Get Ready for the 2018 Geminid Meteors
When it comes to meteor showers, the calendar year always seems to save the best for last. We're referring to…
InSight Uses its Seismometer to “Hear” the Sound of Wind on Mars
The InSight lander recently used two its instruments to record vibrations caused by Martian wind, effectively capturing what it sounds…
OSIRIS-REx Has Already Found Water on Bennu
NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) has found water on the asteroid Bennu. Bennu is OSIRIS-REx's only…
Carnival of Space #590
Welcome to the 590th Carnival of Space! The Carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers,…
A Rapid Rise in Temperature Led to the Worst Extinction in our Planet’s History
Everyone knows about the extinction of the dinosaurs. A cataclysmic asteroid strike about 66 million years ago (mya) caused the…
Astronomy Cast Ep. 509: Fiction to Fact: 3D Printers
The technology of 3D printing is taking off. From tiny home-based 3D printers to larger manufacturing. And of course, 3D…
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…