Earth has a “limited willingness” to “rapidly conduct” the necessary space missions to defend itself against a devastating asteroid impact, even with fourteen years’ notice. During an exercise involving multiple U.S. government agencies in April 2024, NASA conducted a so-called “tabletop” game in which participants plotted their response to a 72 percent chance that an … Read more
The piece of debris that fell through Alejandro Otero’s roof (right) came from a support bracket thrown from the International Space Station. The owner of a southwest Florida home has formally filed a claim with NASA for damage caused by a piece of space debris that fell through his roof in March. The lawsuit is … Read more
Boeing’s Starliner was sitting on the Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida when a small but critical problem with the spacecraft’s 200-foot (61-meter) booster rocket brought the countdown to a halt. The American aerospace giant was hired by NASA to transport two astronauts – Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore – to the International Space … Read more
Asteroid moon Dimorphos as seen by NASA’s DART spacecraft 11 seconds before the impact that shifted its path through space, during the first test of asteroid deflection. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/NASA hide caption change caption Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/NASA Imagine if scientists discovered a giant asteroid with a 72% chance of … Read more
NASA has issued a warning about a giant asteroid, comparable in size to a 200-foot yacht, that will pass by Earth on June 22, 2024, at a distance that has attracted a lot of attention from astronomers and scientists alike. Asteroid 2024 LJ: size and speed Asteroid 2024 LJ is a huge space rock that … Read more
The supernova remnant 3C 58 contains a spinning neutron star at its center, known as PSR J0205+6449. Astronomers have studied this neutron star and others like it to investigate the nature of matter in these very dense objects. A new study, conducted using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s In this image of 3C 58, … Read more
A star is dead? Keep your eyes on the sky, stargazers: NASA has predicted that the highly anticipated “once-in-a-life-time” star explosion – or nova – will be visible to the naked eye sometime this summer, according to a recent press release. “It’s incredibly exciting to have a front row seat,” said Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, assistant … Read more
NASA is about to launch the GOES-U satellite, the latest addition to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, which will improve weather monitoring for Earth and space. This mission, scheduled for June 25, 2024, aims to provide crucial data for weather forecasting and monitoring of solar activity. The significance of NASA’s GOES-U launch The … Read more
7 photos Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU It’s not every day that the American space agency NASA says something shocking. The organization is a respectable organization by profession and generally avoids sensational titles. But not this week, when it was announced plain and simple that “Perseverance finds popcorn on planet Mars.” Perseverance, formerly known as Mars 2020, is … Read more
WASHINGTON – NASA and Boeing have once again extended the CST-100 Starliner’s stay on the International Space Station as engineers complete analysis of thruster problems and helium leaks on the crewed spacecraft. At a June 18 briefing, NASA announced that Starliner’s return to Earth on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, which had already been … Read more