What's happening in space (that's interesting)

[Jason_Becker]

Yea its probably about disruptions, noise etc. The full scale StarShips will be utterly massive rockets and insanely loud at launch.

[Romalar]

Along these lines, NASA is working on a compact nuclear power plant which would quite important when going to Mars where solar power is much more difficult, or even if the Artemis program gets to the point of longer-term (more than 2 weeks) lunar missions which can’t just rely on sunlight.

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/kilopower

And now DARPA is resurrecting a nuclear thermal rocket engine (once called NERVA) which, if it pans out, could be pretty interesting for interplanetary travel. It’s not clear if it will turn out to be better than future ion drives (both higher-powered solar electric propulsion and reactor-powered nuclear electric propulsion) and if so for what kinds of missions.

The US military is getting serious about nuclear thermal propulsion

[Mellified]

Chilling out: Physicists create exotic “fifth form of matter” on board the ISS

[YakAttack]

Does “cislunar space” need to check its privilege?

[Fishbreath]

Cislunar space is at a lower gravitational potential than translunar space, so if anything, it’s the other way around.

The Google Ngram for words pertaining to lunar trajectories is a fascinating window into the history of space exploration.

[Mellified]

NASA fixes Mars lander by telling it to hit itself with a shovel

[divedivedive]

Stars Aren’t Supposed to Go Out Like This

[Menzo]

Pandora's Star

The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport “tunnels” known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star… vanishes.

[Djscman]

Looks like someone was editing the Jedi Archives again.

[jpinard]

It’s so cool when something unexpected and new happens. Love it.

[CLWheeljack]

Sounds like somebody finished their dyson sphere.

[YakAttack]

The first frog fossil from Antarctica has been found

I can just picture a small pool with vegetation lying languidly around it.

[Woolen_Horde]

That’s a big boy

Fastest-growing black hole in the universe eats the equivalent of one sun per...

[jpinard]

@YakAttack

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-frog-fossil-antarctica-found-ancient-climate

I can just picture a small pool with vegetation lying languidly around it.

I wish I could go back in time to see what Antarctica looked like at that point. Also to see the frog (and dinosaurs) :)

[Tman]

RocketLab lost their rocket today with 7 satellites on board.

Rocket Lab Electron launch fails to reach orbit, 7 satellites lost

[Mellified]

Exoplanet in the hot-Neptune desert is the first of its kind

[Woolen_Horde]

Ooooooo

A new comet will be visible for early risers as it races closer to Earth

[YakAttack]

The last comet I saw was Hale-Bopp, which inspired the Hanson Bros. song “MMM-Bop”.

[RichVR]

Great. First Corona, now Triffids.

[Ginger_Yellow]

Maybe we’ll get lucky: