For decades, scientists believed the Moon was completely dry. This video explores how Apollo samples, Clementine, Lunar Prospector, Chandrayaan-1, LCROSS, LRO, and SOFIA gradually revealed the presence of water on the Moon and transformed our understanding of lunar science.
They are the oldest solid matter in existence and have travelled farther than anything else. They form the building blocks of galaxies, planets, and even us. We are all made of stardust. For more than a century, scientists have searched for the mysterious micrometeorites, but they have been found only in extremely clean, remote locations, such as Antarctic blue ice, or, more recently, in space.
On its quest to find Earth’s twin, NASA is designing a next-generation space telescope that will focus on one specific, audacious goal: to directly image potentially habitable worlds and scan them for chemical signatures of life. Lockheed Martin was recently selected by the space agency to continue advancing next-gen technologies and architecture studies for this ambitious planet-hunting mission.
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is planned to be a large aperture space telescope specifically engineered to identify Earth-like planets. NASA is working on the HWO concept using lessons learned from its predecessors like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It will combine the large-stature segmented mirror philosophy of JWST with the optical wavelengths of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), all while incorporating the coronagraph advancements being tested on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, slated for launch on August 30.
While a launch isn’t expected until the late 2030s or early 2040s, the rigorous groundwork being done today by NASA and industrial partners like Lockheed Martin represents the critical first steps. The North Bethesda-based aerospace giant is involved in the development of HWO under a study called Technology Maturation for Astrophysics Space Telescopes, or TechMAST.
“Lockheed Martin has steadily contributed to different phases of research and development for HWO, securing four different contracts for TechMAST maturation since 2018,” Tat’yana Berdan, Lockheed Martin spokesperson told Universelost.com.
It says "No Piracy" but what's the proper way to watch Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey outside US then? Since my kid was born Ive been waiting for him to grow until I can play Cosmos for him, now it's the time but it's impossible to do so from Spain.
So, before I "violate" the rule #1: What options do I have?
Hi all,
I created this as a kind of modern expansion of Carl Sagan’s Encyclopedia Galactica idea from Cosmos.
I’m not trying to improve on the original or say this is better than Sagan’s version.
I just wanted to imagine what an outside civilization might write if they assessed humanity today, especially our unstable mix of intelligence, creativity, conflict and unpredictability.
What do you all think? Does it fit the spirit of the original, or does it come across too dark?
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has largely operated on a single, fragile assumption: that if advanced aliens are out there, they want to talk to us. Traditional SETI programs spend millions of hours listening for deliberate radio broadcasts or scanning the skies for flashing laser beams. So maybe instead of waiting to catch a radio signal, we should look for the heat produced by advanced alien civilizations?
Jason T. Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) started over a decade ago the G-HAT (Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies) project. Rather than trying to eavesdrop on alien conversations, this innovative “Dysonian” SETI method relies on a much more reliable metric: the unbending laws of thermodynamics. It suggests that no matter how secretive or advanced an alien civilization becomes, it cannot hide its waste heat.
“Veni, Vidi, Vici” is a famous phrase attributed to Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Empire, describing his quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela, 47 BC. But when NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches later this summer AD 2026, its mission won’t be to conquer territories, but to capture them on a cosmic scale. Armed with a field of view 100 times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, this next-generation powerhouse is designed to see more of the universe in a single snapshot than ever before possible.