Bieryla got the idea for LightSound when she was reviewing student lab accessibility as the manager of Harvard’s Astronomy Lab and Clay Telescope in 2017. She had a discussion with Wanda Díaz-Merced, a blind astronomer who uses sonification to study …
Batygin and Brown’s models suggest that Planet Nine may have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and be similar in size to Uranus or Neptune. The predicted orbit is about 20 times farther from our Sun on average than Neptune, taking between 10,000 and 20, …
It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the Sun (figuratively). Although we don’t recommend looking at the Sun yourself, it’s extremely important that we Earthlings monitor and understand the Sun’s activity. As our star reaches the peak of its activity …
A storm could also cripple the internet. Most of the digital traffic between continents is carried by undersea cables, which use components that might get fried by a big geomagnetic storm. That would limit the internet to mostly function within more local …
Project Artemis has cleared two hurdles that felled prior attempts to return humans to the Moon: the first was surviving a Presidential transition in 2021; the second, in 2024, was securing a congressional budget that grew funding for Artemis despite a …
Other evidence comes from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images that show boulders at the bottom fault scarfs. Weathering from solar radiation gradually darkens material on the lunar surface, and because these boulders are surrounded by brighter material it …
To play its role, Queqiao-2 will be inserted into a specialized 24-hour-period elliptical "frozen orbit" that allows it to maintain a line of sight with both Earth ground stations and the Chang'e-6 mission in the Apollo crater for long …
China has launched a new Moon relay satellite. Missions on the far side of the Moon can’t communicate with Earth without a relay satellite. Queqiao-2 launched this week to provide that relay solution for China’s lunar exploration program. The mission’s …
Five months into the fiscal year under consideration, Congress finally passed a budget for NASA on March 8, 2024. It provided $24.9 billion, a cut of 2% (about half a billion dollars) relative to 2023. This is NASA’s first year-over-year cut since 2013, a …
Great American Eclipse The website greatamericaneclipse.com is run by a team of eclipse experts. It has detailed predictions for how many people will travel to each state. The bottom of each state page has links to events happening in local communities. …
The latest Planetary Report is here. The March Equinox issue of our quarterly member magazine is all about solar eclipses, including the total solar eclipse that will pass over North America on April 8. You’ll read about why solar eclipses are a rare …
Twenty years ago, NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars. Its twin, Spirit, had reached the surface three weeks earlier. The two robotic field geologists would usher in a new era of Mars exploration and confirm liquid water once flowed on the planet’s …
The President's Budget Request for NASA for fiscal year 2025 is $25.4 billion, a modest 2% increase over 2024. The budget proposes flat or diminished funding for most directorates within the agency, a product of strict budget caps placed on federal …
Annular eclipses demonstrate just how perfect the size-distance ratio has to be to produce a total solar eclipse. The Moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, meaning it comes closer to Earth at certain points in this orbit and farther at others. The …
We are pleased to announce that Mark Gelfand is the first recipient of the C. Wallace Hooser Award for Visionary Philanthropy. Inspired by the space race of the 1960s, Mark has always been interested in technology and how things work. He received a degree …
Reardon and his colleagues are traveling to Mazatlán, Mexico, for the 2024 eclipse, where the sky will darken for almost four-and-a-half minutes, and chances of clear skies are very high. There, they will set up telescopes equipped with spectrographs that …
Juno has found that Europa produces less oxygen than previously thought. The NASA spacecraft measured outgassing from the icy moon’s surface, allowing scientists to calculate that the rate of oxygen being produced at Europa is substantially less than most …
For all the wonders robotic space missions have to offer, they are limited by mass, power, and size requirements. We can’t carry all our large, precise laboratory equipment to space. That limits us when we want to precisely know a rock’s age, the …
Can SpaceX’s Starship save Mars Sample Return? With NASA’s budget still uncertain, it’s tempting to consider whether technology like Starship can provide a way forward for Mars Sample Return. We took a closer look at the mission’s science and found …
That switch was a safety shutoff for the laser system meant to guide the spacecraft to a safe landing spot. With no way to turn the instrument back on, the mission’s future was in jeopardy. But flukes don’t just spoil space missions — they also save them. …
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