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Apollo 12 Launched 50 Years Ago Today
The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 was a huge celebration, and Apollo 13 may be an equally big commotion. Apollo 12 is tough sell in the middle. Even the Virginia Air & Space Center, which houses the Apollo 12 capsule, uses photographs of Apollo 11 to advertise. Ouch. This unique mission and its important contribution …
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Molecular Oxygen on Mars is Behaving Unusually Through the Seasons. A Sign of Life?
An atmospheric drama has been playing out on Mars lately. Up until now, the main actor has been methane, and its unusual, spiking behaviour. But now Oxygen is taking the stage, and performing some theatrics of its own. NASA’s Curiosity rover is busy examining Mars to see if it could have supported microbial life in …
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What’s the Best Way to Sail From World to World? Electric Sails or Solar Sails?
A new study compares two potential means of interstellar exploration, which could have implications for both space exploration and the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
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Mars 2020 Rover is Going to a Place on Mars That’s Perfect for Preserving Fossils
Back in November 2018, NASA announced that the Mars 2020 rover would land in the Jezero Crater. Jezero Crater is a geologically diverse area, with an alluvial fan of sediment deposited by an incoming river. That sediment may contain preserved ancient organic molecules, and the deposit is clearly visible in satellite images of the Crater. …
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Weekly Space Hangout: November 13, 2019 – Dr. Rory Barnes talks VPLanet
Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Sondy Springmann (@sondy) Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter) Veranika Klimovich ( @VeronikaSpace) This week we welcome Dr. Rory Barnes to the Weekly Space Hangout. Rory is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington. He is also a member of …
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Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun Has At Least One Planet
Do you wonder how astronomers find all those exoplanets orbiting stars in distant solar systems? Mostly they use the transit method. When a planet travels in between its star and an observer, the light from the star dims. That’s called a transit. If astronomers watch a planet transit its star a few times, they can …
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Carnival of Space #637
Welcome to the 637th Carnival of Space! The Carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers, who submit their best work each week for your benefit. We have a fantastic roundup today so now, on to this week’s worth of stories! Universe Today: Our Guide to the November 11th, 2019 Transit …
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November Meteors: Taurids, Leonids and a Surprise Monocerotids Outburst
For the northern hemisphere observers, November is fireball season. This month, keep an eye out for two sure-fire annual meteor showers, and—just maybe—a wild card outburst from the obscure Alpha Monocerotids worth watching out for.
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SpaceX Launches Another 60 Starlink Satellites
In May of 2019, Elon Musk began delivering on his promise to create a constellation of satellites (named Starlink) that would offer broadband internet access. It all started with the launch of the first sixty Starlink satellites and was followed by Musk sending the inaugural tweet using the service this past October. Earlier today, another …
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Watch a Simulation of a Galaxy, From the Big Bang Until the Present Day
The large-scale and highly-detailed TNG50 simulation has allowed scientists to shed new light on the evolution of the cosmos and galaxies.
The post Watch a Simulation of a Galaxy, From the Big Bang Until the Present Day appeared first on Universe Today.
