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Jason Major

About Jason Major

A graphic designer living in Providence, RI, Jason writes about astronomy and space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, Discovery News and here on Universe Today.

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Here are my most recent posts

Plastic Protection Against Cosmic Rays?

June 12, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter It could work, say researchers from the University of New Hampshire and the Southwest Research Institute. One of the inherent dangers of space travel and long-term exploration missions beyond Earth is the constant barrage of radiation, both from our own Sun and [...]

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Cassini Captures Saturn’s Darkest Rings

June 11, 2013

The closest to the planet itself, the hazy arcs of Saturn’s D ring may lack the reflective brilliance and sharply-defined edges of the other main rings, but they nevertheless possess their own ethereal beauty and mysteries. Here, the Cassini spacecraft has managed to capture the soft bands of the D ring in a long-exposure image [...]

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An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds

June 10, 2013

The season for noctilucent “night-shining” clouds is arriving in the northern hemisphere, when wispy, glowing tendrils of high-altitude ice crystals may be seen around the upper latitudes, shining long after the Sun has set. Found about 83 km (51 miles) up, noctilucent clouds (also called polar mesospheric clouds) are the highest cloud formations in the [...]

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What Are Lagrange Points?

June 10, 2013

Like gravitational parking spaces, Lagrange points provide locations where spacecraft can be positioned to conduct valuable scientific observations of the Universe and perhaps someday even offer foundations for more permanent human outposts. Named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who first proposed their existence in a 1772 paper, there are 5 such points within the Earth-Sun (as well [...]

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Amazing Astrophoto: The North American Nebula by Mick Hyde

June 8, 2013

Here’s a truly gorgeous image by astrophotographer Mick Hyde, a mosaic of NGC 7000 (the North American nebula) and the Pelican nebula (IC 5070). The structure on the upper left side is the North American nebula, with the darkest lobe of dust near the center forming the “Gulf of Mexico.” The star-forming region is located [...]

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