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Astronomers discover the 1st ever green star, a cosmic zombie just in time for Halloween

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How awesome would it be if the sun could take on a spooky green glow for Halloween? It turns out that scientists have discovered that our star may indeed go green, but only billions of years from now after its death  — and only if it then starts eating planets like a cosmic zombie. That's possible because scientists have discovered that white dwarfs, the type of stellar remnants sun-sized stars leave behind when they die, can actually take on a range of colors including green if they snack on their rocky planets like cosmic cannibals. For stellar scientists, the colors of stars have always been indicative of their temperatures. Cool stars look orange, while stars like the sun look white , and the hottest stars glow pale blue. This is akin to a blacksmith's iron glowing red, then orange, then white-hot as it heats up. Researchers have always assumed that white dwarfs follow the same rul...
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On this day in space! Oct. 15, 1997: NASA launches Cassini-Hugyens probe on 7-year voyage to Saturn

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On Oct. 15, 1997, NASA launched the Cassini spacecraft on a mission to explore Saturn and its moons. It lifted off aboard a Titan 4B rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It took almost seven years for the Cassini spacecraft to reach Saturn , with the spacecraft entering orbit around the ringed planet in 2004. Another smaller spacecraft called Huygens hitched a ride with Cassini, and it landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Cassini spent 13 years studying the Saturn system up close, and the mission lasted about 20 years before coming to an epic grand finale on Sept. 15, 2017 . Running low on fuel, NASA chose to steer Cassini straight into Saturn's atmosphere, where the spacecraft was destroyed . NASA's Cassini spacecraft lifts off on Oct. 15, 1997, atop a Titan IVB rocket. (Image credit: NASA) Why it mattered NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn (which carried th...
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Vaonis unveils Atlas, the world's 1st modular smart telescope system

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Vaonis has just announced its new generation of smart telescope technology, known as Atlas. Less of a single smart telescope and more of a new optical system, Atlas was designed with interchangeability and adaptability in mind. Its new SkyDock system allows two optical tubes to be connected and the telescope has live night sky monitoring to predict available observations. You can preorder the Vaonis Atlas with a single Atlas 80 module for $3,990, or $5,490 for the twin at Adorama . But it'll also soon be available at B&H and other retailers. Currently, there is only one optical tube, the Atlas 80, but Vaonis is planning to release add-on modules designed for looking at different night sky objects, including for planetary observation. We think this is an exciting step for smart telescope technology and is, essentially, the start of modular astronomy for amateur stargazers, allowing them ...
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Watch SpaceX deliver more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS today

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A Dragon is closing the gap between itself and its destination after a more than two-day-long orbital pursuit. SpaceX's cargo Dragon , flying the CRS-35 (35th Commercial Resupply Services) mission for NASA , is scheduled to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) this morning (Oct. 15), delivering fresh food, long-term provisions, research and hardware to the orbital lab and its crew. Coverage of Dragon's arrival at the ISS will begin at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), with docking scheduled for approximately 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). A livestream of the rendezvous will be available here and on Space.com's homepage, courtesy of NASA. SpaceX's CRS-35 launch creates a "space jellyfish" in the sky on Oct. 13. (Image credit: SpaceX) CRS-35 launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the company's pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday (Oc...
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Planetary genealogy: Milky Way worlds belong to 1 of 2 ‘families,’ scientists find

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You can tell a lot about how a child will age by looking at their parents, and it turns out that this could be true for planetary systems, too. Scientists have performed cosmic genealogy on planetary systems in the Milky Way, finding two distinct families that influence the evolution and fate of these systems. The study team, led by researchers at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), studied 300 of the best-understood multiplanet systems of the over 1,000 that astronomers have discovered in the Milky Way. The team's research clarifies how the environments around infant stars directly affect planetary fates and, in turn, the survival of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets , that are potentially capable of hosting life. That could be crucial as astronomers search for life beyond the solar system , pointing them to systems with potentially habitable planets like Earth. "T...
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'Dungeon Crawler Carl' author Matt Dinniman talks inspirations, success, and the upcoming Peacock TV series (interview)

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Fall has officially arrived, and as autumn leaves blaze in vivid colors, there is no better time to plunge into the imaginative world of New York Times best-selling author Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl", the wildly addictive science fantasy book series that's taking the world by storm. Even if you haven't read them, you've probably seen folks carrying these books, emblazoned with their loud, neon-colored covers, at your neighborhood coffee house. You'll see it even more in the future, too, as a streaming adaptation of the novels is coming to Peacock, with Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door and co-showrunners Eric Heisserer and Chris Yost at the helm. The eighth book in the series, " A Parade of Horribles ," dropped in May of 2026 and continues the story of Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s precocious pussy cat named Princess Donut as they try to navigate t...
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SpaceX's Starship just turned 10 years old. When will it go to Mars?

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Starship just reached orbit for the first time, carrying satellites for SpaceX's Starlink program. Analysts disagree on whether that's a detour or the destination — and what of the company's plans for the Red Planet? Ten years ago, Elon Musk stood on stage at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, and unveiled plans for a giant spaceship to carry people to Mars. This past Sept. 28 — a decade and a day later — the descendant of that vehicle reached orbit for the first time , on Starship's 14th-ever test flight. The designs and hardware evolved greatly over those 10 years. For example, the 2016 design , called the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), employed carbon fiber, but this gave way to the stainless-steel Starship, which SpaceX began testing in 2019 with short hops from its Texas site. Prototypes flew to high altitude and landed, and som...
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