Astronomy

March 20, 2019

ISS Astronauts Adopt Adorable “Earthy” Toy as Their Next Recruit

On March 2nd, 2019, SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon spaceship into orbit for the first time, with the objective to dock on the International Space Station before returning to Earth. While the seven-person spaceship has been designed to carry NASA astronauts, no humans boarded the commercial mission (called Demo 1). Instead, the roughly six-day-long, unmanned demonstration carried a crash-test dummy named Ripley (named after the female protagonist in Alien)

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February 26, 2019

You Can Now Check the Daily Weather Report of Mars Thanks to NASA

NASA’s InSight Lander has been on Mars for just a few months, but it’s already making a big impact. Using cutting-edge instruments, it’s able to act like a Martian meteorologist, beaming back a weather report from the Red Planet. Wonder what the weather’s like right now on Mars? Bundle up tight. If you thought it was cold where you are, you haven’t experienced winter on Mars.

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February 5, 2019

Western Cuba Got Showered by Meteorites in Broad Daylight

This is it. Real stone from Viñales pic.twitter.com/AkWjkOQlHn — Yankier Paz (@YankierPaz) February 1, 2019 Residents of Viñales, a town in western Cuba, were in for a surprise on the afternoon of February 1, when a large plume of smoke appeared in the sky, followed by a loud boom. By all accounts, a meteorite had struck, causing an explosion and flashes of light.

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January 18, 2019

Astrophotographer Creates Incredible Photo of the Solar System from His Backyard

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy‘s love of outer space was sparked over 20 years ago while exploring the solar system through his father’s telescope. A few years ago, after finding a free telescope on Craigslist, his interest was renewed and he set down the difficult path of learning the technical aspects of astrophotography. Over time, his tenacity paid off, as exemplified by an incredible photograph of the solar system shot almost entirely in his backyard.

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