Daily News update on – Science

Spaceflight Now

SpaceX fired up 27 engines on a Falcon Heavy rocket Thursday night at Kennedy Space Center, sending a rumble across the spaceport in a hold-down test-firing before a launch next week for the U.S. Space Force. The 27 Merlin engines ignited at 8 p.m. EDT …

Space.com

A new crowdsourcing science project called “Spritacular” is asking skywatchers to use their digital cameras to try to capture images of unusual electrical discharges above thunderstorms. These discharges, known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), …

CNN

You never forget your first Mars mission. When NASA’s InSight spacecraft arrived at the red planet on November 26, 2018, it was the first time I covered the landing of a spacecraft on Mars. The …

NPR

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a minor geomagnetic storm watch effective for Saturday. While geomagnetic storms can create beautiful aurora in the sky, they can also disrupt GPS and create …

CNET

New images from NASA’s next-generation James Webb Space Telescope present views of the cosmos so clear and crisp, it’s spooky. For Halloween, the space agency turned up the (mid infra-)red in a picture of the spectacular “Pillars of Creation” to give …

CNET

Our local star is taking the “sun is smiling down on us” phrase literally, it seems. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory snapped a portrait of the sun on Wednesday that makes it look like it has two dark eyes, a swirling round nose and a happy smile.

Mashable

Little-known to the public, the NASA inflatable heat shield test that will soon travel around Earth over the North and South poles will also fly some of Kutter’s cremated remains, fulfilling one of his lifelong dreams to travel in space.

Space.com

A powerful weather satellite is all set to launch early Tuesday morning (Nov. 1) — provided the weather cooperates. The Joint Polar Satellite System-2 satellite, or JPSS-2 for short, and its United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket passed their …

Space.com

Along the Atlantic Seaboard, the moon will set while it begins to emerge from total eclipse. For central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia, the eclipse will be happening on Tuesday evening as the moon is rising.

The Advocate

Rebecca Falcon had just dropped her 10-year-old off at Brusly Upper Elementary and was headed north on River Road to the Baton Rouge airport when the flash caught her eye. The white streak above the new Mississippi River Bridge kind of looked like a …