa professor James Van Allen who led the research effort. As robotic missions explored more of the Solar System, scientists discovered similar radiation belts around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Watch SpaceX blast a new Starship launch pad plate with rocket fire (video)
SpaceX is already testing tech that could strengthen the ground beneath its giant Starship rocket's orbital launch pad, a new video shows.
Virgin Orbit receives $17 million bid from Stratolaunch for carrier plane and related aircraft assets
Virgin Orbit has received a $17 million bid for its aircraft assets from the hypersonic flight company Stratolaunch, according to court filings released on Tuesday (May 16).
The Apollo Space Program
The Apollo space missions were a series of manned missions conducted by NASA from 1961 to 1972 with the goal of landing humans on the Moon. The program consisted of several missions, with Apollo 11 being the most famous for successfully achieving the first Moon landing. Here is a summary of the Apollo space missions:
'Avatar: The Way of Water' splashes down on Disney+ and Max in June
20th Century Studios announces June streaming dates for 'Avatar: The Way of Water' on Disney+ and Max.
Astronomers Want to Build the Next Generation Arecibo Telescope
The Arecibo Telescope was an amazing tool for astronomers. Built in the early 1960s, it had a 1,000-foot-wide dish and was capable of both receiving and transmitting radio signals. It did radar mapping of near-Earth asteroids, Venus, and the Moon, discovered water at the polar regions of Mercury, searched for alien civilizations, and even send a radio message from Earth to a globular cluster 25,000 light years away. So when it collapsed in 2020, many astronomers wondered if it could be rebuilt.
The Largest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe
Throughout recorded history, humans have looked up at the night sky and witnessed the major astronomical events known as a “supernova.” The name, still used by astronomers, referred to the belief that these bursts of light in the “firmament” signaled the birth of a “new star.” With the birth of telescopes and modern astronomy, we have since learned that supernovae are what occur at the end of a star’s lifecycle. At this point, when a star has exhausted its hydrogen and helium fuel, it experiences gravitational collapse at its center.
Saudi Arabia's 1st female astronaut hopes kids follow in her footsteps
Rayyanah Barnawi, who will become the first Saudi woman in space when the private Ax-2 mission launches on Sunday (May 21), hopes she's blazing a trail for others to follow.
Rare 'black moon' new moon of May 2023 rises tonight
Tonight (May 19) is the new moon, and it's a rare "black moon," which occurs approximately once every 33 months.
Blue Origin will build NASA's new moon lander for Artemis astronauts
Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander will take astronauts to the lunar surface in 2029, on the Artemis 5 mission. It's the second NASA moon lander for astronauts, after SpaceX's Starship.
Watch this giant sunspot erupt in barrage of powerful solar flares as it turns to face Earth (video)
The sun has released a barrage of solar flares in the past 24 hours. The culprit? A giant sunspot that's slowly rotating to directly face Earth — and it's not alone.
Jammed radar boom on Jupiter-bound JUICE probe finally freed
Artist’s concept of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer with all its antenna deployed. Credit: European Space Agency
After three weeks of intense analysis and troubleshooting, European Space Agency flight controllers have finally succeeded in freeing a jammed 52-foot (16-meter) boom critical to the Jupiter-bound JUICE probe’s ice-penetrating radar instrument.
Watch the moon, Venus and Mars engage in a celestial dance next week
See the moon shine between Venus and Mars next week as the two planets, along with, Pollux and Castor engage in a series of interesting configurations.
Scientists just grew a black hole disk in a lab to better understand how they feed
Scientists have created a rotating disk of plasma in the lab that mimics the accretion disks that surround black holes, gradually feeding them and facilitating their growth.
How to watch Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Billy Batson and his foster siblings have returned in Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Here’s everything you need to know, including where to watch it online.
Live coverage: SpaceX scrubs Falcon 9 launch attempt in California
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 16 satellites for OneWeb’s internet network and five satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay constellation. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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A Brief History of the Discovery of Cosmic Voids
At first the sum total of large, orderly structure in the Universe appeared to arrive in two categories. There were the clusters of galaxies – an unoriginal but descriptive name – each a dense ball with anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred galaxies, all bound together by their mutual gravitational embrace. And then there were the field galaxies, lonely wanderers set apart and adrift from the clusters, not bound to anyone but themselves. That was it: the clusters of galaxies, the field galaxies, and the megaparsecs of emptiness that enveloped them all.
