All articles tagged with #space and cosmos
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA released time-lapse videos of two supernova explosions, the Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A, showing their evolution over two decades. Despite proposed budget cuts, there is legislative support for the continued operation of Chandra, which has been crucial for astrophysical discoveries.
Astronomers' improved ability to track the motions of stars beyond the solar system has made it more challenging to predict Earth's future and reconstruct its past. New simulations considering the effects of stars passing our solar system have reduced scientists' ability to look back or ahead by another 10 million years, emphasizing the significant impact of external celestial bodies on planetary orbits.
Thomas P. Stafford, the astronaut who commanded the first U.S.-Soviet space mission in 1975, has passed away at the age of 93. His historic mission, which saw an American capsule dock with a Soviet spaceship, marked a significant moment of cooperation in space exploration during the Cold War era. Stafford's legacy includes flying four times in space and orbiting within nine miles of the moon's surface in 1969, contributing to President John F. Kennedy's space race ambitions.
The recent discovery of a question mark-shaped optical illusion in an image captured by the Webb Space Telescope has sparked intrigue among astronomers. While it is believed to be an unrelated pair of galaxies caught in the act of mating, similar to past misconceptions, this discovery has reignited curiosity about the mysteries of the universe. The profound cosmic ignorance represented by this question mark serves as a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about the cosmos.