Reading Time: 2 minutes The reactions of NASA astrophysicists and engineers to the first images from the revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) go well beyond the thrill of new knowledge. The images “moved me, as a scientist, as an engineer, and as a human being,” said NASA deputy administrator and former astronaut Pamela Melroy. Thomas Zurbuchen, leader of NASA’s […]
Space
Posted inSpace
Key hurdle cleared in our return to the moon
Reading Time: < 1 minute Artemis, a NASA program intended to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972, recently took a significant step forward with the successful completion of tests on the Orion Launch Abort System motor in the desert near Promontory, Utah. Sitting atop the Orion spacecraft, the abort motor is designed to increase astronaut […]
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Perseverance rover captures stunning Martian eclipse
Reading Time: 2 minutes NASA has released footage of the clearest solar eclipse by a Martian moon ever recorded. Captured by the Perseverance Mars rover, the 40-second recording shows Phobos, the largest of the two Martian moons, crossing between the rover location and the Sun. The eclipse—sometimes called a transit because the apparent size of Phobos is much smaller […]
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Can we still make peace in space?
Reading Time: 6 minutes What a year for symbols of peace and progress. On Thursday, April 7, the UN General Assembly removed Russia from the Human Rights Council on which it had sat for weeks while displacing 10 million Ukrainians, internally and abroad. In the inadequacy of an international organization formed after World War II to sustain peace among […]
Posted inSpace
Look up or don’t look up: We probably won’t see the one that gets us
Reading Time: 3 minutes Our planet is tracing an elliptical orbit around a middle-aged star in the outer arm of an average galaxy. It’s been doing that for six billion years and will continue doing that for another six billion, at which point the star will explode. Then the Earth will stop doing that. There’s a chance that something […]
Posted inComedy
Scientific horoscope Sun March 20 – Sat March 26
Reading Time: 3 minutes The scientific horoscope this week covers renewable energy, spooky action, napping, and much more! Pisces You may feel like you’re swimming upstream this week. Renewable energy faces challenges, too. Gravity may just help solve solar and wind’s biggest problem. image by @worachatsodsri Aries This week will have you charging ahead, Aries. Scientists are also moving forward! […]
Posted inScience
Scientific horoscope for Sun March 6th – Sat March 12
Reading Time: 3 minutes The scientific horoscope this week will show you where the future of computers is headed, how to reduce plastic usage, and the latest news on climate change from the UN. Pisces Health will be on your mind, Pisces. You may feel fishy. Want some smart advice? Don’t get caught in the ever-growing net of pseudoscientific […]
Posted inReligion, Space
Silver-Bullet Argument #29: Because Christianity is as plausible as a flat earth
Reading Time: 10 minutes Let’s cobble together the best defense possible for the flat earth model. How similar is it to arguments for Christianity and Creationism?
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The death of Arecibo
Reading Time: 4 minutes In 2007, I saw the Arecibo Observatory for the first and last time. I was in Puerto Rico on a family vacation, and despite a packed schedule, I had to carve out time to see it. The town of Arecibo is a considerable drive from San Juan, where I was staying, and the observatory itself […]
Posted inVideo
Perspective: Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’
Reading Time: < 1 minute It was not part of the plan. On February 14, 1990, the Voyager I spacecraft was beyond Neptune, 3.7 billion miles from the Sun, when it turned and took a series of photos of the planets of our Solar System. Known as the Family Portrait series, the images were not part of the original mission […]