This week we are joined by Dr. Sarah McAnulty. Sarah is a squid biologist and the executive director of the science communication non-profit Skype a Scientist which matches scientists with people all around the world.
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: May 20, 2020 — Dr. Sarah McAnulty from Skype A Scientist”Astronomers Are Sure These Are Two Newborn Planets Orbiting a Distant Star
Planet formation is a notoriously difficult thing to observe. Nascent planets are ensconced inside dusty wombs that resist our best observation efforts. But recently, astronomers have made progress in imaging these planetary newborns.
A new study presents the first-ever direct images of twin baby planets forming around their star.
Continue reading “Astronomers Are Sure These Are Two Newborn Planets Orbiting a Distant Star”Jupiter is so Big that our Solar System almost had two Suns
About half of all the star systems in the galaxy are made of pairs or triplets of stars. Our solar system features just one star, the Sun, and a host of (relatively) small planets. But it was almost not the case, and Jupiter got right on the edge of becoming the Sun’s smaller sibling.
Jupiter, the biggest planet in the solar system, is by far the largest. If you added up the masses of all the other planets, it wouldn’t even come to half of the mass of Jupiter. You could eliminate every single planet in the solar system except Jupiter, and you would basically still have…the solar system.
Continue reading “Jupiter is so Big that our Solar System almost had two Suns”NASA is Giving the SLS a “Green Run” to Prepare it for Launch in Late 2021
With the passage of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, work began on a launch vehicle that would carry cargo and crews back to the Moon and beyond. This vehicle is known as the Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-launch system that (once fully operational) will be the most powerful rocket in the world since the Saturn V – the venerable vehicle that took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon.
Unfortunately, the development of the SLS has suffered from multiple delays over the past few years, causing no shortage of complications. However, engineering teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near St. Louis, Mississippi, recently completed a Green Run of the SLS’s Core Stage, which involved testing the rocket’s critical systems in preparation for its inaugural launch by November of 2021.
Continue reading “NASA is Giving the SLS a “Green Run” to Prepare it for Launch in Late 2021″40 Years Ago, Mount St. Helens Blew its Top Off
One day, my Grade Nine science class got way more interesting.
Suddenly, volcanoes weren’t just something in textbooks. Though I was in neighbouring British Columbia when Mt. St. Helens erupted, there was still a layer of ash on our cars and everything else. For a teenager with a burgeoning interest in science, it was awesome.
Continue reading “40 Years Ago, Mount St. Helens Blew its Top Off”Hundreds of New Gravitational Lenses Discovered to Help Study the Distant Universe
General relativity tells us that everything, even light, is affected by the mass of an object. When a beam of light passes near a large mass, its path is deflected. This shift in the direction of light is known as gravitational lensing, and it was one of the first confirmed effects of Einstein’s theory.
Continue reading “Hundreds of New Gravitational Lenses Discovered to Help Study the Distant Universe”Venus Meets Mercury This Weekend in a Fine Dusk Conjunction
What’s that? You say you’ve never seen elusive Mercury for yourself? You won’t have an excuse after this weekend, when the innermost world meets brilliant Venus at dusk in what is known as a planetary conjunction, one of the best for 2020.
Continue reading “Venus Meets Mercury This Weekend in a Fine Dusk Conjunction”NASA Proposes the Artemis Accords. The New Rules for Lunar Exploration
As part of Project Artemis, which was announced in May of 2019, NASA will be sending the first woman and the next man to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. To make this happen, NASA has partnered with the private aerospace industry to develop all the necessary systems. At the same time, NASA has entered into collaborative agreements with other space agencies to ensure that lunar exploration is open to all.
To formalize these agreements and ensure that all parties are committed to the same goals, NASA recently drafted a framework for cooperative lunar exploration and development. Known as the Artemis Accords, this series of bilateral agreements (which are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967) establish common principles for international partners who want to become part of humanity’s long-awaited return to the Moon.
Continue reading “NASA Proposes the Artemis Accords. The New Rules for Lunar Exploration”Space Force Launches its Mysterious X-37B Spaceplane
On Sunday, May 17th, at 09:14 a.m. EDT (06:14 a.m. PDT), a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The payload for this mission (USSF-7) was none other than the super-secret X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), which is flying to space for the sixth time (OTV-6) as part of a US Air Force (USAF) and US Space Force (USSF) joint-operation.
Continue reading “Space Force Launches its Mysterious X-37B Spaceplane”This Laser Powered Rover Could Stay in the Shadows on the Moon and Continue to Explore
The craters on the Moon’s poles are in permanent shadow. But they’re also intriguing locations, due to deposits of water ice and other materials. The ESA is developing the idea for a rover that can explore these areas with power provided by lasers.
Continue reading “This Laser Powered Rover Could Stay in the Shadows on the Moon and Continue to Explore”