Mercury-Bound BepiColombo is About to Start Using the Most Powerful Ion Engines Ever Sent to Space
A handful of spacecraft have used ion engines to reach their destinations, but none have been as powerful as the…
The Draco Constellation
Located in the northern hemisphere, between the two "dippers", is the Draco constellation - one of the 48 compiled by…
InSight’s Robot Arm is Ready to go to Work
Some new images sent home by the InSight Lander show the robotic arm and the craft's instruments waiting on deck,…
Astronomers Count all the Photons in the Universe. Spoiler Alert: 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Photons
Imagine yourself in a boat on a great ocean, the water stretching to the distant horizon, with the faintest hints…
Ice loss in Greenland is Accelerating
The rate at which Greenland is losing its ice is accelerating. This unsurprising conclusion comes from a new study based…
On the Astronomy Trail in Nebraska
Most of us think of distant sites such as Death Valley, the Kalahari Desert or the Canary Islands when it…
New SPECULOOS Telescope Sees First Light. Soon it’ll be Seeing Habitable Planets Around Ultra-Cool Stars
Our newest planet-hunting telescope is up and running at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile. SPECULOOS,…
Good News: a SpaceX Cargo Resupply is Off to the Space Station. Bad News: Failed Hydraulics in the Grid Fins Caused the First Stage Booster to Crash Into the Ocean
SpaceX's sixteenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-16) successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft to orbit, but the first stage didn't quite…
The Large Hadron Collider has been Shut Down, and Will Stay Down for Two Years While they Perform Major Upgrades
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is getting a big boost to its performance. Unfortunately, for fans of ground-breaking physics, the…
Weekly Space Hangout: Dec 05, 2018: Dr. Pamela Gay talks CosmoQuest Hangoutathon!
Hosts: Guest Host Dr. Pamela Gay (astronomycast.com / cosmoquest.org / @starstryder) Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Paul M. Sutter…