A new study reports that iron rain likely falls through the thick, turbulent air of WASP-76 b, a bizarre “ultrahot Jupiter” that lies about 640 light-years from the sun, in the constellation Pisces. Space.com reports: WASP-76 b zips around its host star once every 1.8 Earth days, an orbit so tight that the gaseous planet is “tidally locked,” always showing the…
Tag: space.com
Two Private Satellites Dock In Space In Historic First For Orbital Servicing
schwit1 quotes Space.com: In a historic first for satellite operations, a commercial spacecraft “helper” has docked with a working communications satellite to provide life-extension services. The companies involved in the meetup — Northrop Grumman and Intelsat — hailed the operation, which took place Tuesday (Feb. 25), as the beginning of a new era that will see robotic spacecraft giving new life…
SpaceX Starship SN-1 Fails Pressure Test and Explodes
SpaceX envisions Starship as a 387-foot-tall (118 meters) spacecraft/booster that can carry up to 100 people to Mars. Pig Hogger (Slashdot reader #10,379) tipped us off to this progress report from Space.com:
SpaceX’s new Starship prototype appeared to burst during a pressure test late Friday (Feb. 28), rupturing under the glare of flood lights and mist at the company’s south Texas facility….
Mars Is a Seismically Active World, First Results From NASA’s InSight Lander Reveal
The first results from NASA’s quake-hunting InSight Mars lander just came out, and they reveal that Mars is a seismically active planet. Space.com reports: Martian seismicity falls between that of the moon and that of Earth, [says InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory]. “In fact, it’s probably close to the kind of seismic activity you would expect…
Water in the shadows of boulders on Mars?
A new study from the Planetary Research Institute suggests that briny water could temporarily form on Mars’ surface in the shadows of boulders for just a few days each Martian year. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/water-on-mars-brines-boulders-sublimation…
Northrop Grumman Launches Spacecraft Delivering Snacks and Equipment To the ISS
Space.com has footage of Northrop Grumman’s successful launch of a spacecraft that’s bringing 7,500 pounds of supplies (as well as scientific equipment for experiments) to the astronauts on the International Space Station:
Those experiments include studies into bone loss from prolonged exposure to weightlessness, bacteria-targeting viruses that could lead to new medications, as well as some cowpeas to be grown as part…
Scientists Observe Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Buzz Past Earth With Its Own Moon
Meghan Bartels writes via Space.com: One of Earth’s premier instruments for studying nearby asteroids is back to work after being rattled by earthquakes, and its first new observations show that a newly discovered space rock is actually two separate asteroids. The instrument is the planetary radar system at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory was closed for most of…
SpaceX Launches 60 New Starlink Satellites, Sticks Rocket Landing At Sea
After several weather delays, SpaceX successfully launched its fourth batch of Starlink satellites into orbit and nailed a rocket landing today. Space.com reports: A sooty Falcon 9 rocket — which made its third flight with this launch — roared to life at 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT), lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here…
2 Satellites Will Narrowly Avoid Colliding Over Pittsburgh On Wednesday
Two defunct satellites traveling at 32,800 mph will narrowly miss colliding with one another over Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening. “If the two satellites were to collide, the debris could endanger spacecraft around the planet,” reports Space.com. From the report: It will be a near miss: LeoLabs, the satellite-tracking company that made the prediction, said they should pass between 50 feet and…
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Recovers From Glitch on Mars
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity “lost its orientation…partway through its last set of activities,” reported a planetary geologist on the rover’s team Monday. Curiosity had lost track of its position in space and the position of its various parts like its robotic arm. “Thus, Curiosity stopped moving, freezing in place until its knowledge of its orientation can be recovered. Curiosity kept sending…