NASA astronaut Suni Williams at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Naval Ordnance Test Unit basin in Florida on March 28, 2018.
Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
After 27 years of service, NASA astronaut Suni Williams retired from the agency, effective Dec. 27, 2025. Williams completed three missions aboard the International Space Station, setting numerous human spaceflight records throughout her career.
“Suni Williams has been a trailblazer in human spaceflight, shaping the future of exploration through her leadership aboard the space station and paving the way for commercial missions to low Earth orbit,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Her work advancing science and technology has laid the foundation for Artemis missions to the Moon and advancing toward Mars, and her extraordinary achievements will continue to inspire generations to dream big and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement, and thank you for your service to NASA and our nation.”
Williams logged 608 days in space — second on the list of cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut. She ranks sixth on the list of longest single spaceflight by an American, tied with NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, both logging 286 days during NASA’s Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew-9 missions. Williams also completed nine spacewalks, totaling 62 hours and 6 minutes, ranking as the most spacewalk time by a woman and fourth-most on the all-time cumulative spacewalk duration list. She also was the first person to run a marathon in space.
“Over the course of Suni’s impressive career trajectory, she has been a pioneering leader,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “From her indelible contributions and achievements to the space station, to her groundbreaking test flight role during the Boeing Starliner mission, her exceptional dedication to the mission will inspire the future generations of explorers.”
Williams launched for the first time aboard space shuttle Discovery with STS-116 in December 2006 and returned aboard space shuttle Atlantis with the STS-117 crew. She served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 14/15 and completed a then-record-breaking four spacewalks during the mission.
In 2012, Williams launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 127-day mission as a member of Expedition 32/33. She also served as space station commander for Expedition 33. Williams performed three spacewalks during the mission to repair a leak on a station radiator and replace a component that gets power from the station’s solar arrays to its systems.
Most recently, Williams and Wilmore launched aboard the Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test mission. She and Wilmore went on to join Expedition 71/72, and Williams again took command of the space station for Expedition 72. She completed two spacewalks on the mission and returned to Earth in March 2025, as part of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
“Suni is incredibly sharp, and an all-around great friend and colleague,” said Scott Tingle, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson. “She’s inspired so many people, including myself and other astronauts in the corps. We’re all going to miss her greatly and wish her nothing but the best.”
Beyond her spaceflight experience, Williams held numerous roles throughout her NASA career. In 2002, she served as a NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environments Mission Operations) crew member, spending nine days living and working in an underwater habitat. After her first flight, she served as deputy chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office. She later was the director of Operations in Star City, Russia, following her second mission to the space station. Most recently, she helped establish a helicopter training platform to prepare astronauts for future Moon landings.
The Needham, Massachusetts, native holds a bachelor’s degree in physical science from the United States Naval Academy and a master’s degree in engineering management from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. A retired U.S. Navy captain, Williams is an accomplished helicopter and fixed-wing pilot, having logged more than 4,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft.
“Anyone who knows me knows that space is my absolute favorite place to be,” said Williams. “It’s been an incredible honor to have served in the Astronaut Office and have had the opportunity to fly in space three times. I had an amazing 27-year career at NASA, and that is mainly because of all the wonderful love and support I’ve received from my colleagues. The International Space Station, the people, the engineering, and the science are truly awe-inspiring and have made the next steps of exploration to the Moon and Mars possible. I hope the foundation we set has made these bold steps a little easier. I am super excited for NASA and its partner agencies as we take these next steps, and I can’t wait to watch the agency make history.”
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NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is seen inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building as teams await the arrival of Artemis II crewmembers to board their Orion spacecraft on top of the rocket as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
As NASA moves closer to launch of the Artemis II test flight, the agency soon will roll its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad for the first time at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin final integration, testing, and launch rehearsals.
NASA is targeting no earlier than Saturday, Jan. 17, to begin the multi-hour trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B. The four-mile journey on the crawler-transporter-2 will take up to 12 hours. Teams are working around the clock to close out all tasks ahead of rollout. However, this target date is subject to change if additional time is needed for technical preparations or weather.
