Two astronauts will do some repair work outside the International Space Station today (Aug. 25), and you can watch the action live.

NASA's Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency will conduct a spacewalk today (Aug. 25) to replace a space-to-ground-antenna. The extravehicular activity (EVA) is expected to start around 8:35 a.m. EDT (1235 GMT) and last 6.5 hours.

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage will start at 7:00 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT).

This will be the third spacewalk for Menon and the second for Adenot, the first French woman ever to conduct an EVA. Her history-making first excursion occurred on Aug. 18, when she and Menon removed a failed space-to-ground antenna, a relay link that enables high-speed communications between the International Space Station (ISS) and Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The duo ran out of time before they could install a replacement antenna, however. They'll finish the job today, if all goes to plan.

"If time allows, Menon and Adenot also will attempt a get‑ahead task to replace a retroreflector on the forward port of the space station's Harmony module, which will improve navigation data for visiting spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in a spacewalk preview.

Adenot arrived at the ISS in February as part of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission, which also includes NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

Menon came aboard on July 14, making the trip on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. Menon performed his first-ever spacewalk on Aug. 6, with Meir.

Menon will be "crewmember 1" on today's spacewalk, and Adenot will be "crewmember 2." The EVA will be the 283rd in the history of the ISS, which has been continuously occupied by rotating astronaut crews since November 2000.

Unpopular opinion time, but someone has to say it: I think Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet was a great thing for our understanding of the solar system and for the former planet itself. Let me try to convince you, too.

First, a little background. The Pluto planet controversy began exactly 20 years ago on Aug. 24, 2006, when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified the solar system's (former) ninth planet as a dwarf planet.

The reason for the change was the result of the discovery of worlds similar to Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies and debris extending out beyond the orbit of Neptune. It suddenly became necessary to determine if these bodies are planets or whether the definition of what a planet is needs to be reshaped. The IAU decided on the latter. Pluto took the hit.

The 2006 definition developed for the IAU by the Uruguayan astronomers Julio Ángel Fernández and Gonzalo Tancredi says a planet is "a celestial body in the solar system that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium [it is round or nearly round], and it has 'cleared the neighborhood' around its orbit."

That meant a new definition had to be introduced for large round bodies orbiting the sun, one that meets these first two criteria, but fails to meet the the third. Thus, dwarf planets were defined by the IAU as: "an object in orbit around the sun that is large enough to pull itself into a nearly round shape but has not been able to clear its orbit of debris."

Pluto fell out of the planet category and into the dwarf planet category because, as it orbits the sun out beyond Neptune, other bodies cross its orbital path. Thus, Pluto hasn't cleared its neighborhood. Not a planet then, sorry.

But don't feel too bad. It is a good thing, honestly.

Pluto helped put dwarf planets on the cosmic map

The redefinition of Pluto has had a strange effect on the general public and even some scientists, who seem to "feel sorry" for the former planet, almost as if it has somehow been demoted. There are several Change.Org petitions and petitions on other sites that demand to restore Pluto's planethood. One of these, established in 2024, has over 1,000 signatures.

Some petitions to make Pluto a planet again fundamentally misunderstand why Pluto isn't a planet anymore. Take this one on slightly tongue-in-cheek petition on iPetitions, which states: "Pluto should not have its planet rights taken away form {sic] it just because it is small, so is Daniel, but that doesn't make him not a human anymore! This is a very urgent matter! This is an EMERGENCY!!"

I don't know who Daniel is, but I do know that Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet really exemplified how diverse the solar system actually is.

When we think of the solar system, we think of the planets orbiting the sun, and the moons orbiting their planets. Maybe we picture the occasional visit by an asteroid or comet. The reclassification of Pluto ensures that the general public can't really ignore the fact that there are many solar system bodies with sizes between planets and asteroids that are no less important than the planets themselves.

Many of these dwarf planets exist far from the sun, and don't visit the inner solar system — meaning they don't get blasted by high levels of solar radiation. Likewise, they generally haven't been affected by geological processes, meaning that the material they are composed of is unspoiled. Thus, dwarf planets could act as time capsules that allow us to study the matter that existed in the solar system when planets like Earth started to form.

We shouldn't ignore dwarf planets when we talk about the solar system, and as the king of the dwarfs, Pluto ensures we can't. Its change in status made the study of Kuiper Belt objects seem equally as important as the study of moons and planets.

There is also a really simple and logistical reason not to make Pluto a planet again. Though the IAU currently recognizes only five dwarf planets  — Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris  — astronomers think there are as many as 100 of them still waiting to be discovered.

If we let Pluto back into the planet party, then all these other dwarf planets should be allowed back in too, right? Keeping Pluto a dwarf planet better defines what a planet is and prevents an awkward situation in the future in which schoolchildren (and the rest of us) would have to remember upwards of 100 planets.

