China launches Tianzhou 3 cargo ship to new space station | NASA to reveal moon landing site for ice-lunar rover today. Here's how to follow along. | Scientists watch a galaxy's supermassive black hole shoot out the galaxy's gas
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China has launched a cargo mission to its new space station, just days after astronauts departed the orbiting outpost. A Long March 7 rocket topped with the robotic Tianzhou 3 freighter lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in southern China's Hainan Province today(Sept. 20). Liftoff occurred at 3:10 p.m. local time (3:10 a.m. EDT; 0710 GMT).
We'll finally learn the landing site location for an ice-hunting rover scout that will search for resources to support human moon landings. NASA will host a media teleconference Monday (Sept. 20) at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) to discuss where in the moon's south polar region private company Astrobotic will place the agency's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) in late 2023. It will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
There comes a time in every galaxy's life, astronomers think, when the galaxy ejects a large part of its gas, but scientists aren't certain what drives this "mid-life crisis." When that gas ejection happens, a galaxy loses the material it needs to form new stars. A galaxy's younger, bluer stars will start to age out and die, giving away to older, smaller, redder stars. And researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi wondered whether the supermassive black hole at a galaxy's center might be responsible, so they examined how a black hole's activity helps a galaxy throw out some of its gas.
Two intriguing signals spotted in a small gravitational-wave detector could represent all kinds of exotic phenomena — from new physics to dark matter interacting with black holes to vibrations from near the beginning of the universe. But, because of the experiment's novelty, researchers are being cautious about claiming a discovery of any kind.
After spending nearly three days in space, SpaceX's Inspiration4 crew may have more appreciation for the facilities here on Earth — namely, the toilets. The historic all-civilian SpaceX mission, which launched Sept. 15 and successfully splashed down on Saturday (Sept. 18), went off without a hitch, except for a minor issue with the Dragon's onboard toilet.
Inspiration4's crew of civilian astronauts is sharing their joy after returning to Earth from their three-day mission in orbit. Last Wednesday (Sept. 15), four people strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and launched to space for Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit the planet. The crew landed back on Earth Saturday (Sept. 18), splashing down off the Florida coast at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT).
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk will donate $50 million to benefit childhood cancer research by the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, launching an ambitious fundraiser by the private Inspiration4 space mission beyond its $200 million goal.
The Harvest Moon rises tonight, accompanied by brightly shining planets Venus and Jupiter. The last full moon before this year's autumnal equinox, the Harvest Moon will be visible during night hours, weather permits, until the early hours of Wednesday.
With summer temperatures persisting the way they have, especially across the eastern half of the country, it seems hard to believe that tonight (Sept. 20), is the night of the full Harvest Moon, always the full moon closest to the time of the autumnal equinox.
Become one with the force with Hasbro's latest additions to "The Black Series" and "The Vintage Collection" lines of models, including a replica of Rey Skywalker's iconic lightsaber from "Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker."
