After ten months of space travel, NASA’s DART spacecraft arrived at the asteroid Didymos, targeted the moonlet Dimorphos, and successfully flung itself at the surface. Multiple observations confirm that the system brightened and even managed to resolve a cloud of debris. Plus, rocket launches, an update on the SLS, some broken physics, and International Observe the Moon Night.
Astronomers using the 1.2-meter Whipple Observatory to follow the brightness of a lensed galaxy for 14.5 years have calculated that the time delay between light arriving along the shortest and farthest paths is 6.73 years. Plus, DART, Hayabusa2, Juno, fast radio bursts, and This Week in Space History, we look back at NASA’s 1990s attempts to reach Mars.
With the release of JWST’s first science images behind us, we now catch up on all the rocket launches of the past few days. Meanwhile, Bennu continues to be a favorite research topic and is the subject of three new papers released this week. Plus, pulsar-orbiting planets, and this week in rocket history, we look back at GEOTAIL.
A star cataloged as Gliese 781 is approaching our solar system and in slightly more than a million years from now, will reach the Oort Cloud, likely disrupting the orbits of icy bodies that could head toward Earth. Plus, an Indian launch, Asteroid Day, understanding our ice giants, and a review of Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi.
Today we look at a trio of climate change stories, which are mostly bad news, although one study has discovered that African lakes are doing more sequestering of greenhouse gases than emissions. Plus, the CAPSTONE launch, meteorite crystals, and this week in rocket history, a mission that launched… but failed.
An analysis of the craters on Bennu’s surface provides evidence that the rubble pile asteroid is protected from smaller impacts by the boulders scattered on the surface. Plus, the SLS Wet Dress Rehearsal, dwarf galaxies around M81, and this week in rocket history, we look back at the X-15 hypersonic plane.
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