Astronomy Archives - Page 12 of 40 - Scitke

SpaceX Starship Flight 6: No catch, But a Banana was Involved

Astronomy, Planetary Science / Marcílio Santos

SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 launched today, missing a second capture landing for the Super Heavy first stage. However, it featured a dramatic daylight soft landing of the Starship second stage in the Indian Ocean—along with a banana. Today’s mission experienced an unusually smooth countdown for an experimental development flight, with the final hold skipped as […]

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Leonid Meteor Shower May Surprise Us with a Stunning Display This Week

Astronomy, Cosmology, Planetary Science / Samilton Santos

One of my most memorable experiences was back in the 90s when I was in the US Air Force. In November 1998, I found myself deployed to Kuwait, where I witnessed a spectacular meteor storm as the Leonids reached their peak on the morning of November 17th. The meteors came quickly and intensely, lighting up

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Space-Based Solar Power Set to Be Transmitted to Iceland by 2030

Astronomy, Planetary Science / Mauro Lucas

UK startup Space Solar has signed a deal with Reykjavik Energy that could make Iceland the first country to receive solar power beamed from space, with a 30-MW demonstration set for launch by 2030. While solar power is a clean energy source, it faces limitations like cloud cover and nighttime, which reduce its availability. Since

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Jupiter Has No Surface. Here’s How That’s Possible

Astronomy, Planetary Science / Marcílio Santos

The planet Jupiter has no solid ground—no surface, like the grass or dirt we walk on here on Earth. There’s nowhere to land or walk on. But how is that possible? If Jupiter has no surface, then what does it have? How does it hold together? Even for a physics professor who studies unusual phenomena,

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Wild Star Spinning at an Incredible 716 Times Per Second

Astronomy, Astrophysics / cumbonguala

Neutron Star Spins at Unbelievable Speed A neutron star located 27,400 light-years away is exhibiting one of the most remarkable rotational speeds ever observed. In the binary system 4U 1820-30, this dead star spins so rapidly around its axis that it completes an astounding 716 rotations per second. This marks the fastest spin observed, with

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The First Wooden Satellite in the World Has Been Launched Into Space

Astronomy, Planetary Science / Marcílio Santos

Wooden Satellite Launched into Space Its Japanese creators announced on Tuesday that they launched the first-ever wooden satellite into space aboard a SpaceX rocket. This satellite is part of a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Scientists at Kyoto University developed the satellite, designing it to burn up entirely upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

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NASA Unveils Sinister Eyes in Space, and They Seem to Be Staring Right at You

Astronomy, Planetary Science / Marcílio Santos

Abyss Gazing Back: Nietzsche’s Prophetic Words in Space “The abyss also looks back into you,” said German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in 1886. His words feel almost prophetic as we gaze, nearly 140 years later, at an image from 80 million light-years away that resembles a pair of piercing eyes, staring back at us. In reality,

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Extraordinary Trinary Black Hole System Is the First of Its Kind Ever Found

Astronomy, Galactic Astronomy, Science / Samilton Santos

A Unique Discovery in Cygnus Constellation In the constellation Cygnus, about 7,800 light-years from Earth, lies a true cosmic oddity: the V404 Cygni system, home to a black hole known for its intriguing and unpredictable behavior. Recently, this system revealed yet another surprise to scientists—a hidden binary companion, a star in a wide orbit that

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TRAPPIST Planets Targeted for Monitoring Potential Alien Radio Communications

Astronomy, Planetary Science / Marcílio Santos

If extraterrestrials are observing Earth, they could potentially pick up on the radio signals we send to Mars to operate our rovers. Astronomers have begun monitoring the nearby TRAPPIST-1 system to see if aliens are communicating between their own planets. Earth has been emitting incidental radio signals for more than a century, but unlike what

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Hubble Captures a New View of Galaxy M90

Astronomy, Galactic Astronomy, Science / Ngoma Manuel

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled a new mesmerizing image of the spiral galaxy Messier 90 (M90) in the constellation Virgo. Originally captured using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) in 1994, Hubble revisited M90 with its more advanced Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in 2019 and 2023. This latest observation offers

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