NASA’s DART Mission Successfully Redirects Asteroid, Demonstrates Ability to Protect Earth
NASA’s daring planetary defence mission, Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), was a smashing success. The spacecraft smashed into an asteroid, altering its trajectory through space. Scientists have released their analysis of the mission and its aftermath, and the results are remarkable. The DART spacecraft targeted a harmless asteroid, the Dimorphos, 6.8 million miles from Earth. […]
Continue reading Canada Launches First-Ever Moon Rover to Search for Frozen Water
Canada is set to put itself at the forefront of space exploration with its first-ever moon rover, which could help reveal the moon’s dark side.[0] The Canadian Press/HO-University of Alberta, 2022 Canadensys Aerospace Corp., *MANDATORY CREDIT*.[1] In November, it was decided that Canadensys would construct the lunar rover and provide assistance with the scientific instruments […]
Continue reading Gravitational Lensing Reveals an Ancient Supernova Through Time
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured an incredible shot of the massive galaxy cluster RX J2129, located around 3.2 billion light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Through gravitational lensing, astronomers have been able to get a closer look at a supernova-hosting galaxy that lies behind the lens. Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon where […]
Continue reading Exploring the Mysterious X7: Is It the Result of Two Colliding Stars?
A mysterious object that has been slowly drifting towards the center of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole could be the exploded remnants of two colliding stars, a new study suggests.[0] X7, a peculiar entity, has a mass of around 50 times that of the Earth and is travelling at velocities of up to 700 […]
Continue reading Comet C/2023 A3 to Light Up the Night Sky in Northern Hemisphere in 2024
Astronomers have discovered a new comet that is estimated to be visible in the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere by fall 2024.[0] This comet, known as C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), was first spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope project in South Africa on Feb. 22, and independently by observers at Purple […]
Continue reading SpaceX Launches Crew-6 for Historic 34th Mission to ISS
SpaceX launched its Crew-6 mission for NASA early Thursday morning (March 2), sending a complement of four astronauts on their way to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) in a little over 24 hours.[0] The mission marks the 34th time SpaceX has launched astronauts, both for government and private missions, since its first crewed […]
Continue reading NASA’s DART Mission Successfully Alters Asteroid’s Orbit
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a successful planetary defense mission to test whether the orbit of an asteroid could be altered by crashing a spacecraft into it.[0] On September 26, 2022, the DART spacecraft made an impact with a tiny asteroid moon called Dimorphos, which circles a bigger asteroid known as Didymos.[0] The […]
Continue reading Discovering a Rare Giant Lacewing at Walmart: A Reminder of Insect Wonders
It was a fateful day for Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State University’s Insect Identification Lab, when he walked into a Walmart in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2012 to get milk.[0] As he was entering the building, he noticed a giant insect on the side of the wall. Skvarla, who was working on his PhD at […]
Continue reading NASA’s DART Mission Successfully Re-Directs Asteroid and Gathers Valuable Data for Future Deflection Attempts
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first attempt to intentionally collide a spacecraft with an asteroid, in an effort to demonstrate a planetary defense technique.[0] On September 26, 2022, the DART spacecraft smashed into a small asteroid moon called Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos.[0] The collision altered the path […]
Continue reading Uncovering New Details About the Tycho Supernova Remnant with IXPE
Researchers at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome have recently used data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) to uncover new information about the Tycho supernova remnant, an exploded star in the constellation Cassiopeia which was first seen on Earth in 1572.[0] This remnant, classified as a Type Ia, is an event […]
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