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Happy Wednesday, space fans
We are halfway there, and what a half a week it has already been. Hot off the presses, NASA's New Horizons space probe has woken up nearly 6 billion miles away from Earth. The probe is now well past Pluto and, after nearly a year of hibernation, it is back online and functioning well. Does it remember us? What's it like 6 billion miles away? We're eager to see what's next with New Horizons.
In bittersweet news, Canada's Jeremy Hansen, an Artemis 2 astronaut who captured the world's attention and hearts during this most recent mission, has announced his retirement as an astronaut. Hansen is stepping down from active astronaut duty, meaning we will not see him on another Artemis mission. But while we will miss him as an active astronaut, we can respect this very personal decision and we're curious what he will get up to next. We also have some cutting words from NASA's former administrator on the agency's moon lander plans, a rare look at Earth's quasi-moon, and a new study has found that the Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms are actually wider than we thought, totally changing our view of our galaxy and its structure!
Check out what's big in space below:
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The Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen will step back from active astronaut service in September for a new role.
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Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine questions the designs for NASA's commercial moon landers for its Artemis program.
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China's Tianwen-2 probe beamed home a photo of its target, asteroid 2016HO3, also known as quasi-moon Kamo'oalewa.
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Astronomers used cosmic explosions to find that we may be wrong about our own galaxy.
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When the sun swells into a red giant about 5 billion years from now, Earth may escape being swallowed by the dying star, a new study suggests.
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Roman is in Florida, getting ready for its August liftoff.
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'Project Hail Mary' blasted off onto Prime Video starting on July 3.
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That's it for our space update today!
I understand if you're still bummed about Jeremy Hansen stepping down from active astronaut duty, but don't worry there will be lots more astronaut fun as we gear up for Artemis III, Artemis IV landing on the moon (!!!) and even more moon-tastic missions. Coming up, we are excitedly looking forward to the 50th anniversary of NASA's Viking 1 lander, the first successful Mars lander in history (if you don't count the Soviet Mars lander that lasted mere seconds on the surface before losing communication).
There is some spectacular skywatching on the horizon as well. For those in the NYC-area, this weekend you will have your second (and last) chance to see Manhattanhenge this year. Don't worry, it happens every year so this isn't your last time ever to see the spectacle, but if you're in the area we highly recommend making a pit stop. We are also counting down to a total solar eclipse, and we will get to live vicariously through some Space.com correspondents around the world who will take us along with them to experience totality together. And to stay as in the loop as possible, you can now get Space.com right in the palm of your hand with our new app available now on iOS and Android.
Ad astra, per aspera
Chelsea Gohd
Content Manager, Space.com
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