All posts tagged: space

T-Minus: Counting down the top 10 space stories of 2024

T-Minus: Counting down the top 10 space stories of 2024

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. This is T-Minus, where Freethink counts down the biggest developments in space. For the last installment of 2024, Kristin Houser looked back on the 10 greatest space stories of that year. From a first-of-its-kind spacewalk to the recovery of a rocket that could one day take people to Mars, here’s what she found. SLIM’s moon landing An image of SLIM taken by Sora-Q, a tiny rover that joined the lander on its journey. (Credit: JAXA) In 1966, the USSR became the first nation to achieve a “soft” lunar landing, meaning one in which the spacecraft isn’t destroyed upon impact. On January 19, 2024, Japan became just the fifth nation in history to do the same, soft landing its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft on the lunar surface. The landing wasn’t perfect — SLIM hit the moon upside down — but the location was the most precise in history, …

As the US and China race to the Moon, these loopholes in space law could cause conflict

As the US and China race to the Moon, these loopholes in space law could cause conflict

Outer space is infinite, but that hasn’t stopped humans trying to impose their laws on it. There are more ways for people to travel to space than ever before, and the next few decades are likely to see the US and China sending humans to the Moon again. Both countries aim to set up long-term research stations on the lunar surface, a bit like there are now in Antarctica. But could disputes between these two countries – and potentially others, such as Russia or India – arise over where to locate bases on the lunar surface? And could the same happen over claims to the Moon’s resources, such as the water ice located in craters at the lunar poles? Countries will want to extract this ice because it can be turned into rocket fuel for onward journeys and for life support at their lunar bases. Indeed, the prospect of “space water wars” is actually nearer, timewise, than the prospect of providing clean drinking water to everyone in the developing world. But the legal arguments around …

How to Watch the Spectacular Quadrantids Meteor Shower Tonight

How to Watch the Spectacular Quadrantids Meteor Shower Tonight

The Orionids typically yield about 20 to 25 meteors per hour during their peak and are known for being particularly bright—many of the Orionids are fireball meteors. Like the Eta Aquariids, the Orionids are also debris left behind by Halley’s Comet. The Orionids appear to radiate from the constellation Orion, which rises around 11 pm local time and is highest in the sky just before dawn. The new moon falls on the night of October 21–22, and in the surrounding week the moon will set well before midnight, so you will have perfect viewing conditions to see this meteor shower. The Leonids (November–December) The Leonids are active from about November 3 to December 2. They have a sharp peak, producing the most meteors overnight from November 16 to November 17, according to the American Meteor Society. Other organizations, however, predict that this shower will peak from November 17 to November 18. During the Leonids’ peak, you can expect to see about 15 meteors per hour under dark skies. Although the Leonids produce fewer meteors than …

Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning hilariously recreate ‘holding space’ meme

Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning hilariously recreate ‘holding space’ meme

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning have recreated the “holding space” meme, which first went viral during Ariana Grande and Cynthia Ervio’s previous interview about Wicked. Fanning and Chalamet shared the hilarious moment during a recent interview with Out reporter Tracy E Gilchrist, who made headlines last month for her comments to Erivo about one of Wicked’s hit songs, “Defying Gravity.” In the initially bizarre interview, Gilchrist mentioned how she’d seen people in “queer media” taking the lyrics of the song and “really holding space with that.” Ervio responded that while she didn’t know this was happening, this was what she wanted. Grande then wrapped her hand around and tapped her friend’s finger. During her recent conversation with Fanning and Chalamet — who are the …

