Blogs about Space

This week, the 4th international conference on the history of physics finally took place at Trinity College Dublin. The event, supported by the Institute of Physics and the European Physics Society, was the fourth in …

The First Quarter Moon is Wednesday, March 29. Venus is just above the thin crescent Moon on the 24th. Saturn is low in the morning twilight. Bright Mars, the stars Elnath and Zeta Taurii, the …

Spring officially begins on Monday, March 20, at 4:24 p.m. Central Time. Not that you'd know it in Minnesota.

Getting Europa Clipper to its target to analyze the surface of Jupiter’s most interesting moon (in terms of possible life, at least) sets up a whole range of comparative studies. We have been mining data …

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has debuted its first new logo in nearly 30 years. The new mark retains the maple leaf and four-pointed star from the agency's original identifier, but rearranges them in a …

On 2023 February 12.8 (20:18:07 UTC), K. Sarneczky found a small asteroid with the 0.60-m Schmidt + CCD of the Piszkéstető Observatory in Hungary (K88 MPC code) that was soon after put on the NEOCP …

A slight correction is required. I initially assumed the acceleration of the Starship “Hail Mary”was 1.5 gee, but that’s not quite right. The audiobook, which I’m listening to currently, reminds me it’s actually 15 m/s^2. …

Since part of this blog is reliving the joys of my childhood I need to talk about Gumby and Pokey. Gumby was a television show for children that ran (at least for me) from 1953-1969. …

During a press conference held on January 6, 2020 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Honolulu, Emily Gilbert (then a graduate student at the University of Chicago) announced the discovery …

Check out an Older Hubble Telescope Image that will Leave You Star-struck We astronomers often talk about the vastness of things out there — the sheer, mind-boggling numbers of stars and galaxies that make up …

The Vernal Equinox, or Spring Equinox, (in the Northern hemisphere) takes place on Monday 20th March 2023, at 21.24 UTC (which is this evening at 9.24pm local Irish Time). I’m posting this 12 hours in …

In a Facebook announcement dated February 14, 2023, planetary scientist Carolyn Porco takes on the role of planetary town crier, stating, “Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Scott Tremaine, renowned celestial dynamicist & a founder (along w/ …

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3775 duties. It was a jam packed weekend for the robot on Mars reports Sharon Wilson, a planetary geologist at the Smithsonian’s National Air …

Next to the Orion Nebula, the Rosette Nebula is definitely a must-do on the list of every aspiring astrophotographer. Located not too far from Orion in Monoceros, this large H II region has spectacular features, …

Our solar system’s rocky planets are tiny compared with the larger gas and ice giants. Exoplanet research has found, however, that the most common planets in the galaxy appear to be super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, types …

Car booting on Sunday I was amazed to see a Waddington's Ouija, a very obscure board game from the Sixties occult craze.I haven't seen this board game for years.Showing some interest in the thing propped …

I was listening to a favorite symphony this morning, Mendelssohn’s Fourth, the Italian Symphony. The first movement is as sunny as I’ve ever known it to be in Italy, even in Tuscany. I started wondering …

durf: Boston Dynamics steals Japanese kawaii tech for its latest robot:

Big tank: External Tank-1, with the Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia and twin Solid Rocket Boosters attached, arrives at Launch Pad 39-A at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida, after its roll-out from the Vehicle Assembly Building …

A new nanobarrier coating could help protect ultra-lightweight carbon composite materials from extreme conditions in space, according to a study from the University of Surrey and Airbus Defence and Space.