ALH84001

A new study finds the famous Mars meteorite ALH84001 contains both organics and nitrogen.

The debate about whether it harbors evidence of Martian life continues.

ATLAS

Comet ATLAS has broken into several pieces about 91 million miles from Earth.

Astronomers were able to observe the process using the Hubble.

UFO

The Pentagon has declassified video clips of U, S. Navy pilots' interactions with UFOs in 2004 and 2015.

The clips had already been made public by UFO researchers.

Cyclic Universe?

A fundamental concern of both philosophy and science is understanding what happened before the Big Bang.

A new study brings the theory of the cyclic universe-- big bang followed inevitably by contraction into a big crunch that bounces into another big bang, etc.  The study argues the mathematics of the theory, so far a sticking point, can be made to work.

Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in space for thirty years now.

After a rocky start that necessitated a dramatic repair mission, HST has literally changed the way we view the universe.

Life

New modeling suggests it is extremely unlikely that life arose spontaneously in the observable universe.  The odds are simply too long.

It's still possible, however, that life could have arisen in that part of the universe that we cannot observe.

Earthrise

This week saw the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day.

Apollo 8's famous "Earthrise? photograph played a major role in bringing the environmental movement to the wider public.

Iran

Iran has put another satellite into orbit.

The West is concerned that rockets capable of reaching space can also be used as ICBMs.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates is sending astronauts to Moscow later this year to participate in an eight month long, NASA supported Mars analog mission.

The UAE intends to send people to Mars.

Titanic Dust Devils

A new study suggests there maybe dust devils on Saturn's huge moon, Titan.

There, however, the "dust" might be organic material.

T Minus 38 Days

NASA has set the date for the first manned launch for SpaceX to be May 27.

It will be the first manned launch from the U. S. in nine years.

Space Wars

Russia tested an anti-satellite missile this week that could destroy satellites in low Earth orbits.

Increasingly, space is being seen as a possible, perhaps inevitable, theater of war.

Kepler-1649c

Astronomers mining Kepler data have found a world that is nearly Earth's twin in mass and that lies within its star habitable zone.

Kepler 1649c orbits a red dwarf 300 light years away.

Perspective

Unisedhealth reported quarterly revenues this morning of over $64 billion.

That's triple NASA's annual budget.

Lunar Landing

Intuitive Machines has chosen an area in the Ocean of Storms as the site of its first lunar landing.

Launch of the probe is scheduled for October, 2021.

April 12

Yesterday marked the anniversary of both the first manned spaceflight and, twenty years after that, the first space shuttle flight.

Remarkable progress in sheer technological terms.

Ozma

On this date in 1960, Frank Drake began the first SETI search.

Known as Project Ozma, that search found no aliens, nor has SETI since, but the search continues.

Hope

The first interplanetary mission of the United Arab Emirates is set to launch to Mars in July.

The probe is called Hope.

Expanding Universe

A new study suggests different parts of the universe might be expanding at different rates.

That would turn cosmology on its head.

Samples

The current coronavirus pandemic could question the wisdom of bringing rock samples that could contain alien biology from Mars to Earth.

NASA and Europe are planning to do that in the 2030s.

Nuclear Power

Private companies are pushing for NASA to adopt nuclear power for future deep space manned missions.

Nuclear propulsion could cut transit times to Mars in half, for instance.

Enceladus

Scientists are urging NASA to mount a mission to Enceladus in search of life.

Enceladus has a huge water ocean within its icy shell.

Artemis Base Camp

Yesterday, NASA released a report describing the Artemis Base Camp it plans for the Moon later this decade.

The ABC will serve as the foundation for continuing lunar operations, extensive exploration of the lunar surface, and as a testbed for technologies and strategies to be used in the early exploration of Mars.

SpaceX Failure

A Starship prototype collapsed during pressure tests last night.

This is the third prototype to collapse during a pressure test.

Lunar Landers

NASA's next two lunar landers are still in schedule for 2021 launches.

The landers are being built by Astrobotics and Intuitive Machines.

Galaxies

A new study of 200 globular clusters around the Milky Way argues our galaxy has absorbed five smaller galaxies over its history.

In the far future, the Milky Way will also collide with the Andromeda Galaxy.