“We are moving closer to Artemis II, with rollout just around the corner,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “We have important steps remaining on our path to launch and crew safety will remain our top priority at every turn, as we near humanity’s return to the Moon.”
As with all new developments of complex systems, engineers have been troubleshooting several items in recent days and weeks. During final checkouts before rollout, technicians found a cable involved in the flight termination system was bent out of specifications. Teams are replacing it and will test the new cable over the weekend. Additionally, a valve associated with Orion’s hatch pressurization exhibited issues leading up to a Dec. 20 countdown demonstration test. On Jan. 5, the team successfully replaced and tested it. Engineers also worked to resolve leaky ground support hardware required to load gaseous oxygen into Orion for breathing air.
Rollout
Once the integrated rocket and spacecraft reach the launch pad, NASA will immediately begin a long checklist of launch pad preparations, including connecting ground support equipment such as electrical lines, fuel environmental control system ducts, and cryogenic propellant feeds. Teams will power up all integrated systems at the pad for the first time to ensure flight hardware components are functioning properly with each other, the mobile launcher, and ground infrastructure systems.
Once complete, the Artemis II astronauts, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will conduct a final walkdown at the pad.
Wet dress rehearsal, tanking
At the end of January, NASA will conduct a wet dress rehearsal, which is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket. During wet dress, teams demonstrate the ability to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant from the rocket without astronauts onsite.
During launch, a closeout crew will be responsible for securing astronauts in Orion and closing its hatches. The closeout crew also will use this rehearsal to practice their procedures safely without astronauts aboard the spacecraft.
The wet dress rehearsal will include several “runs” to demonstrate the launch team’s ability to hold, resume, and recycle to several different times in the final 10 minutes of the countdown, known as terminal count.
The first run will begin approximately 49 hours before launch when launch teams are called to their stations, to 1 minute 30 seconds before launch, followed by a planned three-minute hold and then countdown resumption to 33 seconds before launch – the point at which the rocket’s automatic launch sequencer will control the final seconds of the countdown. Teams then will recycle back to T-10 minutes and hold, then resume down to 30 seconds before launch as part of a second run.
While NASA has integrated lessons learned from Artemis I into the launch countdown procedures, the agency will pause to address any issues during the test or at any other point should technical challenges arise. Engineers will have a close eye on propellant loading of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the rocket, after challenges encountered with liquid hydrogen loading duringArtemis I wet dress rehearsals. Teams also will pay close attention to the effectiveness of recently updated procedures to limit how much gaseous nitrogen accumulates in the space between Orion’s crew module and launch abort system hatches, which could pose an issue for the closeout crew.
Additional wet dress rehearsals may be required to ensure the vehicle is completely checked out and ready for flight.
If needed, NASA may rollback SLS and Orion to the Vehicle Assembly Building for additional work ahead of launch after the wet dress rehearsal.
Next steps toward launch
Following a successful wet dress rehearsal, NASA will convene a flight readiness review where the mission management team will assess the readiness of all systems, including flight hardware, infrastructure, and launch, flight, and recovery teams before committing to a launch date.
While the Artemis II launch window opens as early as Friday, Feb. 6, the mission management team will assess flight readiness after the wet dress rehearsal across the spacecraft, launch infrastructure, and the crew and operations teams before selecting a launch date.
To determine potential launch dates, engineers identified key constraints required to accomplish the mission and keep the crew inside Orion safe. The resulting launch periods are the days or weeks where the spacecraft and rocket can meet mission objectives. These launch periods account for the complex orbital mechanics involved in launching on a precise trajectory toward the Moon while the Earth is rotating on its axis and the Moon is orbiting Earth each month in its lunar cycle. This results in a pattern of approximately one week of launch opportunities, followed by three weeks without launch opportunities.
There are several primary parameters that dictate launch availability within these periods. Because of its unique trajectory relative to subsequent lunar landing missions, these key constraints are unique to the Artemis II test flight.
