Tracking Trends, Breaking News
The launch of Boeing’s already delayed Starliner spacecraft is slipping at least four more days, from next Tuesday to May 25 because of ongoing work to resolve concerns about a small helium leak in the capsule’s propulsion system, officials said Friday. Mission commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams are now aiming for launch
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The giant solar explosions of energy and light aren’t over yet. Officials said on Tuesday that the sun just emitted another major solar flare – and that it’s the strongest one so far in the current solar cycle. The latest flare peaked just before 1 p.m. ET, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said, with an
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Researchers discovered a huge planet 1,200 light years from Earth with a density comparable to that of cotton candy, scientists said Monday. WASP-193b is an exoplanet, which means it’s located outside of our solar system, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy. It’s 50% larger than Jupiter — the largest planet
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Solar storms disrupts farming tech, planting operations Solar storms disrupts farming tech, planting operations 00:28 MINNEAPOLIS — Millions of Americans looked to the night sky and snapped magical photos and videos of the northern lights this weekend during the momentous geomagnetic storm. But cameras were also trained on the storm from space, capturing phantasmal monochromatic
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The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s hard-luck Starliner capsule has been delayed another four days, from Friday to next Tuesday, to give engineers time to make sure a small helium leak in the crew ship’s propulsion system has been resolved, officials said Tuesday. Liftoff from pad 41 at the
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The strongest geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years slammed Earth on Friday, with explosions of plasma and magnetic fields causing some radio blackouts and the northern lights to extend to the southern U.S. On Monday, officials warned the storms aren’t yet over. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said early Monday that a G3, or
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A severe G4 geomagnetic storm could emerge on Friday, triggering a watch for a storm of this magnitude from NOAA officials for the first time in nearly 20 years. The watch comes after days of solar activity that seemingly sent several explosions of plasma and magnetic fields toward Earth. G4s are the second-strongest form of
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“God’s Hand” has been revealed in a stunning new photo. Researchers say the “ghostly” and “ominous” image of the cometary globule in the Milky Way comes as the space object is continuing to be destroyed by radiation from massive stars. The globule, more formally known as CG 4, sits around 1,300 light-years away in the
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A thick atmosphere has been detected around a planet that’s twice as big as Earth in a nearby solar system, researchers reported Wednesday. The so-called super Earth — known as 55 Cancri e — is among the few rocky planets outside our solar system with a significant atmosphere, wrapped a blanket of carbon dioxide and
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After analyzing data following a launch scrub Monday, United Launch Alliance managers decided to haul the Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner astronaut ferry ship back to its processing facility to replace a suspect valve, delaying another launch try to at least May 17, NASA said in a blog post Tuesday. The new “no-earlier-than” launch
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