Universe Today (Page 246)

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: The Nail-biting Re-entry Sequence 50 years ago today, on April 17, 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 came home. Safely. Successfully. The world breathed a collective sigh of relief as they watched NASA turn a disaster into one of the most dramatic and happy endings ever. The flight of Apollo 13 was unlike any other Apollo mission, and the … Continue reading “Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: The Nail-biting Re-entry Sequence” The post Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: The Nail-biting Re-entry Sequence appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

An Earth-Sized World Orbiting in its Star’s Habitable Zone Was Found in Older Kepler Data Searching through archival Kepler data has revealed another exoplanet around Kepler-1649, the most Earth-like exoplanet discovered to date The post An Earth-Sized World Orbiting in its Star’s Habitable Zone Was Found in Older Kepler Data appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it Formed ‘Oumuamua caused quite a stir when it visited our Solar System in 2017. It didn’t stay long, however, and when it was spotted with the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii on October 19th, it was already leaving. But its appearance in our part of the Universe spawned a lot of conjecture on its nature and its … Continue reading “Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it Formed” The post Astronomers Finally Think They Understand Where Interstellar Object Oumuamua Came From and How it FormedRead More →

Light Behaves Really Strangely Around a Black Hole A new study led by Caltech researchers show that light can be reflected off of a black hole’s disk by its powerful gravity. The post Light Behaves Really Strangely Around a Black Hole appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers Measure the Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf for the First Time. Spoiler: Insanely Fast In some ways, brown dwarfs are nature’s stellar oddballs. A lot of stars exhibit strange behaviour at different times in their evolution. But brown dwarfs aren’t even certain that they’re stars at all. But that doesn’t mean astronomers don’t want to study and understand them. Brown dwarfs occupy a niche in the Universe. They’re more … Continue reading “Astronomers Measure the Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf for the First Time. Spoiler: Insanely Fast” The post Astronomers Measure the Wind Speed on a Brown Dwarf for the First Time.Read More →

Wheels and Helicopter Attached to Perseverance Rover The Perseverance rover was recently integrated with its wheels and Mars Helicopter, as part of its final preparations before launch this summer. The post Wheels and Helicopter Attached to Perseverance Rover appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: Charging the Batteries Following the explosion of an oxygen tank in Apollo 13’s Service Module on April 13, 1970, approximately 56 hours into the mission, the situation was bleak. With the Command Module (CM) without any power, the Lunar Module (LM) was activated as a life boat to sustain the crew. The task ahead – to save the … Continue reading “Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: Charging the Batteries” The post Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13: Charging the Batteries appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Venice From Space Looks Very Different This Year The Coronavirus shutdown has given us an unprecedented opportunity to look at our civilization a little differently. We all have our own ground-level view of life during this pandemic, but our satellites are giving us another look at this Earthly pause on a grand scale. The latest view comes from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus … Continue reading “Venice From Space Looks Very Different This Year” The post Venice From Space Looks Very Different This Year appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Comet Y4 ATLAS Breaks Up…Enter Comet F8 SWAN When it comes to comets, the only thing that is certain is the orbit. Though the cosmos has yet to send us a really bright comet for 2020 to keep us occupied during the ongoing worldwide pandemic and lock down, it has sent us a steady stream of descent binocular comets, including C/2017 T2 PanSTARRS, C/2019 Y1 ATLAS, and C/2019 Y4 ATLAS. And though Y4 ATLAS won’t be match the “Comet of the Century” hype, another interesting binocular comet has just made its presence known over the past weekend: C/2020 F8 SWAN. The post Comet Y4 ATLASRead More →

Thanks to COVID-19, nothing’s moving, and seismologists can tell As the COVID-19 disease continues to wreak its viral havoc on the human population of Earth, governments around the world have closed their schools, shut down non-essential businesses, and told their citizens to stay at home as much as possible. In other words, there’s a lot less human activity on our planet, and it’s led … Continue reading “Thanks to COVID-19, nothing’s moving, and seismologists can tell” The post Thanks to COVID-19, nothing’s moving, and seismologists can tell appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same Amount of CO2 as We Are Today 200 million years ago, a mass extinction event wiped out about 76% of all species on Earth—both terrestrial and marine. That event was called the end-Triassic extinction, or the Jurassic-Triassic (J-T) extinction event. At that time, the world experienced many of the same things as Earth is facing now, including a warming climate and the … Continue reading “During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same Amount of CO2 as We Are Today” The post During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same AmountRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age Millennials with Laura Forczyk Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Brian Koberlein (BrianKoberlein.com / @BrianKoberlein) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier ) Chris Carr (@therealCCarr) This week we are please to welcome Laura Forczyk to the Weekly Space Hangout. Laura is the owner of space consulting firm Astralytical specializing in space science, industry, and policy, and offering space career coaching services. … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age Millennials with Laura Forczyk” The post Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age MillennialsRead More →

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll Apollo 13 was supposed to be the third mission to land humans on the Moon. But on the night of April 13th, 1970, an oxygen tank in Apollo 13’s Service Module exploded. And so began the most perilous but eventually triumphant situation ever encountered in human spaceflight. The explosion crippled the Apollo 13 Command Module … Continue reading “Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll” The post Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →

When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth Comet breakups are a timely topic right now. The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov just broke into at least two pieces. And though that comet is speeding out of the Solar System, never to be seen again, most of them don’t leave the Solar System. Most of them orbit the Sun, and return to the inner Solar … Continue reading “When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth” The post When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth appeared first onRead More →

Carnival of Space #658-659 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Allen Versfeld at his Urban Astronomer blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #658-659. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #658-659” The post Carnival of Space #658-659 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

This is How the ESA and NASA Will be Working Together to Bring Rocks Back From Mars The ESA has entered into a lucrative collaboration to help NASA get its Martian rock samples back to Earth. The post This is How the ESA and NASA Will be Working Together to Bring Rocks Back From Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the Moon and asteroids The Trump administration just signed an executive order that has given the green light to asteroid and lunar mining and other commercial ventures in space. The post Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the Moon and asteroids appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

NASA’s Plans For a Lunar Base Camp In a recent report submitted to the National Space Council, NASA has detailed its plans for building a lunar base camp on the Moon that will allow for long-term stays there. The post NASA’s Plans For a Lunar Base Camp appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half In 2019, amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov discovered a comet, which now bears his name. There’s a long history of amateur astronomers discovering comets, as they approach our inner Solar System on their elongated orbits. But this one was different: it was moving much too fast to be gravitationally bound to the Sun. It was an … Continue reading “Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half” The post Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

How Did the TRAPPIST-1 Planets Get Their Water? A new study by an international team of astronomers raises questions about the existence of debris belts around red dwarf stars and how water could have been distributed within them. The post How Did the TRAPPIST-1 Planets Get Their Water? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →