Mars

Preparations have continued to go smoothly for next month’s targeted launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission to the Red Planet. The mission includes a car-sized rover as well as the first helicopter to ever be sent to another planet. The rover’s primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial life, as well as …

HistoryIce and StoneWeek 24

JUNE 7, 2013: A team led by Dutch astronomer Nienke van der Marel announces their discovery of a planet-forming – and comet-forming – disk of material surrounding the young star Oph-IRS 48 in the constellation Ophiuchus, using data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile. An ALMA image of this disk …

CometIce and StoneWeek 24

Perihelion: 2022 December 19.67, q = 1.797 AU  I’ve hinted in some of the earlier presentations of “Ice and Stone 2020” that, for the past few years, we have been in a slow period when it comes to bright comets. Indeed, for “Great Comets” – discussed in a previous “Special Topics” presentation – the most …

Ice and StoneTopicWeek 24

Although they may not be as big a presence in our overall human culture and literature as the moon and the other planets of our solar system are, the “small bodies” of our solar system are nevertheless present. There a number of misperceptions about them, perhaps more so than there are for the planets.  Consider, …

MarsWord Games

NASA is upping its game with the next mission to the Red Planet. The Mars 2020 mission will include a car-size rover based largely on the design of the Curiosity rover. Also attaching a ride to Mars with the new rover is a small helicopter that will test powered flight on another world for the …

Human SpaceflightISSSpaceX

A pair of veteran NASA astronauts flying aboard a commercial SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft safely docked at the International Space Station ISS) this Sunday morning just 19 hours after the first human launch from US soil for the first time in nine years on a history-making and flawless blastoff from the Florida Space Coast. NASA …

Human SpaceflightRocket LaunchSpaceX

NASA astronauts launched from American soil for the first time in nine years and accomplished the history-making event aboard a commercial SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft soaring from the Florida space coast and bound for the International Space Station (ISS) – to the cheers of tens of thousands of spectators gathered from around America and three …

HistoryIce and StoneWeek 23

MAY 31, 2020: Comet ATLAS C/2019 Y4 will pass through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.25 AU. A previous “Comet of the Week,” Comet ATLAS initially showed potential for becoming a bright object, but it now appears to have all but disintegrated as it has approached perihelion. It is traveling in the same orbit …

CometIce and StoneWeek 23

C/1998 K10’s Perihelion: 1998 June 1.88, q = 0.006 AU C/1998 K11’s Perihelion: 1998 June 2.06, q = 0.005 AU  Various previous “Ice and Stone 2020” presentations have discussed the impact that the joint NASA/ESA SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission – and in particular the onboard LASCO C2 and C3 coronagraphs – has had …

Ice and StoneTopicWeek 23

For many people, one of the most fascinating periods of Earth’s natural history is the Mesozoic Era, which spanned from roughly 252 million years ago to 66 million years ago. This period of time is often called the “Age of Dinosaurs,” and indeed these large reptiles were the dominant animals on Earth for well over …