"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

<p><a href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod

APOD - Thu, 07/24/2025 - 12:00am


Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Betelgeuse Isn't Alone. It Has A Very Dim Companion

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 10:04pm

Astronomers have discovered a companion star in an incredibly tight orbit around Betelgeuse using the NASA and U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ‘Alopeke' instrument on Gemini North, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the NSF and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This discovery answers the longstanding mystery of the star’s varying brightness and provides insight into the physical mechanisms behind other variable red supergiants.

Categories: Astronomy

New Horizons Could Find Its Way to Proxima Centauri if it Wanted

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 10:04pm

The New Horizons spacecraft is humanity's fastest-moving spacecraft and headed to interstellar space. Since its exploration of Pluto 10 years ago and subsequent flyby of Arrokoth in 2019, it's been traversing and studying the Kuiper Belt while looking for other flyby objects. That's not all it's been doing, however. New Horizons also has an extended program of making heliophysics observations. The mission science team has also planned astrophysical studies with the spacecraft's instruments. Those include measuring the intensity of the cosmic optical background and taking images of stars such as Proxima Centauri. As the spacecraft moves, the apparent positions of its stellar navigation targets have changed, but that hasn't bothered New Horizons one bit. It knows exactly where it is thanks to 3D observations of those nearby stars.

Categories: Astronomy

Are the JWST's Little Red Dots Actually Supermassive Black Hole Seeds?

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 10:04pm

What are the JWST's Little Red Dots? While they appear to be galaxies, there's no observational certainty. New research examines the idea that they're actually stars, suggesting that they're actually the progenitors for supermassive black holes.

Categories: Astronomy

How To Detect Magnetic Fields Around Exoplanets

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 10:04pm

Magnetic fields play an important, if sometimes underappreciated, part in planetary systems. Without a strong magnetic field, planets can end up as a barren wasteland like Mars, or they could indirectly affect massive storms as can be seen on Jupiter. However, our understanding of planetary magnetic fields are limited to the eight planets in our solar system, as we haven’t yet accrued much data on the magnetic fields of exoplanets. That could be about to change, according to a new preprint paper by a group of research scientists from Europe, the US, India and the UAE.

Categories: Astronomy

Scientists are Planning for Life After Finding Aliens

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 10:04pm

Just imagine it, the news stories are all over your phone when you wake! The day will surely come that we will discover that we are not alone in the Universe! What happens the day after though? A new research paper from the SETI Post Detection Hub at the University of St Andrews tackles this question, outlining how NASA and the global scientific community should prepare for the moment humanity detects signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Categories: Astronomy

Walking 7000 steps a day seems to be enough to keep us healthy

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 7:30pm
Many people like to check that they have walked 10,000 steps over the course of a day, but falling short of that target still seems to bring serious health benefits
Categories: Astronomy

Walking 7000 steps a day seems to be enough to keep us healthy

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 7:30pm
Many people like to check that they have walked 10,000 steps over the course of a day, but falling short of that target still seems to bring serious health benefits
Categories: Astronomy

2 Earth weather satellites accidentally spy on Venus

Space.com - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 5:00pm
Japan's Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 satellites, designed to study weather here on Earth, have also been quietly collecting valuable data on Venus for nearly a decade, scientists recently discovered.
Categories: Astronomy

New Neil Armstrong Prize to honor achievements in space

Space.com - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 4:00pm
Purdue University's new Neil Armstrong Space Prize, named for the school's most famous astronaut-alum, will honor achievements in "space discovery, innovation and human achievement."
Categories: Astronomy

Remarkable set of tracks suggests different dinosaurs herded together

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 3:00pm
Late Cretaceous dinosaur tracks found in Canada might have been made by different species walking together, but the evidence is far from conclusive
Categories: Astronomy

Remarkable set of tracks suggests different dinosaurs herded together

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 3:00pm
Late Cretaceous dinosaur tracks found in Canada might have been made by different species walking together, but the evidence is far from conclusive
Categories: Astronomy

The secret to what makes colours pop on dazzling songbirds

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 3:00pm
Hidden layers of colour in the plumage of tanagers and some other songbirds explain what makes them so eye-catching
Categories: Astronomy

The secret to what makes colours pop on dazzling songbirds

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 3:00pm
Hidden layers of colour in the plumage of tanagers and some other songbirds explain what makes them so eye-catching
Categories: Astronomy

See Tianzhou 9 cargo mission dock at China's Tiangong space station (video)

Space.com - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 3:00pm
The Tianzhou 9 freighter arrived at China's Tiangong space station last week, packed with supplies. Watch its arrival in this video.
Categories: Astronomy

NASA Launches TRACERS Mission to Study Space Weather

Sky & Telescope Magazine - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 2:58pm

NASA’s TRACERS spacecraft will look at the snap of magnetic field lines at the boundary between the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field.

The post NASA Launches TRACERS Mission to Study Space Weather appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Categories: Astronomy

Cold Weather Alloy Opens New Possibilities for Space Technology

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 2:35pm

Scientists have achieved a breakthrough that could revolutionise space exploration with a "smart" metal alloy that remembers its shape even in the bone chilling cold of outer space. This remarkable copper based material can be twisted and deformed when cold, then automatically snap back to its original form when heated, maintaining this mechanical "memory" at temperatures as extreme as -200°C. The discovery solves a critical challenge that has limited spacecraft design for decades, opening the door to more reliable satellites, space telescopes, and future missions to the frozen reaches of our Solar System and beyond.

Categories: Astronomy

Seeing the Exact Moment When New Planets Started Forming

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 2:35pm

Astronomers have seen exoplanetary systems at almost every stage, from extremely young to older than the Solar System. But now, they've spotted the exact moment when planet formation is initiated around a young star. Meteorites store a history of when the first minerals formed in the Solar System, and the ALMA telescope has seen the signal of these minerals forming in a protostellar system, about 1,300 light-years from Earth.

Categories: Astronomy

What if a trip to space changed your eyesight forever?

Universe Today - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 2:35pm

NASA has discovered that 7 out of 10 astronauts returning from the International Space Station have been unable to see clearly, with vision problems that can last for years! As we prepare for multi year Mars missions, scientists are racing to solve this mysterious "space blindness" before it derails humanity's greatest journey. It seems the cause could be as simple as the effects of weightlessness and the distribution of fluids around the body. Thankfully, it seems there are some possible solutions to what could become one of our greatest health challenges as we reach out further among the planets.

Categories: Astronomy

The 25 best fictional robots – according to New Scientist

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 07/23/2025 - 2:00pm
From R2D2 to the Terminator via Bender and Johnny-5, we choose our favourite robots from books, films and television series
Categories: Astronomy