4 Milky Way mysteries the next Gaia mission data release may solve | New tau Herculid meteor shower drops fireballs, but no 'meteor storm' (photos) | Space Quiz: What rocket will launch NASA's new CAPSTONE cubesat to the moon soon?
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A treasure trove of data is set to answer some big questions about our galaxy.
The data, compiled by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, contains an unprecedented amount of information about more than 1 billion of the brightest objects in the sky. Astronomers hope the new data, which will be released June 13, will help solve some major mysteries about the birth and life of the Milky Way and the stars in it. Here's four big questions scientists hope to answer.
Bright "shooting stars" from a new meteor shower lit up the night sky in a dazzling display overnight Monday and Tuesday, even if it wasn't a "meteor storm" some stargazers hoped for.
The new meteor shower peaked around midnight Tuesday (May 31) as remnants from the shattered Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (also known as SW 3) burned up harmlessly high in Earth's atmosphere as a part of scientists now wall the tau Herculids meteor shower.
Uranus and Neptune are worlds that are quite similar in mass to each other — Uranus is roughly 15 times the mass of Earth, while Neptune is at 17 — with nearly identical atmospheric compositions of hydrogen (more than 80% each), helium and methane.
But now, new research suggests that a "stagnant, sluggish" atmosphere on Uranus allows haze to build up and concentrate on the gas giant, making it a "whiter" cyan blue than Neptune's cerulean.
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Starliner launched on May 19, kicking off a crucial uncrewed demonstration mission to the International Space Station called Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2). The spacecraft docked with the orbiting lab a day later, then came back to Earth on Wednesday (May 25), touching down as planned at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
NASA will need to review data from OFT-2 before certifying Starliner for crewed flight. And there will be some issues to check, because the mission didn't go perfectly smoothly
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delayed the completion of its environmental review of SpaceX's Starship program by another two weeks, to June 13.
That review, known as a programmatic environmental assessment, is gauging the environmental impacts of SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas, where the company builds and tests its giant Starship vehicle.
The James Webb Space Telescope plans to explore strange, new rocky worlds 50 light-years away with unprecedented detail.
Rocky planets are more difficult to sight than gas giants in current telescope technology, due to the smaller planets' relative brightness next to a star, and their relatively tiny size. But Webb's powerful mirror and deep-space location should allow it to examine two planets slightly larger than Earth, known as "super-Earths."
Astronomers have a new way to study stars: take advantage of meteorological satellites orbiting Earth.
That's the conclusion of a new paper that presents new data from a Japanese weather satellite that just so happened to observe the red supergiant star Betelgeuse during a period of inexplicable dimming. The serendipitous observations could mean a new tool for astronomers trying to understand how a red supergiant star loses mass and ultimately explode as a supernova.
A judge is expected to hear a lawsuit June 1 concerning access restrictions to a South Texas beach amid SpaceX activities for the Starship program.
The Sierra Club, the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and non-profit Save RGV have joined together in a lawsuit against the Texas General Land Office, Texas land commissioner George P. Bush and Cameron County in Texas for closing Boca Chica Beach periodically for SpaceX operations during Starship tests, the Sierra Club stated May 5. The Boca Chica beach is near SpaceX's Starbase facility, where it is building Starship rocket prototypes and their massive Super Heavy boosters.
Chinese military researchers have called for the development of a "hard kill" weapon to destroy Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system if it threatens China's national security.
The researchers drew attention to Starlink's "huge potential for military applications" and the need for China to develop countermeasures to surveil, disable or even destroy the growing satellite megaconstellation. Their paper was published last month in the journal China's Modern Defence Technology. A translated copy of the paper is available at the link.
Fresh off its fifth flight of the biggest airplane ever built, Stratolaunch is readying to test a hypersonic vehicle that will launch from the huge Roc carrier aircraft. The Mojave, California-based company announced May 26 that it has structurally completed the Talon-A test vehicle, known as TA-0. A future flight of Roc will release TA-0, which is unpowered, to assess Roc's systems.
Add the Defense Innovation Unit to a growing list of U.S. government organizations furthering their work in nuclear power in pace. The organization, which seeks to get the military ready to use emergent commercial products, announced two prototype contracts on May 17 "to demonstrate the next generation of nuclear propulsion and power capability for spacecraft." The ultimate aim is an orbital flight demonstration in 2027.
The latest Star Wars television series to grace Disney Plus bridges the gap between the prequel and original trilogy. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" boasts the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular Jedi Master and former apprentice Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader.
But how can Ben Kenobi’s babysitting days on Tatooine measure up to the best Star Wars TV shows?
