technical updates

For as long as humans have watched the night sky, we have wondered about the moon , pondering everything from its alien appearance to its influence over phenomena on Earth such as ocean tides, climate stability, and even the natural rhythms of many organisms. Among the many questions we have about Earth's lone natural satellite, one remains preeminent: what are the moon's origins , and how long has it orbited Earth? Today, the leading theory among astronomers is that deep in our planet's past — perhaps within roughly the first 100 million years of solar system history — Earth collided with a planet-sized object, creating the moon within a period that may have been as short as just a few hours . Known as the giant-impact hypothesis, this proposed event involves a hypothetical Mars-sized protoplanet astronomers call Theia. The material ejected into orbit by the powerful impact in q...

Japan will launch an epic mission to Mars today (Oct. 19), and you can watch the action live. The Martian Moons eXploration ( MMX ) mission is scheduled to lift off atop an H3 rocket from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center today at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT; 4:41 a.m. on Oct. 20 local Japan time). You can watch it live via the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Coverage will begin at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT). An artist’s concept of JAXA’s MMX spacecraft during its Mars orbit insertion. The Martian moon Phobos, which MMX will explore and sample, is in the background. (Image credit: JAXA) As its full name suggests, MMX will focus on Mars ' two moons, Phobos and Deimos . They're both tiny compared to Earth's own moon; Phobos is just 14 miles (22 kilometers) wide, and Deimos is even smaller, with a diameter of about 8 miles (13 km). They're also quite mysterious. While astr...

Japan's mission to Mars is one of the most ambitious in spaceflight history. It aims to become the first spacecraft to return to Earth from Mars orbit, carrying with it the first-ever samples from the Red Planet system. The mission, known as Martian Moons eXploration (MMX), is a first-of-its-kind endeavor to study the origin of Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos. The robust undertaking includes a landing on Phobos to collect the samples — which will likely be the first from the Mars system to return to Earth — and a search for evidence that could shed light on events during the formation of the solar system billions of years ago. MMX is scheduled to launch on an H3 rocket from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on Monday (Oct. 19) at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT; 4:41 a.m. local time in Japan, Oct. 20). After a 10-month journey to reach Mars, the spacecraft will spend about three years stud...

El Niño is fueling a dangerous cascade of wildfires across the tropics, with the Amazon rainforest now experiencing widespread burning and scientists warning that the worst may still be ahead. NASA researchers are uncovering dozens of previously undetected fires, suggesting the destruction could be even more extensive than satellite records show. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/ExAHdPk

Astronomers estimate that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, has churned out more than 10 million black holes over its 13-billion-year history. Yet so far, they have found only 70. Now, a group of astronomers in the U.K. is trying to close that vast gap by enlisting the public. Their project, called Black Hole Hunters , is looking for volunteers with a computer and a few spare minutes to sift through troves of data gathered by a NASA space telescope. By flagging recognizable patterns that could point to a "missing" black hole , volunteers can help fast-track a search that would otherwise take years, the team says. "You'll be narrowing down precisely where we need to point our telescopes next," project co-lead Adam McMaster, an astronomer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said in a statement , "and you might be the one to discover a black hole." Cosmic ma...

Spain is one of the easiest places in the world to experience the total solar eclipse on Aug. 2, 2027 . The so-called "eclipse of the century" first makes landfall in Andalucía, where totality will last up to 4 minutes and 40 seconds during mid-morning, with the sun comfortably high at around 38-42 degrees above the horizon in the eastern sky. Excellent roads, plentiful accommodation and Málaga's international airport make this an obvious alternative to North Africa and the Middle East. However, choosing where to watch requires some thought. Southern Spain's narrowing shape funnels the path toward the Strait of Gibraltar, potentially concentrating huge numbers of eclipse chasers around Tarifa, the Costa del Sol and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar during the peak summer holiday season. From busy Mediterranean beaches to mountain villages, here's where to see the ...

TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS — The Artemis II astronauts may have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth to the moon, but they made sure the rest of us didn't miss out on the adventure. Now, their efforts to bring the wonders of space exploration back down to Earth have earned them one of science communication's most prestigious honors: the Stephen Hawking Medal. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover , alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen , accepted the award on Saturday (Oct. 17), during the opening ceremony of the Starmus VIII festival. The honor recognizes all four crew members, including NASA astronaut Christina Koch , who wasn't in attendance. For Wiseman, the experience of seeing our home planet from the vicinity of the moon carried a powerful message. "If we could take each of you 250,000 miles away from this planet, 400,000 kilome...