Daily News update on – Science

CNN

The massive Super Heavy rocket booster, which houses 33 engines, lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it fired to life. The Starship spacecraft, riding atop the booster, soared out over the Gulf of Mexico.

Space.com

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — The most powerful rocket ever built put on quite a show during its debut space launch. With a mighty roar, the first-ever integrated Starship rocket soared toward …

Space.com

The sun may reach the peak of its current activity cycle in 2024, one year ahead of official predictions, new research suggests. But even after the sun reaches its peak, its wrath will continue to threaten Earth for at least the next five years.

Space.com

The asteroid-hopping spacecraft spotted four of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids that it will visit from 2027 onwards. … (Left) Some of LUCY’s Trojan asteroid targets, Eurybates, Polymede, Leucus,.

Space.com

A dead NASA spacecraft crashed to Earth Wednesday night (April 19) over northern Africa, according to the U.S. military. NASA’s RHESSI satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 8:21 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (0021 GMT on April 20), according to the space …

The New York Times

A large blue swirl that appeared in the night sky and within the aurora borealis did not have to do with aliens but was probably a fuel dump from a SpaceX rocket launch.

NPR

To study how northern elephant seals sleep, Jessica Kendall-Bar first had to deal with the challenge of measuring their brain activity underwater at extreme pressures. She retrofitted a device used on birds and then refined …

CBS News

There seemed to be a deadly plague lurking under the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean last year, killing sea urchins at a rate that hadn’t been seen in decades. For months, no one knew what was causing it. Now, scientists say they have identified …

NPR

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Under a cloudless sky, about 20,000 eclipse chasers watched a rare solar eclipse plunge part of Australia’s northwest coast into brief midday darkness Thursday with an accompanying temperature drop.

The New York Times

As big as Starship is, it was originally going to be bigger. In 2016, Elon Musk was dropping hints of a giant new spacecraft that would take people — lots of them — to Mars. He called it the Mars Colonial Transporter. By the time he unveiled the design …