The launch day and time must allow SLS to be able to deliver Orion into a high Earth orbit where the crew and ground teams will evaluate the spacecraft’s life support systems before the crew ventures to the Moon.
Orion also must be in the proper alignment with the Earth and Moon at the time of the trans-lunar injection burn. The Artemis II trans-lunar injection burn places Orion on course to flyby the Moon, and also sets it on a free return trajectory, in which the spacecraft uses the Moon’s gravity to send the spacecraft back to Earth without additional major propulsive maneuvers.
The trajectory for a given day must ensure Orion is not in darkness for more than 90 minutes at a time so that the solar array wings can receive and convert sunlight to electricity, and the spacecraft can maintain an optimal temperature range. Mission planners eliminate potential launch dates that would send Orion into extended eclipses during the flight.
The launch date must support a trajectory that allows for the proper entry profile planned during Orion’s return to Earth.
The periods below show launch availability through April 2026. Mission planners refine the periods based on updated analysis approximately two months before they begin and are subject to change.
Launch Period Jan. 31 – Feb. 14
Launch opportunities February 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11
Launch Period Feb. 28 – March 13
Launch opportunities March 6, 7, 8, 9, 11
Launch Period March 27 – April 10
Launch opportunities April 1, 3, 4, 5, 6
In addition to the launch opportunities based on orbital mechanics and performance requirements, there are also limitations on which days within a launch period can be viable based on commodity replenishment, weather, and other users on the Eastern Range schedule. As a general rule, up to four launch attempts may be attempted within the approximate week of opportunities that exist within a launch period.
As the agency prepares for its first crewed mission beyond Earth orbit in more than 50 years, NASA expects to learn along the way, both on the ground and in flight, and will let the readiness and performance of its systems dictate when the agency is ready to launch.
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, the approximately 10-day Artemis II test flight is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions to the Moon’s surface, leading to a sustained presence on the Moon that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.
NASA astronaut Brig. Gen. Nick Hague has retired from the agency, concluding a distinguished career that included two spaceflight missions, 374 days in space, and multiple spacewalks in support of the International Space Station. Hague continues service in the U.S. Space Force.
Hague launched aboard the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft in March 2019 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer during Expeditions 59/60. During this 203-day mission, he conducted three spacewalks to upgrade the station’s power systems and support ongoing maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Hague also contributed to a wide range of scientific investigations, spanning biology, human physiology, materials science, and technology demonstrations.
Hague originally was assigned to fly in 2018 as part of the Soyuz MS-10 crew. The mission experienced a launch anomaly shortly after liftoff, and Hague and his crewmate executed a high-G ballistic abort. The two landed safely and Hague returned to flight status within months, ultimately completing his 2019 mission.
He flew again during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, launching in September 2024 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. It was the first human spaceflight mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and it also marked the first time a Space Force Guardian launched to space. Hague then joined the Expedition 72 crew, spending 171 days aboard the station before returning in March 2025 along with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. During the mission, he conducted another spacewalk, bringing his career total to 25 hours and 56 minutes across four spacewalks.
“Nick’s determination and dedication to human space exploration are truly phenomenal,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “His leadership and commitment to mission excellence have supported progress aboard the International Space Station and prepared us for future missions as we continue to explore farther into the solar system.”
Beyond his flight experience, Hague served in several technical and leadership roles within NASA. He supported the development of future spacecraft operations, contributed to astronaut training, and played a key role in human spaceflight safety initiatives, drawing on his firsthand experience during the MS-10 launch abort.
“Nick brought calm, clarity, and a spirit of teamwork to every situation,” said Scott Tingle, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson. “From his work in orbit to his support of crew operations here on Earth, he exemplified what it means to be an astronaut. His impact will continue to shape the missions and the astronauts who follow.”
A native of Hoxie, Kansas, Hague is a brigadier general in the U.S. Space Force where he is responsible for the development and implementation of policy for all U. S. Space Force global operations, sustainment, training and readiness. He earned a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado and a master’s degree in astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining NASA in 2013, he served in developmental and test engineer roles supporting advanced Air Force technologies and operations at home and abroad.
