For better or for worse, a small part of the Apollo 11 spacecraft will now be Jon Mesick’s to have and to hold for all the days of his life. The strip of golden thermal polyimide tape, which made the trip to the moon with the first astronauts to land there in 1969, is now … Read more
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Wendy Whitman Cobb is Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS). Leaders of NASA sit in an awkward position. While they are the head of a … Read more
Everything in the universe is, quite literally, built upon particles, ranging from the fundamental particles that construct atoms that make up everything we see around us to the exotic ones that give rise to elusive phenomena like antimatter and dark matter. The former help us observe and manipulate our world while the latter help us … Read more
2024 was a phenomenal year for sci-fi cinema. While the majority of the best sci-fi movies of 2024 are additions to already well-established franchises, there’s also a special place for a captivating and heart-warming sci-fi animation that is entirely new. If you didn’t catch everything the year had to offer, we’ve collated the eight best … Read more
When will we be able to see the planets at their best during this upcoming year of 2025? This guide will tell you. It will also provide information as to when a particular solar system planet might be passing near to another, or a bright star, as well as the constellation that each will occupy … Read more
There’s a disturbingly sinister presence peering from a dark nebulous realm in the season finale of HBO’s “Dune: Prophecy,” which ended its short-but-satisfying debut season this past Sunday night with a multitude of revelations, unexpected deaths, family truths unveiled, and the arrival on one notorious desert planet named Arrakis. After last week’s startling reveal that … Read more
Scientists have received an unexpected Christmas gift this year: a potential solution to the mystery of JuMBOs, strange celestial objects that seem not to be planets or stars. Try putting a bow on that! This gift comes courtesy of a team of researchers who believe that mysterious JuMBOs (Jupiter-mass binary objects) are actually stellar cores … Read more
The past year was a big one for space. Skywatchers across the United States witnessed a total solar eclipse, SpaceX caught a giant rocket out of mid-air with a pair of chopstick arms, and telescopes on Earth and in space revealed to us images of the universe that have changed our very understanding of the … Read more
What makes up the matter we perceive in the universe? To start, there are the usual suspects, like electrons, protons, quarks and neutrinos. But if those particles aren’t strange enough for you, I’m here to help. There are other particles that are so rare, we’re not even sure they exist. Here are five of the … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that the centaur called 2060 Chiron is an oddball. The object, which is a minor body that orbits the sun in the expanse between Jupiter and Neptune, has a mixture of ices and gases that make it stand out from other objects in the distant outer solar system. … Read more