Space

The final layers of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshade were robotically pulled taut with a system of motors, cables, and pulleys Tuesday, clearing a major milestone before unfolding mirrors to collect light from the oldest galaxies in the universe.

Is Sirius part of the Milky Way? Does it have any known planets? Thomas Steiner Greendale, Wisconsin Sirius is the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere. In order to see a pointlike star with your naked eye, it must be relatively close to us; this means that all the stars […]

The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.

NASA is providing live coverage of the final tensioning of the sunshield on the James Webb Space Telescope beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) Tuesday. Three layers of the five-membrane sunshade were pulled tight into their final configuration Monday. The final two layers are being tensioned Tuesday.

Four planets line up.

Final tightening of Webb’s critical sunshade will clear the way for deployment of the telescope’s optical elements.

SpaceX plans to kick off its 2022 launch schedule with a Falcon 9 rocket flight Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the company’s next group of Starlink internet satellites. In a change from previous Starlink missions, the Falcon 9 rocket will fly southeast from the coast of Florida on […]

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of 3/4 January and, as one of the recognised major meteor showers of the year, there’s a great chance to see at least dozens of shooting stars each hour, especially as the Moon will not interfere this year.

Titan Comics is launching a bold new “Cowboy Bebop” comic book series beginning in January 2022.

Flying outbound from Earth at a distance of more than 400,000 miles, the James Webb Space Telescope extended two booms Friday and unfurled the mission’s five-layer sunshield to the size of a tennis court, notching a major milestone for the observatory after a nail-biting New Year’s Eve for astronomers and […]