Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is one the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the featured deep image in assigned colors highlighted by emission in hydrogen, wisps and
The Japanese tradition of momijigari, or “red leaf hunting,” stretches back more than a millennium, as evidenced by ancient poems describing journeys to admire fall foliage. In America, mentions of foliage trips began appearing in the historical record in the 19th century, around the time artists and poets such as Frederic Church and Emily Dickinson
Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is one the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the featured deep image in assigned colors highlighted by emission in hydrogen, wisps and
Explanation: Is our universe haunted? It might look that way on this dark matter map. The gravity of unseen dark matter is the leading explanation for why galaxies rotate so fast, why galaxies orbit clusters so fast, why gravitational lenses so strongly deflect light, and how visible matter is distributed. The featured image from the
The push for a new nuclear age to power the AI boom with next-generation reactors remains feasible, but it’s the U.S. military and NASA that are stepping in to expedite the development of even smaller nuclear—so-called microreactors—to power remote bases, revolutionize combat, and fuel deep-space exploration. As the data center boom slows a bit and
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar surface in as little as two years. Administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday that the space agency is still on track to launch Artemis III next summer on a docking exercise with Elon Musk’s