Don't 'feel sorry' for Pluto

If you are going to feel sorry for any dwarf planet, maybe it should be Ceres. The closest dwarf planet to Earth, it was discovered in 1801, 129 years before Pluto, and was therefore the first dwarf planet to be discovered (though it was not defined as such initially).

Pluto has really stolen Ceres' thunder as the solar system's most prominent dwarf planet.

Spare a thought for Eris as well. Also located beyond the orbit of Neptune, this dwarf planet is 1,445 miles (2,326 kilometers) wide, making it just a hair smaller than the largest solar system dwarf planet, Pluto, which is 1,477 miles (2,377 km) across. But Eris is actually more massive than Pluto, making it the most massive dwarf planet in the solar system, and Eris never even got the chance to be called a planet.

Where is the petition for Ceres or Eris, eh? Nowhere, that's where.

But seriously, there is something crucial to remember in all this: The redefinition of Pluto as a dwarf planet took away none of the former planet's wonder or beauty.

Is the bright heart-shaped plain of Sputnik Planitia, composed of squishy nitrogen ice, any less spectacular because it belongs to a dwarf planet? Are the towering 11,000-foot-high (3,350 m) ice mountains of Pluto any less majestic because they rise from the surface of a dwarf planet, not a planet?

What about the blue haze that envelops the dwarf planet? Or Pluto's regions of shifting ice that show the former planet to be far more active than we once thought? Are they less scientifically fascinating?

Were the observations made by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft less monumental for humanity, or less of an impressive scientific achievement, because this was only a nine-year trip to a dwarf world?

Of course, the answer to all of the above questions is definitely no.

Pluto may not be the ninth planet, but it still sits at the forefront of dwarf planets in our minds and helped to define a whole population of solar system bodies.

Let's give Pluto its due.

In August 2001, filmmaker John Carpenter said "Boo!" and unleashed "Ghosts of Mars" on the world. While not one of Carpenter's most revered works, it's still a neat sci-fi horror movie in which Mars has been terraformed – 84% terraformed to be exact – and inhabited by humans. Plus, it has Jason Statham and Ice Cube in it, so it's automatically 99% better than all other movies ever made.

Now, the action takes place at Shining Canyon, a remote mining outpost on Mars that has a gritty wild west/Mad Max-ness vibe; it's cold, harsh, and so so so so soooooo dusty – not exactly a dream home location.

Then there's the whole "scary horde possessed by ancient extraterrestrial evil spirits trying to kill you" thing. But let's remove the spooky elements and put them aside for one second, and really consider the possibility of actually living on Mars. It's been 25 years since the movie was released, so how much closer are we to calling the Red Planet our new home?

Chief Scientist at the Planetary Society, Dr. Bruce Betts, isn't optimistic. "I don't think we're in a position to do global terraforming due to the technology and lack of resources. The papers indicate now you have only a tiny fraction of carbon dioxide, and then there's just the political and economic reality of it. Any method I've ever heard of is really outrageously expensive over time, and you would have to have multi-year, multi-generational support for programs at a high level. You'd have the whole world having opinions on whether you could or should do it. Then there's also the planetary protection agreements that many countries have agreed to. But the lack of carbon dioxide is the showstopper, really." Even in the movie, they're still 10 years away from having air like we do on Earth.

Dr. Mark Gallaway, an astronomer, science pundit, and founder of Starlight Planetarium, also mentions the cost and carbon dioxide issues as major obstacles, as well as two other challenges that may make attempts to live on Mars near impossible. "There have been enclosed habitats we've built on Earth. A number of times external teams have had to go in and break groups up, because there have been fistfights [...] so that's going to be a long-term problem." And that’s probably going to be an extra big problem when people are cooped up at a remote mining outpost.

"The other big problem is we have no idea how human physiology works at 0.38G. The only way we could do 0.38 of a G is to have some kind of spin habitat and have people live there. So, without actually knowing what that surface gravity is going to do to us, it's a bit tricky. We might find that they're on Mars for a year, and when they come back, they can't function anymore."

Recent studies about the state of Mars haven't been too promising either. Betts views Bruce Jakosky and Christopher Edwards' 2018 research paper, where it explicitly states "terraforming Mars is not possible using present-day technology," as the biggest reality check.

"The Jakosky and Edwards paper about CO₂ makes me very negative," Betts says. "There have been thoughts of using exotic technologies, such as nanorods and aerogel, but even with the aerogel, I believe they're talking about using it to create localized domes, and you'd create the interior of that and try to terraform it. It's certainly more plausible than doing the whole planet, but still seems like [there are a lot of implications]. [...] People are coming up with new, nifty technologies, but I just don't see how they can be implemented, even if they did work."