“It has been an honor to serve as a NASA astronaut,” said Hague. “Working alongside incredible teams, on the ground and in space, has been the privilege of a lifetime. The International Space Station represents the very best of what humanity can accomplish when we work together. I am grateful to have contributed to that mission, and I look forward to watching NASA, our partners, and the next generation of explorers push even farther as we return to the Moon and journey on to Mars.”
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STS110-E-5541 (13 April 2002) — Astronaut Lee M.E. Morin carries an affixed 35mm camera to record work which is being performed 240 miles above Earth on the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA astronaut and retired United States Navy Capt. Lee Morin has retired from the agency after 30 years of service. He served as a mission specialist on STS-110 and went on to oversee the Rapid Prototyping Laboratory and technology development for the International Space Station and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, as well as its Artemis campaign.
“Lee’s contributions throughout his career are immense and immeasurable,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “His expertise and enthusiasm followed him whether he was working with the agency’s most seasoned engineers, or an intern just starting out. We’ll feel the impact of his innovations for decades to come, and I cannot thank him enough for his service.”
The New Hampshire native and physician flew aboard space shuttle Atlantis in support of STS-110 in 2002. The mission delivered the cornerstone truss to the space station. It also marked the first time the station’s robotic arm was used to assist spacewalkers, and the first spacewalks conducted from the station’s Quest airlock. During the mission, Morin performed two spacewalks, spending a total of 14 hours and 9 minutes working outside the station. He accumulated 10 days and 19 hours in space.
“Lee’s footprint on human spaceflight can be felt by every astronaut in our corps,” said Chief Astronaut Scott Tingle. “He set the new standard for the way spacecraft cockpits are designed and built, resulting in more efficient astronaut training and safer spaceflight overall. I have long admired his drive to always try something new. I’m proud to call him my lifelong friend and wish him nothing but the best.”
After his spaceflight, Morin used his experience to improve how astronauts interact with spacecraft systems. He helped design the software displays used during missions aboard the space station and Orion spacecraft. As lead astronaut on a team that created a standardized graphical interface for space station crews, Morin ensured early missions had clear, consistent displays and procedures. His work bridged the gap between engineering and usability, earning recognition from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for innovations that continue to make spaceflight safer and more efficient.
“Working with the brilliant teams here at NASA has been the honor of a lifetime,” Morin said. “Throughout my career I’ve had the honor of seeing some of the greatest achievements in human spaceflight, and I couldn’t have done it without the support of the countless mentors, collaborators, and friends I’ve met along the way. While I’m departing the agency, I will remain an avid follower to see where human spaceflight goes next, and I am humbled and proud to say that I got to be a part of where it all began.”
Morin was selected as an astronaut in 1996. He holds multiple degrees, including master’s degrees in biochemistry, public health, and physics. He earned his medical degree from New York University. Before he came to NASA, he served as a Naval flight surgeon, diving medical officer, and held key roles in aerospace medicine.
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Good morning, readers, and happy Friday. Welcome to This Week in Space, our Friday morning roundup of the week’s most important space news. Today we’ve got a bunch of good news, including a newfound exoplanet and a dozen new moons orbiting Jupiter. We’ve also got a report of an absolutely wild idea — a literal moonshot — for fighting climate change with moon dust.
SpaceX Starship Aces Static Fire Test
Thursday afternoon, SpaceX ran a successful static fire test of its gigantic Starship rocket. With 33 separate Raptor engines, Starship has the most engines of any rocket ever. Together, their thrust is twice that of a Saturn V or the Space Launch System. Is anyone else amazed the struts can hold that thing on the gantry?
Only 31 of the 33 engines fired. However, that’s actually good news because it means Starship can handle multiple engine failures.
SpaceX hopes to attempt a test flight for Starship in March. “That first flight test is going to be really exciting. It’s going to happen in the next month or so,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer.
“We will go for a test flight and we will learn from the test flight and we will do more test flights,” Shotwell added. “The real goal is to not blow up the launch pad. That is success.”
