Simulated image of the merger of a black hole binary. SXS Lensing The united LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA (LVK) collaborations have so far tallied 90 gravitational-wave events, almost all of which were the merger of two black holes. Of the…
Month: April 2022
Cosmonauts Set Up Robotic Arm’s First Motion, Wrap Up Spacewalk – Space Station
Spacewalkers Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev monitor the station’s new European robotic arm as it moves on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev of Roscosmos concluded their spacewalk outside of the International Space Station…
How to Observe and Measure Naked-eye Sunspots – Sky & Telescope
Sunspot groups freckle the Sun in this photo taken with a 94-mm refracting telescope on April 21, 2022. Both lead spots in Active Regions 2993 and 2994 were visible without optical aid through a #14 welding glass. North is up.Bob…
NASA Space Station Status Report 26 April, 2022 – SpaceX Crew-4 Poised for Early Morning Launch
Now that Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew is safely back on Earth it’s time for the SpaceX Crew-4 mission to depart to the International Space Station. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads: Dose Distribution Inside the ISS – 3D (DOSIS-3D): DOSIS passive…
Ligado Networks critics step up opposition as service launch nears
TAMPA, Fla. — Ligado Networks faces renewed calls to block its terrestrial wireless plans over GPS interference concerns as the company prepares to turn part of its network on as early as Sept. 30. Satellite operators Iridium, PlanetiQ and GeoOptics…
Cocoons Around Dying Stars Could Explain New Type of Stellar Explosions – Sky & Telescope
Cocoons surround the jets escaping a dying star in this illustration.Ore Gottlieb / Northwestern University Less than four years after astronomers first discovered a new and puzzling type of stellar explosions, they may have solved the riddle of the objects’…
Teams are Go for Axiom Mission 1 Undocking Tonight – Space Station
The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship that carried four Axiom Mission 1 astronauts to the space station is pictured docked to the Harmony module. At the conclusion of a weather briefing today, NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams elected to…
What’s in Store for the Next Decade of Planetary Science – Sky & Telescope
A planetary vision for the coming decade. The National Academies of Sciences It’s out. The planetary science community has released a report outlining a vision for the next decade. This decadal survey, the result of years of steering committees, white…
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder calls astronauts on space station for Earth Day chat (video)
Out of the billions of people on Earth, only a few hundred have ventured out past the bounds of our atmosphere into space. Iconic Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder recently reflected on this “incredibly rare” perspective to see Earth from…
Mass grave near besieged Ukrainian city Mariupol spotted from space (satellite photos)
Satellites have spotted another mass grave in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Virginia-based company Maxar Technologies released satellite photos of a newly excavated mass grave in the town of Bucha, which is near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Now, Maxar satellites have…