"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"Correction: It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum. The 'Times' regrets the error."
NY Times, July 1969.

— New York Times

Astronomy

How to spot the lunar X and V

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Time it right each month, and you can spot two fleeting tricks of light on the lunar surface. Abigail Beall is planning ahead
Categories: Astronomy

How to spot the lunar X and V

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Time it right each month, and you can spot two fleeting tricks of light on the lunar surface. Abigail Beall is planning ahead
Categories: Astronomy

Let's nitpick about the physics of Stranger Things, not its ending

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Feedback has seen all the fuss about the finale of Stranger Things, but would like to point out that if we're going to dissect the plot, we have bigger things to worry about
Categories: Astronomy

Let's nitpick about the physics of Stranger Things, not its ending

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Feedback has seen all the fuss about the finale of Stranger Things, but would like to point out that if we're going to dissect the plot, we have bigger things to worry about
Categories: Astronomy

Peter F. Hamilton's latest is an epic slice of sci-fi – with one flaw

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Peter F. Hamilton’s new book A Hole in the Sky is set on a troubled ark ship hundreds of years into its voyage, with fantastic plot twists and turns. I'm a big Hamilton fan, but one aspect of the novel proved alienating for me, says Emily H. Wilson
Categories: Astronomy

Peter F. Hamilton's latest is an epic slice of sci-fi – with one flaw

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Peter F. Hamilton’s new book A Hole in the Sky is set on a troubled ark ship hundreds of years into its voyage, with fantastic plot twists and turns. I'm a big Hamilton fan, but one aspect of the novel proved alienating for me, says Emily H. Wilson
Categories: Astronomy

New Scientist recommends Avatar: Fire and Ash – especially the whale

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
Categories: Astronomy

Can we battle the downsides of a rule-based world, asks a new book

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Imposing order on the world is seductive, but it flattens out the diversity and rich messiness of human life. Oddly, playing by the rules may help us fight back, argues C. Thi Nguyen in The Score
Categories: Astronomy

New Scientist recommends Avatar: Fire and Ash – especially the whale

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
Categories: Astronomy

Can we battle the downsides of a rule-based world, asks a new book

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Imposing order on the world is seductive, but it flattens out the diversity and rich messiness of human life. Oddly, playing by the rules may help us fight back, argues C. Thi Nguyen in The Score
Categories: Astronomy

The internet feels super lonely right now. Here's why

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Almost 80 years ago, sociologists identified a new personality type that is particularly sensitive to loneliness. It's even more relevant today, says Annalee Newitz
Categories: Astronomy

The internet feels super lonely right now. Here's why

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
Almost 80 years ago, sociologists identified a new personality type that is particularly sensitive to loneliness. It's even more relevant today, says Annalee Newitz
Categories: Astronomy

We were wrong about being able to 'nudge' people to improve the world

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
We thought we could address big social problems by steering individual behaviour. But "nudging" people doesn't work, say behavioural scientists Nick Chater and George Loewenstein
Categories: Astronomy

We were wrong about being able to 'nudge' people to improve the world

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm
We thought we could address big social problems by steering individual behaviour. But "nudging" people doesn't work, say behavioural scientists Nick Chater and George Loewenstein
Categories: Astronomy

New JWST images show Helix Nebula in astonishing clarity

Scientific American.com - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 1:00pm

A fresh look at the Helix Nebula captures new details of the cycle of stellar life and death

Categories: Astronomy

NASA’s Artemis II Rocket and Spacecraft Make Their Way to Launch Pad

NASA Image of the Day - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 12:39pm
NASA's massive Crawler-Transporter, upgraded for the Artemis program, carried the agency's SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft on the Mobile Launcher from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the Artemis II mission.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Radio Telescopes on the Moon Could Let Us Observe Dozens of Black Hole Shadows

Universe Today - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 11:21am

The resolution of the Event Horizon Telescope is limited by the diameter of Earth, and our observations of the black hole in M87 and in our own galaxy are at the edge of that limit. To observe other, more distant black holes we will need radio telescopes on the Moon.

Categories: Astronomy

Oldest cave art ever found discovered in Indonesia

Scientific American.com - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 11:12am

Beating the previous record for the oldest known cave artwork by at least 15,000 years, a hand stencil in an Indonesian cave might shed light on when early humans migrated to Australia

Categories: Astronomy

Our earliest vertebrate ancestors may have had four eyes

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 11:00am
Extraordinary fossils of 518-million-year-old jawless fish, among the earliest known vertebrates, appear to show that these animals had two pairs of eyes
Categories: Astronomy

Our earliest vertebrate ancestors may have had four eyes

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 01/21/2026 - 11:00am
Extraordinary fossils of 518-million-year-old jawless fish, among the earliest known vertebrates, appear to show that these animals had two pairs of eyes
Categories: Astronomy