Artist’s animation of a rocket booster crashing into the moon. Astronomers discovered a rocket body heading toward a lunar collision late last year. Impact occurred on March 4, 2022, with[{” attribute=””>NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) later spotting the resulting crater. Surprisingly the crater is actually two craters, an eastern crater (18-meter diameter, about 19.5 yards) … Read more
Once again, life has been found in an environment that would be deeply inhospitable to most organisms living on this planet. Fed by waters that pass through 600 meters (1,970 ft) of permafrost, the sub-zero, salty, virtually oxygen-free Lost Hammer Spring in the Canadian Arctic is one of the harshest places on Earth. Even here, … Read more
WASHINGTON — OneWeb, the broadband megaconstellation company whose launch plans were disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, expects to resume launches late this year, an executive said June 23. Speaking at the Fourth Summit for Space Sustainability by the Secure World Foundation and the UK Space Agency, Maurizio Vanotti, vice president of space infrastructure development … Read more
Astrophotographer Wright Dobbs took this image of five bright planets visible lined up with the moon from St. Cloud, Florida before dawn on June 24, 2022. The planets are (from left): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with the crescent moon between Venus and Jupiter. (Image credit: Wright Dobbs) The rare sight of five bright … Read more
The grave of a rocket body that slammed into the moon more than three months ago has been found. Early this year, astronomers determined that a mysterious rocket body was on course to crash into the lunar surface on March 4. Their calculations suggested that the impact would occur inside Hertzsprung Crater, a 354-mile-wide (570 … Read more
A Jurassic vampire squid-like creature used supersuckers to snatch prey out of the water column and lock it in place with a watertight seal, 3D imaging of several fossils reveals. For the first time, scientists used advanced 3D imaging techniques to examine in great detail the prey-snatching suckers of Vampyronassa rhodanica, an extinct relative of … Read more
A spacecraft’s second close-up flyby of Mercury Thursday (June 23) gave a stunning set of close-ups of the planet’s craters and volcanic regions. The BepiColombo mission, a joint project by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), got within only 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Mercury’s crater-strewn surface. While the … Read more
The Artemis team has had time to review data collected from a successful attempt a final prelaunch test conducted Monday and determined that no more wet dress rehearsals are needed. The test simulates every stage of launch without the rocket leaving the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “During the wet dress rehearsal activities, … Read more
Human beings maintain the polite fiction that we’re not constantly smelling one another. Despite our efforts to the contrary, we all have our own odors, pleasant and less so, and if we are like other land mammals, our particular perfume might mean something to our fellow humans. Some of these, like the reek of someone … Read more
Antarctica is a bucket list destination for countless landscape and wildlife photographers, and for good reason. Dramatic, jagged mountain peaks rise high over colonies consisting of millions of penguins living on the frozen earth below. While photographing Antarctica is a rare experience in itself, photographing a total solar eclipse in Antarctica is akin to winning … Read more