NASA picks companies to design new lunar rovers | Space Quiz! What type of galaxy is Messier 82, the Cigar Galaxy? | Western US residents report the most UFO sightings
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NASA's next moon car is starting to take shape. The agency has selected three private teams -- led by the companies Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab, respectively - to develop their versions of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), the rover that Artemis astronauts will drive around the moon's southern polar region beginning in 2030.
Those of us in the western U.S. who enjoy vast open spaces may also be more likely to report UFO sightings, a new study suggests. An analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) reports (UAP is a new umbrella term that includes UFOs not just in the sky but also in space and underwater) suggests local environmental factors play a role in the number of UAP sightings reported.
Local officials have estimated that up to 300,000 visitors may be traveling to Bloomington for the eclipse, and this town doesn't even see those kinds of numbers for Little 500. The city has advised people to fill their gas tanks ahead of time, avoid unnecessary travel and prepare for possible cell phone outages due to the added congestion. You would think a blizzard was coming.
A bunch of breweries along the path of totality are offering limited-edition, solar-eclipse-inspired beers! A lot of this is thanks to the Simons Foundation, which reached out to a variety of beer companies along the path of totality and asked if they'd be interested in creating some totality brews.
Located around 12 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major, M82 is forming stars 10 times faster than our own relatively quiet galaxy, the Milky Way. The team imaged the core of this starburst galaxy with the JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to investigate what conditions are driving the formation of infant stars.
With a 3,200-megapixel LSST camera, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will create the "greatest movie of all time and the most informative map of the night sky ever assembled."
Mars' rusty red surface may have given it its famous "Red Planet" status, but it would also appear that thousands of white rocks are strangely littered on the Martian ground. NASA's Perseverance rover, a robotic geologist that has been exploring the Jezero Crater since early 2021, puzzled scientists when it delivered images of over 4,000 light-toned, pebble-sized rocks scattered all over the crater floor.
The Celestron EclipSmart Travel Solar Scope is now $30 off and under $100, just in time for the total solar eclipse on April 8. but buy soon if you want it to arrive in time.
For this cosmic swan song, Sonequa Martin-Green reprises her role as the valiant Starfleet commander exploring outer space in the 32nd century in one last 10-episode mission for Paramount Plus' flagship "Star Trek" series.
NASA to pick Artemis astronaut moon car today: Watch live | Space Quiz! What was the first spacecraft to fly through the sun's outer atmosphere? | China plans to catch its reusable rockets with wires (video)
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The curtain is about to rise on NASA's next moon car. The space agency will announce the company, or companies, that it has selected to develop the rover for its Artemis program of lunar exploration during a press conference today (April 3) at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT). You can watch the event live here at Space.com
While inspired by the overwhelming success of the SpaceX Falcon 9, China's approach will be slightly different. The rocket's first stage will still use variable-thrust engines to slow its descent, just like the Falcon 9. But instead of using landing legs, the rocket will deploy hooks near its top, which will be caught by tightwires.
New amateur calculations of the solar eclipse path suggest that variations in the local terrain might change if you see a total eclipse, or how long the eclipse is experienced, compared to older estimates. The work, first reported in Forbes, is not peer-reviewed, however. So take the findings with a dose of caution.
An unusual "horned" comet is now visible in the night sky -- and it may even make a rare appearance during the 2024 total solar eclipse on April 8. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks can currently be seen in the night skies of the northern hemisphere. Comets, composed of dust, rock and ices, heat up and expel gas when their orbits bring them closer to the sun, creating a glowing halo around the comet itself known as a coma. Outbursts observed from Comet 12P give it a horned-like appearance, earning it nicknames such as "Devil Comet" and "Millennium Falcon."
A big piece of Chinese space junk crashed to Earth over Southern California early Tuesday morning (April 2), putting on quite a show for observers in the Golden State. The fall created a blazing fireball witnessed by people from the Sacramento area all the way down to San Diego, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS). As of Tuesday afternoon, 81 people had reported sightings of the event to the AMS.
The first crewed launch of Boeing's new Starliner capsule has been delayed by an additional five days, to May 6. NASA and Boeing had been targeting May 1 for the highly anticipated Starliner mission, which is known as Crew Flight Test (CFT). But that's no longer the plan.
Every so often, the sun's simmering magnetic field burps colossal clouds of plasma out into the space beyond. These are called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). If one CME strikes Earth, for example, the result can be spectacular auroras - and, just-as-spectacular disruptions of electrical grids and satellites.
It can now be revealed that Japan's proposal for a future moon rover is "more than meets the eye." As first announced last June but just now starting to ship, a new scale model of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Lunar Cruiser not only faithfully reproduces the details of the astronaut transport developed in conjunction with Toyota, but also transforms into Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots.
First announced back in 2019 as an entirely new theme park within the sprawling Universal Orlando Resort campus in Florida, Universal Epic Universe will feature five elaborately imagined lands and a galaxy of thrill rides, shops and eateries when it opens its portals in 2025 - and we've got the recently released concept art to prove it.