Limitless Space, Endless Motion | Sarah L. Kaufman

Limitless Space, Endless Motion | Sarah L. Kaufman

Ballet dancers, for their whole careers, train exhaustively under the scrutiny of teachers and coaches. Yet choreographers are left to teach themselves. It’s extraordinary when you think about it. Nothing like the structured, formal, centuries-old process for developing dancers exists for the creators of ballet’s lifeblood, the new work upon which this painstaking art depends. Dancers who want to try making a ballet cobble together their own systems of learning. They’re typically able to watch established choreographers at work in the studio by being cast in their new dances; they absorb lessons in composition from the rehearsal process and can find experts to give them feedback on their beginning efforts. It’s a sporadic, informal process of trial and error, relying largely on contact with working choreographers. None of this was possible for Alexei Ratmansky, who rose to prominence in the early 2000s and is perhaps the most important creator of ballets to emerge in the twenty-first century. Born in 1968 in Leningrad (as St. Petersburg was then known) to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian …

Day 25 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Most Distant Known Galaxy

Day 25 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Most Distant Known Galaxy

Day 25 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar December 25, 2024, 8 AM ET NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Olmsted, S. Carniani, JADES Collaboration Day 25 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: the most distant known galaxy. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have found a record-breaking distant galaxy observed just 290 million years after the Big Bang. In October 2023 and January 2024, an international team of astronomers used Webb to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program, obtaining a spectrum of the record-breaking galaxy featured in this image, highlighted by the small square at center, surrounded by an ocean of thousands of other galaxies. Merry Christmas, everyone! See this year’s full advent calendar here. Source link

How NASA Might Change Under Donald Trump

How NASA Might Change Under Donald Trump

Although the details remain in flux, the transition team reviewing NASA and its activities has begun to draft potential executive orders for changes to space policy under the Trump Administration. Sources familiar with the five people on the team, who have spent the last six weeks assessing the space agency and its exploration plans, were careful to note that such teams are advisory in nature. They do not formally set policy nor is their work always indicative of the direction an incoming presidential administration will move toward. Nevertheless, in trying to set clear goals for NASA and civil space policy, the ideas under consideration reflect the Trump administration’s desire for “big changes” at NASA, both in terms of increasing the effectiveness and velocity of its programs. Not Business as Usual The transition team has been grappling with an agency that has a superfluity of field centers—ten spread across the United States, as well as a formal headquarters in Washington, DC—and large, slow-moving programs that cost a lot of money and have been slow to deliver …

Stranded NASA astronauts send Christmas message from space | Science, Climate & Tech News

Stranded NASA astronauts send Christmas message from space | Science, Climate & Tech News

Astronauts stranded on the International Space Station over Christmas have sent a festive message back to Earth. Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore, Don Pettit and Nick Hague were launched into space on 5 June on what was due to be an eight-day test flight mission. But the Boeing-made Starliner spacecraft suffered several technical issues, including helium leaks and thruster failures, and has been unable to return since. In the video message, recorded on 23 December, Mr Hague says: “The holiday season, it’s about spending time with friends and family and loved ones – this year we’re going to be in orbit away from them, so we want to send our heartfelt merry Christmas and we hope you have a wonderful holiday.” Read more:Fastest object ever built orbits close to sunTesla recalls 700,000 cars over fault In the clip, the astronauts pass each other weightless candy canes, with Mr Hague adding: “We’re not the only ones who are going to spend time away from our families. “There’s a huge team on the ground that’s going to support …

Day 21 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Inside a Chaotic Nebula

Day 21 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Inside a Chaotic Nebula

Day 21 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar December 21, 2024, 11:31 AM ET NASA, ESA, STScI / AURA Day 21 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: inside a chaotic nebula. Sharpless 2-106 is a nebula several light-years across, seen here by Hubble in 2011. It lies 2,000 light-years away, in a relatively isolated region of the Milky Way galaxy. A massive young star is responsible for the furious activity we see inside the nebula. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts as a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an hourglass shape. See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25. Source link

Day 20 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Galactic Chain

Day 20 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Galactic Chain

ESA / Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA Day 20 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a galactic chain. This Hubble image features an interacting galaxy system known as Arp-Madore 2105-332, that lies about 200 million light-years from Earth. This image also reveals several further galaxies, not associated with this system but fortuitously positioned in such a way that they appear to be forming a line that approaches the leftmost component of Arp-Madore 2105-332. See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25. Source link