Topic: Solar Systems
Suni Williams Breaks Women’s Spacewalk Record

Suni Williams Breaks Women’s Spacewalk Record

NASA astronaut Suni Williams conducts spacewalk The US Human presence in space is supposed to be flying back and forth form the ISS on a combo of SpaceX and Boeing crew capsules. Unfortunately, was undermined by it’s own failures to deliver on time and a myriad of valve issues. Space is hard.  This means that NASA has blown through the provisioned flights it could take on it’s 2 crew dragons. The crew dragon currently attached to ISS is about done, and the last one to return to Earth has been retired. In December, NASA announced it would be spring at the earliest before a new Crew...

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Protecting Historic Sites on Earth, Moon, and Mars

Protecting Historic Sites on Earth, Moon, and Mars

Dominion Observatory in Ottawa Our planet is dotted with old observatories and astronomical research centers that are no longer capable of doing science. Either their equipment is too small, their skies too bright, or both. Both is always an option. I've been lucky...

Ryugu Sample Supports Invading Life

Ryugu Sample Supports Invading Life

Ryugu samples showing signs of bacteria contamination. Trying to understand the evolution of planets and life is really a driving motivation for a lot of science and science fiction. Landing squarely in the “I think I read a horror story about this,” scientists found...

Io Doesn’t Actually Have a Gooey Center

Io Doesn’t Actually Have a Gooey Center

Collapsed volcanoes form large, dark spots on Io's surface, NASA/JPL/USGS One of our greatest frustrations as a science, is we astronomical and planetary scientists can’t do the same kind of experiments that other kinds of scientists get to do. We look at things from...

Dark Comet Numbers on the Rise

Dark Comet Numbers on the Rise

Oumuamua illustration by Stuart Rankin Humans like to label things. In general, this works out for us. If you go to a furniture store and ask for a sofa, they will show you things multiple people can sit on that are clearly sofas. Ask for a chair, and they will show...

Volcanic Moon Orbiting Distant World

Volcanic Moon Orbiting Distant World

Let’s look at a world 635 lightyears away that just might have a fiery moon of volcanic goodness. To be honest, every aspect of this system is hot. The star is similar our Sun, but the planet is on an 2.8 day orbit around that star, and this orbit makes Mercury look...

Closer Look: Mars is the Future

Closer Look: Mars is the Future

Since Mars Spirit and Opportunity first set down on Mars in 2004, there has been a continuous robotic presence on the Red Planet. The Phoenix and Insight Landers have answered specific questions about Mars composition and interior, while a small herd of rovers have...