The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Of the 100 trillion neutrinos that pass through you every second, most come from the sun or Earth’s atmosphere. But a smattering of the particles—those moving much faster than the rest—traveled here from powerful sources farther away. For decades, astrophysicists …
Read More »SpaceX Must Fix 63 Issues Before Its Starship Can Fly Again
As the dust settled following SpaceX’s brief, explosive test launch of Starship in April, both the company and the Federal Aviation Administration dug into investigating the aftermath. The gigantic rocket’s flight lasted just four minutes before it blew up near SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site on the Texas coast. Images …
Read More »DART Showed How to Smash an Asteroid. So Where Did the Space Shrapnel Go?
Nearly one year ago, NASA flung the DART spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour. It was the first test to see whether they could slightly deflect a space rock’s trajectory using a high-speed collision, a technique that could be used to protect Earth from future killer …
Read More »India’s Lander Touches Down on the Moon. Russia’s Has Crashed
Today, India’s Chandrayaan-3 became the first spacecraft to successfully land near the lunar south pole, and India became the fourth country to make a soft landing anywhere on lunar soil, following the former Soviet Union, the United States, and China. The robotic vehicle touched down at 8:33 am Eastern time, …
Read More »The Space Force Is Launching Its Own Swarm of Tiny Satellites
Four years after it was formed, the US Space Force has begun deploying its first satellite network. For the military, it marks a significant shift from relying on a handful of powerful, expensive satellites to a swarm of smaller, cheaper ones. From the Pentagon’s perspective, they’ll be a harder target …
Read More »A New Idea for How to Assemble Life
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Life on other worlds—if it exists—might be so alien as to be unrecognizable. There’s no guarantee that alien biology would use the same chemistries as on Earth, with familiar building blocks such as DNA and proteins. Scientists might even spot …
Read More »Tap into your inner astronomer with Celestron telescopes on sale
The Strawberry Moon is happening on June 3, and you already know that your iPhone camera won’t help you get a good look at our craterous neighbor. Prep for this not-to-miss celestial event with the best telescope deals from Celestron below. Our top picks Best telescope for beginners Celestron Travel …
Read More »NASA has released an retro arcade game about the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope
NASA has released a browser-based game intended to spark interest in the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. Creatively titled The Roman Space Observer Game, the retro arcade game by NALA Comm probably isn’t an accurate simulation of what it’s like to use NASA’s sensitive scientific equipment. Still, it’s a fun enough …
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