ISS Astronauts Work On Plasma Crystals, Space Plumbing
We’ve talked about how the folks aboard the International Space Station have to become polymaths to keep up with the demands of life in orbit. This winter, among many other pursuits, NASA astronauts on the ISS have been tending tomatoes and working on avant-garde methods of space propulsion. But the most recent projects in low-earth orbit make space tomatoes sound outdated. Over the past few days, crew on the ISS have been working on plasma crystals, servicing jetpacks, and… doing space plumbing.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata spent Thursday doing maintenance on the station’s water recovery system and orbital plumbing for the station’s bathroom, respectively. Meanwhile, station commander Sergey Prokopyev worked inside the Columbus lab “configuring video hardware that records how clouds of highly charged particles, or plasma crystals, behave in microgravity.”
Hubble Captures New Portrait of Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula is the brightest star-forming region in our cosmic neighborhood. It’s not even in our galaxy — it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies. But it’s so bright that it dazzles even at that distance. Astronomers recently used the Hubble space telescope to capture this image of the Tarantula Nebula in all its splendor:
What you see here is actually a joint effort between two different astronomy projects. One team sought to analyze the properties of dust grains floating between stars — a proposal dubbed Scylla by the Hubble team. Those dust grains create the dark, wispy clouds spread across the frame. The other, called Ulysses, studies interstellar dust and starlight interactions.
Curiosity Finds Clues to Mars’ Watery Past
NASA’s Perseverance rover went to Mars with a plan: Scour the planet’s surface for evidence that can teach us about Mars’ history and tell us whether the Red Planet might once have supported life. During its two years on Mars, the rover has found silicate clay and other minerals, signs that liquid water once flowed across Mars’ surface. But none of its discoveries have had evidence of water as visually obvious as a photograph that the agency’s Curiosity rover recently captured. The rover caught a photo of sandstone rock with ripples carved out of its surface, showing that the rock was once at the bottom of a lake.
The ripples support our observations of Mars’ weather and climate. Gentle, constant winds create standing ripple patterns like these. This fits with the constant prevailing winds and planetwide dust storms we’ve seen on Mars. It’s also exciting evidence that Mars indeed had liquid water once upon a time.
Russia Launches Progress Spacecraft to International Space Station
Russia successfully launched a Progress capsule aboard a Soyuz rocket this week, bound for the International Space Station. The rocket launched from Russia’s Baikonur aerodrome early Thursday morning, local time. This capsule, ISS Progress 83 (83P), carries about three tons of supplies, including food, water, and air. It will dock with the Russian Zvezda module on Saturday morning, replacing the Progress capsule that left Monday afternoon.
What happens to Progress 82 once it departs? Progress capsules are expendable. This means that the crew on the ISS loads the capsules with trash from the station while it’s docked. Then, hours or days after the capsule undocks, it burns up in the atmosphere.
CAPSTONE Lunar Satellite Reports In After 11-Day Glitch
NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite is finally responding to hails after nearly two weeks incommunicado. A software glitch left the probe unresponsive on Jan. 26 until it rebooted itself Monday.
“The spacecraft remained overall healthy and on-course throughout the issue,” NASA said in a blog post. “On Feb. 6, an automatic command-loss timer rebooted CAPSTONE, clearing the issue and restoring two-way communications between CAPSTONE and the ground.”
The satellite has made twelve successful circuits in its near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) — twice what its original mission expected. That’s great news for NASA. CAPSTONE is trying out the fancy new NRHO orbit because it’s more fuel efficient than other lunar orbits we’ve used. In twelve orbits, CAPSTONE has only had to fire its engine twice. This smashing success means the agency may use the new orbital pattern for lunar support satellites under the aegis of its Artemis project.
Rolls-Royce Building Nuclear Engine For Spaceships
Did you know Ball makes Mason jars — and parts for space telescopes? Ball made parts for Hubble and the mirrors for the JWST. In a similar fashion, Rolls-Royce appears to be branching out. Way out. The luxury automaker’s subsidiary, Rolls-Royce Holdings, has announced plans to build a nuclear engine for deep space exploration.
