Perseverance rover snaps gorgeous HD panorama of Mars landing site

Perseverance has captured a high-definition, 360-degree panorama of its surroundings on the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater, which harbored a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Source: https://www.livescience.com/perseverance-rover-1st-mars-hd-panorama.html

Avalanche Warnings Are Issued in Northwest

Two avalanche warnings have been issued for parts of Washington and Oregon as heavier-than-usual rainfall and snowfall is expected to hit part of the West Coast through Monday. From a report: One of the warnings, a Level 4 on a scale of 5, said there was a high avalanche danger for parts of North Cascades National Park by the Canadian border,…

Linux Is Now on Mars, Thanks to NASA’s Perseverance Rover

“When NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars this week, it also brought the Linux operating system to the Red Planet,” reports PC Magazine: The tidbit was mentioned in an interview NASA software engineer Tim Canham gave to IEEE Spectrum. The helicopter-like drone on board the Perseverance rover uses a Linux-powered software framework the space agency open-sourced a few years ago. “This…

What is the Milky Way?

When someone says “Milky Way,” do you think of the starry pathway across our sky, or of the great pinwheel-shaped galaxy in space? Both are correct! Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-is-the-milky-way-galaxy…

TESS discovers new worlds in a river of young stars

Using observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a trio of hot worlds larger than Earth orbiting a much younger version of our Sun called TOI 451. The system resides in the recently discovered Pisces-Eridanus stream, a collection of stars less than 3% the age of our solar system that stretches across one-third…

Has the polar vortex arrived? What is it?

The polar vortex is an enormous, 3-dimensional ring of winds that surrounds the North and South poles during each hemisphere’s winter. The polar vortex influences the jet stream, which can bring cold winter weather to the U.S. and Europe. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-the-polar-vortex…

Get ready for Perseverance’s landing on Mars February 18

Some call attempts to land on Mars “7 minutes of terror.” The Perseverance mission will provide the most detailed video and photos of a landing yet. We’ll watch ourselves land on another planet, for the first time ever. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/get-ready-nasa-perseverance-landing-feb2021…

Hey, kids! Meet the new Hot Wheels Mars rover!

Mattel, maker of Hot Wheels, has just released a new Hot Wheels Mars Perseverance Rover to celebrate the landing of the NASA Perseverance rover on Mars on February 18. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/hot-wheels-mars-perseverance-rover-mattel…

See Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky

Find out how to spot Sirius, the brightest star as seen from Earth. Learn the mythology behind this dazzling light and how it earned the nickname of the Dog Star. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/sirius-the-brightest-star…

Astronomers see multiple eclipses in unique 6-star system

An international team of astronomers has discovered a unique 6-star system where eclipses of all 6 stars can be seen from Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/tyc-7037-89-1-sextuplet-system-6-stars-that-eclipse…