Science

File: A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX Update 10:15 a.m. EDT: SpaceX put this launch on hold for now. This story will be updated once the launch has been rescheduled. SpaceX is gearing up for its first Falcon 9 rocket launch from the West Coast in nine days with a mission to deliver …

Meteors from the Perseids Meteor Shower streak across a partly cloudy sky above Inyo National Forest in Bishop, California, in 2024. Preston Dyches/NASA hide caption toggle caption Preston Dyches/NASA The annual Perseids meteor shower will reach its peak next week. But astronomers say it won’t be as visible as it has been in recent years. A full moon is also …

Apollo 13 director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer paid tribute today to Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated moon mission on which they based their hit 1995 movie. The astronaut died Thursday at 97. “Jim Lovell was a true American hero whose courage, intellect and grace under pressure inspired a nation,” Grazer said in a statement. “He was not …

Four centuries from launch, a vast spacecraft could deliver thousands of people to a world orbiting the nearest star. The concept, called Chrysalis, is designed for one purpose — to take humanity to Proxima b, a rocky planet in the Proxima Centauri system that may be able to support life. Its creators picture a self-sufficient habitat where generations would live, …

A team of astronomers says it has identified the most distant black hole ever confirmed — a cosmic heavyweight that formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only about 3% of its current age. The discovery sets a new benchmark for how early supermassive black holes can form and raises questions about their origin …

There might be a huge planet lurking near one of the closest stars to Earth. NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has imaged a possible planet near Alpha Centauri A, a sun-like star that forms part of the triplet Alpha Centauri star group. The mini-cluster is just four light-years from Earth and is a rich ground for astronomers to learn …

Facebook Tweet Email Link The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses that embedded themselves into our genetic code over the course of human evolution. These ancient viruses lie …

The summer months offer a great time to view the night sky. Starting this weekend and into next week, there is a great opportunity to view a nighttime double-header, the unique alignment of six planets, and the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Thanks to clear skies in the coming days, you can see a unique planetary event set to …

Avi Loeb, the chair of the astronomy department at Harvard, has suggested that a Manhattan-sized interstellar object, which has been discovered speeding through our cosmic neighborhood, could have an alien origin. He has advised to stay ready as it “may come to save us or destroy us,” the Independent reported. The asteroid 31/ATLAS was first spotted by a Chile-based telescope.(Representative …

Tom Hanks People in entertainment Space programs Movies See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Tom Hanks is honoring the real-life hero that he once portrayed in a popular, Oscar-winning film. After the death of astronaut Jim Lovell was announced on Friday, Hanks shared a poignant social media post to his Instagram, writing, “There are people who dare, who dream, …