Webb Telescope Breaks Own ‘Speed Limit’ Tracking DART Impact
NASA’s Guaranteed Time Observation program gives a certain amount of telescope time to those who worked on the JWST. One GTO project: Making observations of NASA’s DART kinetic asteroid redirect test. However, the project brought an unlooked-for surprise. Wednesday, JWST deputy project scientist Stefanie Milam explained how the telescope broke its own speed limit watching the asteroid impact.
Webb launched with the ability to track objects moving through the sky as fast as Mars. But scientists who study fast-moving small bodies like asteroids, comets, and interstellar objects “really wanted to study objects that moved faster than Mars,” said Milam. So, the team set out to show that not only could Webb exceed this “notional speed limit,” it could go much faster. Their efforts paid off when it came time to observe the DART asteroid impact.
NASA’s DART kinetic asteroid redirect test, as seen by the JWST. Image: NASA/JPL
The video Webb captured of the Dimorphos impact showed that the telescope can move its field of regard at more than triple its original maximum speed. Most of the time, though, Milam says the telescope will confine itself to double its original turning speed. Darn.
Chris Hadfield Meets With King Charles III
On Thursday, Canada’s favorite astronaut, Chris Hadfield, met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. The two sat down to discuss “efforts to encourage sustainability in space,” according to the Royal Family’s official Twitter.
“What a pleasure and privilege to be asked to advise and assist, and make the King laugh,” Hadfield wrote afterward.
While we don’t yet have specifics, Charles is a longtime environmentalist. Could it be that the King is interested in cleaning up space junk?
A Shield of Lunar Dust Could Help Cool Earth
Astrophysicists are pondering the pros and cons of a literal moonshot to blunt the effects of climate change. In a recent study, a group of researchers proposed launching moon dust into orbit around Earth to create a dusty shield that would reduce Earth’s exposure to the Sun. Evidently, lunar dust grains are just the right size and composition to block some of the solar energy that would hit the Earth.
For six days out of the year, the researchers say, the dust cloud would shield Earth from a few percent of the Sun’s radiation. To carry out this plan, the researchers’ numbers require dredging up some 22 billion pounds of lunar dust. They could fire the dust into orbit from the Moon or a platform in orbit — potato, poterrible idea. Surely there is some lower-hanging fruit?
Scientists Find a Dozen New Moons Orbiting Jupiter
In October 2019, astronomers at the Carnegie Institution for Science found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. This made Saturn the “moon king” of the Solar System, with a total of 83. However, the same team has announced they’ve found a dozen new moons orbiting Jupiter.
An international team of astronomers has reported a newfound exoplanet in our cosmic backyard. The new planet, Wolf 1069 b, is between 1 and 1.4 Earth masses and just 8% bigger. Calling it Earth-like might be a stretch: Wolf 1069 b zips around its low-mass red dwarf star in just 15 Earth days. However, it’s just 31 light-years away.
Unlike our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, Wolf 1069 doesn’t show the characteristic bursts of violent flares we frequently see in red dwarf stars. This could mean it has managed to retain an atmosphere. If so, the planet’s surface temperature could be about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If not, it’s more likely an iceball, too cold to sustain liquid water.
Skywatchers Corner
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a once-in-an-epoch visitor from the outer solar system. We haven’t seen it since the time of the Neanderthals, but it’s come back for one last visit. The outbound comet passed close to Earth last week. Now, it’s buzzing Mars.
It’s green! Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and its twin tails. Image: NASA
The green comet will be near Mars in the constellation of Taurus for the next several days. After sunset, look high in the sky for the best shot at catching it through binoculars or a telescope. After Feb. 14, the comet will start heading toward Orion and Eridanus.
If you don’t have a good shot at viewing the comet where you are, you can still catch it online. This weekend, the Virtual Telescope Project is webcasting a free livestream of the comet’s approach to the Red Planet. The livestream will begin this Saturday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). You can watch it on the project’s website and YouTube channel.
Feature image: This week’s waning gibbous moon, taken from the International Space Station. Courtesy of NASA HQ Flickr.
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