ScientistPankaj: Rare 'polar rain' aurora seen from Earth for the first time

Friday, July 5, 2024

Rare 'polar rain' aurora seen from Earth for the first time

NASA astronauts send 4th of July message to Earth | Space Quiz! What is a Pulsar? | 10 tips for planning your 2026 solar eclipse trip

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July 5, 2024

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The Launchpad

NASA astronauts send 4th of July message to Earth

(NASA)

The six NASA astronauts who are living off planet at the moment just beamed a special birthday message down to their home country. Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Jeanette Epps, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore each took a turn at the mic, saying a few words about the Fourth of July from their perch aboard the International Space Station (ISS), about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.

Full Story: Space (7/4)

Space Quiz! What is a Pulsar?

Learn the answer here!

a spinning neutron star

a red giant star

a planetary nebula

an exoplanet in its star's habitable zone

10 tips for planning your 2026 solar eclipse trip

(Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

Are you ready for the next total solar eclipse? As soon as the April 2024, eclipse across North America was over, eclipse chasers turned their attention to planning for the next one, which will be on Aug. 12, 2026. It will be the first total solar eclipse visible from Europe since 2015 and the first in mainland Europe since 1999. However, only five countries will experience totality -- when the moon's shadow completely blocks the sun's face -- on Aug. 12, 2026. That day, the sun will rise totally eclipsed from a remote part of Siberia in Russia before the moon's umbra moves across eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain, clipping a tiny part of northeastern Portugal.

Full Story: Space (7/4)

Skywatching

Rare 'polar rain' aurora seen from Earth for the first time

(sarawut via Getty Images)

A remarkably smooth and puzzling Christmas Day aurora observed over the Arctic in 2022 was the result of a 'rainstorm' of electrons direct from the sun, says Japanese and US-based researchers. It is the first time that a rare aurora of this kind has been seen from the ground, and it came at a time when the gusts of the solar wind had almost completely dropped off, leaving a region of calm around the Earth.

Full Story: Space (7/4)

Spaceflight

NASA's lunar space station comes to life in new 3D video

(NASA)

Right now, engineers are busy crafting the first components of what will eventually become the Gateway space station. One day, if all goes according to plan, Gateway will serve as the first space station in lunar orbit, and the moon's first genuine transport hub. Though it isn't planned to be permanently inhabited, this station is being built to serve as a forward base for astronauts on Artemis moon missions through the 2030s and beyond.

Full Story: Space (7/5)

Science & Astronomy

'Extreme' neutron star discovered by Navy research intern

(NASA/National Radio Astronomy Observatory/NRL/Texas Tech)

A rapidly spinning neutron star that sweeps beams of radiation across the universe like a cosmic lighthouse has been discovered by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Remote Sensing Division intern Amaris McCarver and a team of astronomers.

Full Story: Space (7/5)

Search for Life

We could terraform Mars - but does that mean we should?

(Daein Ballard, CC BY-SA)

A desert moss could be the key to terraforming Mars, according to a recent study published by Chinese scientists.

Full Story: Space (7/3)

Entertainment

Starmus 2025 returning to Canary Islands

(Starmus)

The ambitious science and music festival Starmus will return to the Canary Islands in April 2025 for a historic edition, both for the festival and the island of La Palma.

Full Story: Space (7/4)