The top 10 spaceflight stories of 2023 | Space Quiz! What is the solar system's most volcanic planetary body? | The Quadrantid meteor shower 2024 peaks tonight
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Last year was a very busy one in the final frontier. Here's a rundown of some of the highlights, from the highly anticipated debut of SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket to the safe landing on Earth of NASA's first-ever pristine asteroid sample.
(Xue Bing/Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Early each January, the Quadrantid meteor stream provides one of the most intense annual meteor displays, with a brief, sharp maximum lasting only a few hours.
You may have heard about specific events, cities promoting themselves and beauty spots that would make ideal eclipse-observing locations. But where will people actually go on April 8?
Passing within around 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system, on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, Juno was able to capture stunningly detailed images of the Jovian moon. The only time a spacecraft has come closer to Io was in 2001, when NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed 112 miles (181 kilometers) above Io's south pole.
"This launch will include the first six Starlink satellites with Direct to Cell capabilities that will enable mobile network operators around the world to provide seamless global access to texting, calling, and browsing wherever you may be on land, lakes, or coastal waters," SpaceX wrote in a mission description.
Batteries could charge up by relying on a quantum effect known as indefinite causal order, whereby the laws of cause and effect are scrambled and power can move through the system quicker.
NASA & Russia to keep launching each other's astronauts | Space Quiz! Is a day on Mars longer or shorter than a day on Earth? | 2024's 1st meteor shower blazes over North America Jan. 3
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Roscosmos announced both it and NASA will continue the International Space Station launches with each other's crew members through at least 2025, "to maintain the reliability of the ISS as a whole," according to multiple reports including the Moscow Times.
Up to 120 shooting stars per hour could be visible during a brief peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower - the year's first meteor shower, coming to North America Jan. 3 and 4.
It may occur only from within a path 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide and 10,000 miles (16,000 km) long, but the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be one of the most urban eclipses for decades.
"You can imagine what it's really going to be like to come up to the launch pad and have this living, breathing rocket full of fuel, moaning and groaning and creaking," Hansen said, reflecting on a launch day exercise his crew did on the mobile launch tower at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in September.
Earth and other terrestrial planets probably use their gravitational forces to tear apart asteroids - but this creates more streams of smaller asteroids.
The dual test of engines on the giant Starship and Super Heavy rocket stages at SpaceX's Starbase proving ground in Boca Chica, Texas on Friday comes as the company prepares for its third Starship launch test, which is expected in early 2024.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity had some downtime during November. But rather than resting on its laurels, the robot filmed stunning footage of dawn to dusk on Earth's neighboring planet.
When Helios boss Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) announced last week that he planned to steal an asteroid, it conjured up images of the sort of interstellar-action you'd usually associate with "Star Wars" or "Star Trek." This is "For All Mankind", however, and -- even though this season has considerably upped the sci-fi quotient on its more grounded predecessors -- his audacious plan has at least one foot in reality (and astrophysics).
