Apollo 11 At 50

The National Air and Space Museum has opened an Apollo 11 exhibit.

Thia year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing.

Growing Glacierr

A new study finds a glacier on Greenland is growing, not shrinking, due to a colder North Atlantic current.

Scientists were surprised, but say the growth is temporary.

Pence

Vice President Mike Pence has announced the U. S. should return astronauts to the Moon within five years.

He argues the U. S. must maintain its dominance in space.

Old Stars

Astronomers have found some of the oldest stars in the universe in the central bulge of the Milky Way.

The stars are 12.8 billion years old.

Chafee

Northrup Grumman is naming an ISS supply ship after astronaut Roger Chafee.

Chafee died in the Apollo 1 fire, never having reached space.

Speeding Up

The National Space Council, according to executive director Scott Pace, should push NASA to return to humans to the Moon sooner than planned.

Vice President Mike Pence chairs the NSC.

Pulsar

Scientists have found a pulsar streaking away from a supernova explosion at about 2.4 million miles an hour.

The explosion happened about 10,000 years ago.

Delay

Boeing is delaying the next unmanned test flight of its Starliner crew capsule.

That also delays the first manned flight.

Space Wars

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan says Russia and China see space as a battlefield.

He argues the U. S. needs to respond.

Bennu

Asteroid Bennu has lots of accessible water according to the OSIRIS-REx probe orbiting it.

That's good news for future space exploration.

Sideshow

Jeff Bezos is currently involved in a sex scandal and a divorce, and Elon Musk is battling the Securities and Exchange Commission over his use of tweets.

How those issues will affect humanity's move into space is unclear.

Lunar Rover

Japan is working with Toyota to build a huge, manned lunar rover that could be ready by 2029.

The rover would be solar powered, carry up to four people, and have a range of over 6,000 miles.

Closest Planet

What's the closest planet to Earth?  In terms of average distance from the Sun, it's Venus.

Due to orbital geometry, however, for most of the time, the planet physically closest to Earth  is Mercury.

DM Tau

DM Tau is a small, young star 470 light years away.

A new study finds two rings of material orbiting the star.  Planets might be forming.

Al And Steve

On this date, Albert Einstein was born, and Stephen Hawking passed away.

Between them, they gave us much of the universe we know.

Uranus

On this date in 1781, Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

It was the first planet discovered with a telescope.

Hopping Molecules

Data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that water molecules hop across the lunar surface.

The hopping is governed by the advance of heat throughout the long lunar day.

Water

A new study estimates there are between 100 and 400 billion gallons of water in near-Earth asteroids.

That's good news for future space explorers.

Possible Delay

The first launch of NASA's huge SLS rocket may be delayed again.  It's now set for 2020.

Originally, it was set for 2017.

Io

On this day in 1979, Voyager 1 discovered volcanic eruptions on Jupiter's moon, Io.

That clued scientists in that the moons of the gas giants might be very different than assumptions.

Hard On Mars

The drill bit on NASA's InSights lander has hit something hard below the surface of Mars.

Engineers are taking a couple weeks to determine how to proceed.

Kepler

NASA's Kepler planet hunting probe was launched ten years ago today.

Kepler has found more than 2,000 exoplanets, with more still to be confirmed.

Mars Water

A new study suggests huge impacts were responsible for the periods of surface water on Mars.

It probably weakens the case for life.

Rings

On this date in 1979, Voyager 1 discovered Jupiter's rings.

Since then, Uranus and Neptune have also been shown to have rings, which are likely transitory features.

Crew Dragon

SpaceX successfully launched its Crew Dragon capsule on an unmanned test flight this morning.

If all goes well, the company wants to begin flying astronauts as early as July.

Planet Nine

A new study holds Planet Nine, if it exists, will likely be found within a decade.

The study says it's likely 5 to 10 times as massive as Earth.