Science fiction tends to depict Mars as a possibility for human occupation, but Gallaway points out another big blow for any terraforming ambitions: "We've made recent discoveries that the soil on Mars is actually quite toxic to life. So the scene in 'The Martian' where Mark Watney grows potatoes? That's just not possible. It means if you're going to colonize Mars, you're going to have to bring all your topsoil, which is a big problem."

In addition to all of this, there are the ethical dilemmas that need to be addressed. Astronomer, teacher, and author Dr. Jeffrey Bennett wrote "Life in the Universe" along with Seth Shostak, Nicholas Schneider, and Meredith MacGregor.

In the book, there's a section that discusses introducing greenhouse gas to the Martian atmosphere in order for humans to walk around without a spacesuit. However, this leads to serious questions about the effects of colonization and whether humans have the right to fundamentally change another planet's atmosphere and potentially wreck it for other possible lifeforms already living there. Remember, "it's their planet… we are the aliens."

For Bennett, he questions whether terraforming Mars is even an option if humans can't get their own house in order: "Given that we can't even seem to keep Earth's climate functioning the way we'd like it to – for example, global warming is making the climate worse for humans and other life – I find it difficult to believe that our present level of knowledge would allow us to turn an inhospitable place like Mars into a livable world. Perhaps this may become possible in the future, but certainly not before we first learn how to take care of our home planet's climate."

Clearly, living on Mars isn't possible at the moment, but "Ghosts of Mars" takes place in the future, so we still have time because who knows what scientific advancements await us? Alas, experts tend to agree that it's unlikely to happen by 2176 at this current rate, though developments could happen: "I think that people will continue researching on the small scale of things you could do, but I don't think we're going to be any closer to terraforming Mars in reality by 2176 than we are now," Betts says. So, I guess you could say we "don’t stand a ghost of a chance."

Gallaway suggests an interesting alternative to terraforming Mars, or any other planet: "From a personal point of view, I actually think we should be looking at space habitats rather than planet-based habitats. Get to what we call an M-type asteroid: [...] Get the platinum group metals out, sell those, then spin the asteroid up, and you can live on it – inside at 1G. I'm a big fan of the late Iain M. Banks and his science fiction, where virtually everybody is living in inhabitable orbital structures, because it's easier to make the environment than it is to change it."

Hmm… Gallaway may have just pitched the perfect sequel. Yeah, "Ghosts of the Asteroid" sounds decent, doesn't it? Just as long as Statham somehow returns and punches everything in sight.

Watch "Ghosts of Mars" on Prime Video or Apple TV.

Amiable sci-fi author Andy Weir, the New York Times bestselling author of "The Martian," "Artemis," and "Project Hail Mary", is embarking on an entirely new imaginative odyssey later this year.

It's not exactly another sci-fi book, though; It's an audiobook, and Weir is foregoing sole authorship of the project and instead co-shepherding this captivating space opera drama for the folks at Audible.

Arriving on Nov. 5, 2026, "Exoplanet" is an ambitious celestial thriller written by comic book veteran and acclaimed author Benjamin Percy ("Red Moon"), executive produced by Weir, and showcasing a stellar vocal cast that includes Anthony Mackie, the Oscar-winning Ariana DeBose, and John Leguizamo.

"When the starship Wild Blue Yonder is torn apart by a quantum anomaly, each surviving crew member crash-lands in a different era on the same deadly exoplanet — hunted, alone and running out of time," states the official synopsis.

"Chief Engineer Jeff Shaw (Anthony Mackie), aided by his virtual assistant, must battle an unforgiving present, driven by one thing: getting home to his daughter. First Officer Becca Bang (Ariana DeBose) fights to survive a hostile alien past. Science Officer Logan Bowers (John Leguizamo) wakes in a machine-ruled future that shouldn’t exist.

"But the anomaly wasn’t random. A relentless alien intelligence is feeding on human technology, and it's been waiting for them across every timeline. Separated by centuries, the crew must find a way to communicate across time itself before this world consumes them all. Blending heart-stopping action with the mind-bending science that Andy Weir is known for, 'Exoplanet' explores what it means to fight for humanity’s future when your own existence hangs in the balance."

"Exoplanet" brings together a strong creative crew and highlights sound design by Lucasfilm's Skywalker Sound, along with an original soundtrack by composer Rob Cairns ("Love, Death & Robots," "Secret Level").

Additional vocal performers include Cherry Jones ("Succession," "The Handmaid’s Tale"), Sufe Bradshaw ("Veep," "Vice"), Charlie Plummer ("The Long Walk," "Lean on Pete"), Ray Porter (Audible's "Project Hail Mary," "The Bobiverse") and Aida Osman ("Rap Sh!t").

"I'm obsessed with problems, the kind where one person and a lot of math are all that stand between survival and disaster," Weir explained in an Audible statement.

