‘City-Killer’ Asteroid has a Small—but Non-Zero—Risk of Striking Earth in 2032
A sizable “city-killer” asteroid that was discovered late last year has been calculated to have a one in 77 chance of striking the Earth just eight years from now, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Although the chance of impact is still very low, the object’s higher than one percent chance of impacting the […]
The Sun is Expected to Enter a ‘Battle Zone’ After the Crescendo of Solar Maximum
The Sun will soon enter a so-called ‘battle zone’ phase that is expected to follow this solar cycle’s maximum, according to newly-formed space weather prediction company Lynker Space. Although this phase stabilizes the swarm of magnetic fields across the surface of the Sun, it also increases the chance that large coronal holes might form—and the […]
Astronomers Have Discovered a ‘Tunnel’ of Hot Gases Extending Out From Our Region of Space
Astronomers with Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics has discovered a strange interstellar “tunnel” of hot gases that stretches out for hundreds of light years from our region of space, a relatively empty pocket of space that the Sun is currently travelling through, toward the constellation Centaurus. Estimated to be roughly 1,000 light years […]
The Launching of the World’s First Wooden Satellite Possibly Opens an Era of Sustainable Spacecraft
An unusual collaboration between Kyoto University and Japanese homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry has delivered the world’s first orbital satellite made primarily of wood to the International Space Station, as the focus of an experiment that may herald the end of the use of aluminum as the main ingredient in spacecraft construction. Using such an unconventional material […]