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Saturn makes closest approach to Earth. What to know for Saturn season

Saturn makes closest approach to Earth. What to know for Saturn season

Saturn will soon make its closest approach to the Earth for the year. This event will happen on Oct. 4 when Saturn will be 784 million miles away.

Hubble Space Telescope Discovers New Decagon Wave Pattern in Saturn's Southern Atmosphere

Hubble Space Telescope Discovers New Decagon Wave Pattern in Saturn's Southern Atmosphere

Astronomers utilizing images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have identified a previously unobserved 10-sided wave pattern, or decagon, in Saturn's southern atmosphere. This discovery, detailed in a recent study published in Science Advances, was made through data collected as part of Hubble’s Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which annually images outer planets to study their atmospheric compositions and evolution. The research also incorporated observations from ground-based telescopes, including the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. Unlike Saturn's well-known northern hexagonal atmospheric structure, which remains largely fixed, the newly found southern decagon exhibits an eastward migration and oscillates every 32 days, suggesting it behaves more like a meandering wave across multiple atmospheric layers. This feature was not observed by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its mission from 2004 to 2017, indicating it is a recent development.

NASA's LRO Discovers 'Once-in-a-Century' Moon Crater, Reveals Surface Changes

NASA's LRO Discovers 'Once-in-a-Century' Moon Crater, Reveals Surface Changes

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has identified the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system on the Moon’s eastern edge. Named McGetchin crater after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, it formed between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when a comet or asteroid, estimated to be the size of a three- to six-story building, impacted the lunar surface. The crater measures 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist with Intuitive Machines working with LROC data, discovered the crater during a routine data-quality check by comparing before and after images of the Moon. Scientists estimate that an impact of this magnitude occurs on the Moon approximately once a century or even less frequently. Further observations using LRO’s thermal instrument, Diviner, revealed a 4-mile-wide area around the crater that is about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night than its surroundings. This cooling effect is attributed to the impact fluffing up the regolith, makin...

Mystery Object Streaks Across U.S. Skies, Likely Space Debris Re-entry

Mystery Object Streaks Across U.S. Skies, Likely Space Debris Re-entry

A bright, burning object was observed streaking across the skies from Kansas City to North Dakota in the early hours of Tuesday, between 2-3 a.m. KCTV5 meteorologists, including First Warn 5 chief meteorologist Luke Dorris, are investigating the phenomenon. The most probable explanation, given the duration of the fireball, is that the object was a rocket body or another man-made space object re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Such objects glow intensely due to their immense speed, estimated at around 15,000 mph, as they encounter atmospheric friction. While a meteor from the recently discovered Chi Cygnids meteor shower was considered, this theory is deemed highly unlikely because meteors rarely last longer than five seconds, whereas the observed object persisted for a longer duration.

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Star-Forming Pillar in Carina Nebula

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Star-Forming Pillar in Carina Nebula

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a detailed image of a prominent dust pillar within the Carina Nebula, a vast region of star formation in our Milky Way galaxy. This towering formation of interstellar gas and dust is being sculpted by the intense radiation and stellar winds emanating from nearby massive stars, including the luminous Eta Carinae system. Within this pillar, a compact cluster of approximately 70 young stars has been identified. The most massive among these stars are about 19 times the mass of our Sun. These young stars are estimated to be only 1.3 million years old, a relatively short period in cosmic terms, highlighting the dynamic and rapid processes of star birth occurring in this region.

Webb Can Observe the Entire Sky Over the Course of Six Months

Webb Can Observe the Entire Sky Over the Course of Six Months

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) represents a monumental leap forward in space-based astronomy, specifically designed to conduct infrared obse...

A new discovery could rewrite how Earth was born

A new discovery could rewrite how Earth was born

A surprising new study challenges long-held theories about Earth's formation, suggesting our planet was built entirely from local, inner Solar System materials.

The Corpus Christi Caller Times

After 3 years of tests, SpaceX targets Starship's first trip to orbit

After 3 years of tests, SpaceX targets Starship's first trip to orbit

SpaceX's Starship rocket has not reached orbit in more than three years of flight tests in Texas. That could be about to change in September.

NASA spacecraft discovers a huge new crater on the moon

NASA spacecraft discovers a huge new crater on the moon

Scientists have discovered a crater on the moon that's bigger than the Roman Colosseum, the result of a powerful impact two years ago

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Mysterious Changes in Chariklo's Rings

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Mysterious Changes in Chariklo's Rings

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) indicate mysterious changes in the rings surrounding Chariklo, a 'centaur' object located between Saturn and Uranus. Chariklo, approximately 400 miles in diameter, is a unique celestial body exhibiting characteristics of both asteroids and comets. Its rings were first discovered in 2013, marking it as the first small solar system body known to possess such a feature. Subsequent ground-based observations were made in 2014 and 2017. However, a JWST study published on September 9 in the journal Science Advances, based on 2022 observations, revealed significant differences over the past decade. Specifically, the inner ring of Chariklo shows a significantly higher opacity, while the outer ring exhibits lower opacity, a finding that challenges previous understandings of these ring systems.

New Research Indicates Mercury Has Shrunk More Than Previously Estimated

New Research Indicates Mercury Has Shrunk More Than Previously Estimated

Recent studies, utilizing improved maps and data from the MESSENGER mission, suggest that the planet Mercury has contracted significantly more than earlier estimates. The new data indicates a shrinkage of up to 14.5 miles in diameter, which is 10 to 30 percent greater than previous figures ranging from 2.5 to 10 miles. This contraction is primarily attributed to the ongoing cooling of Mercury's interior, specifically its iron core. As the core cools, the entire planet uniformly contracts, causing the outer rocky layers to buckle, crumple, and crack, forming tectonic features like scarps and ridges across its surface. The previous underestimation of shrinkage was partly due to Mercury's rough terrain, where impact debris obscured some of these contraction features. Lead author Gaku Nishiyama, a planetary scientist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Space Research, and his team compared global maps of Mercury’s surface roughness with maps of its contraction structures to arrive at these update...

The Corpus Christi Caller Times

Texas braces for next Starship launch as SpaceX eyes milestone

Texas braces for next Starship launch as SpaceX eyes milestone

SpaceX's next Starship flight could see the world's largest rocket reaching orbit for the first time in three years of tests at Starbase, Texas.