Roton Tests Delayed
Although ground tests of the Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle have been carried out, a full air test flight of the rocket is behind schedule. Originally planned for only a few weeks after its announcement ceremony on March 1st, it’s already been 3 months of delays – there’ll likely be more.
Space Daily
Eta Carinae Grows Unusually Bright
Once one of the brightest stars in the night sky of the Southern hemisphere, Eta Carinae has been releasing an increasing amount of energy – now twice as much as it did 20 years ago. The star is over 100 times the size of our sun, and relatively close to our solar system – only 7,500 light years. Strangely, astronomers have no explanation why this energy increase is happening.
ABC News
CNN Space
MSNBC
Elongated Asteroids Could Be Weaker
Nothing more that a loose collection of rocks held together by gravity, elongated asteroids are believed to be much weaker than spherical asteroids. Light impacts or gravitational effects can pull these asteroids apart. This theory also helps explain how asteroids can have moons.
Astronomy Now
Space Daily
Io May Contain High Concentrations of Salt
Astronomers have discovered large concentrations of chlorine in the atmosphere of Io – higher concentrations than anywhere else in the solar system. It’s believed this chlorine, spewed into the atmosphere by huge volcanoes, forms into common table salt on the surface of the planet.
Space Daily
The gravitational wave background was first detected in 2016. It was announced following the release…
The giant outer planets haven’t always been in their current position. Uranus and Neptune for…
The hunt for extrasolar planets has revealed some truly interesting candidates, not the least of…
How did complex life emerge and evolve on the Earth and what does this mean…
In a world that seems to be switching focus from the Hubble Space Telescope to…
The world was much different in 1990 when NASA astronauts removed the Hubble Space Telescope…