Falcon 9 ruptures during ascent
ISS suffers another loss of resupply cargo After a string of 18 successful launches to begin its pedigree, a Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by SpaceX suffered a catastrophic failure during its ascent to orbit on Sunday, June 28. The Falcon 9 rocket was attempting to loft the Dragon capsule and service trunk on the CRS-7 …
Planets may rejuvenate around dead stars
For a planet, this would be like a day at the spa. After years of growing old, a massive planet could, in theory, brighten up with a radiant, youthful glow. Rejuvenated planets, as they are nicknamed, are only hypothetical. But new research from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has identified one such candidate, seemingly looking billions …
NGC 1333: Stellar sparklers that last
While fireworks only last a short time here on Earth, a bundle of cosmic sparklers in a nearby cluster of stars will be going off for a very long time. NGC 1333 is a star cluster populated with many young stars that are less than 2 million years old – a blink of an eye in …
The thrill(e) on the Rille
Vocabulary • Depth: How deep the rille is. • Distance: How far from the edge of the rille to its center. • Rille: A collapsed lava tube that resembles a small canyon. • Rope Length: The amount of rope needed to descend Hadley Rille. • Rope Weight: The mass of the rope per standard length. …
Clusters of jewels shining in the night sky
Stellar Clusters are groups of stars that fall into two broad categories: Open Clusters or Globular Clusters. Both types of cluster are formed from gas clouds and dust coalescing into a multitude of stars, but this is where the commonality ends. Open Clusters Open Clusters can contain up to a thousand stars which are normally …
Omega Centauri
This issue it was a coin toss for the spotlight object between The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules and Omega Centauri. Omega Centauri won as it is the largest by far of the Globular Clusters and it has the potential to be seen by more people in both hemispheres. It is visible in Southern Europe …