"Benjamin Percy's writing in 'Exoplanet' takes that and adds a twist that genuinely kept me up at night: What if the people trying to save each other were separated not by distance, but by centuries? You can’t see that story. You have to hear it. The crackle across a 500-year gap, the desperation in a voice that doesn't know if anyone’s still listening?"

We'll be listening, Andy! We'll definitely be listening!

Audible’s sci-fi audio drama, "Exoplanet," lands on Nov. 5., 2026.

The rumors are true. SpaceX plans to retire its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket once the company's giant next-generation Starship begins regular operational flights.

SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 for the first time in 2010, and the rocket soon chiselled itself a place in spaceflight history. The Falcon 9 has lifted off nearly 700 times to date, and it's the first orbital rocket ever to land and refly its first-stage booster. Russia's Soyuz rocket, which has been in operation since 1957, is the only launch vehicle with more missions under its belt, but the Falcon 9 is on track to pass it next year.

However, "winding down Falcon" — both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, a triple-booster variant that has flown 12 times to date — is inevitable, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in an Aug. 22 post on X. "Once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift … production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day," he wrote.

The impact of Falcon 9's absence from the launch market can't yet be known, but industry reports suggest that SpaceX may discontinue all but a few Falcon 9 missions beginning in 2028. The ones that remain will likely include crew and resupply missions for NASA to the International Space Station (ISS), which is expected to continue flying until at least 2030, meaning that commercial operators will have to start looking to Starship to deliver their satellites to space.

When exactly SpaceX will begin to wind down Falcon 9 will depend on the continuing development of Starship. Unlike its predecessor, Starship is built for full reusability, with the rocket's Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage both designed to return to Earth for recovery and reflight. (Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy upper stages are expendable.)

And Starship is bigger than Falcon 9, too. The current Version 3 (V3) Starship stands 408 feet (124.4 meters) tall, towering over the 230-foot tall (70 m) Falcon 9, and is capable of launching substantially heavier payloads to space. Starship is expected to be able to deliver more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO). By comparison, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy can carry about 25 tons and 63 tons to LEO, respectively.

The majority of Falcon 9 missions over the past few years have been dedicated to SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet network, with more than 300 launches since 2023 adding to the growing constellation of over 11,000 spacecraft. The more powerful next generation of Starlink satellites, however, are bigger, and designed to fit in Starship's payload bay, not atop the Falcon 9. And once Starship is launching reliably (and even before then), SpaceX plans to begin upgrading its Starlink network with the newer satellite version.

That will likely kick off an exponential upward trend for Starship launches. This happened with the Falcon 9, after all. SpaceX launched the rocket just 11 times in 2019, the year the company began assembling its Starlink constellation. In 2025, Falcon 9 flew a whopping 165 missions, and 122 of them were Starlink flights.

NASA has also contracted SpaceX to design a version of Starship for use as a lunar landing vehicle for the space agency's Artemis missions. A Starship V3 is in line to launch on the Artemis III mission next year, which will practice docking operability in LEO with NASA's Orion spacecraft. Starship has also been slated to deliver astronauts to the surface of the moon on Artemis IV in 2028. That's also when SpaceX has told NASA that it plans to end commercial Falcon 9 launches, according to Ars Technica.

One thing Starship has not yet been contracted or designed for is docking with the ISS. NASA is positioned to continue purchasing flights of SpaceX's cargo and Crew Dragon spacecraft to deliver astronauts and supplies to the space station through 2030, and would be hard pressed to shift those tasks to Starship. Cost and contract logistics aside, the mere size of Starship poses significant engineering risks outside the station's safety margins.

Regardless of the timeline for the ISS, SpaceX's planned sundowning of Falcon 9 also hinges on Starship's success. The launch vehicle has flown 13 suborbital test flights to date. Another is poised to lift off within the next month, and may be the rocket's first attempt at fully reaching orbit. But that's just one of many milestones that Starship must hit before it can begin "flying reliably several times per week," as Musk stipulated in his post.

That kind of turnaround time has already been achieved by Falcon 9, but building up Starship's infrastructure is a much bigger enterprise than the dozen or so successful test flights the vehicle has under its belt. And how quickly SpaceX can scale Starship to match Falcon 9's reliability will ultimately determine how soon the legacy rocket is largely phased out of commission.

Starlink launches may have become commonplace, but this one's definitely worth staying up for.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with 29 Starlink internet satellites is scheduled to lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday (Aug. 25), during a four-hour window that opens at 1:49 a.m. EDT (0549 GMT).

It will be the 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026 and the record-breaking 37th mission for this rocket's first stage, a booster designated B1067. You can watch the action live via SpaceX, starting about 10 minutes before launch.

The Falcon 9 is by far the busiest rocket in operation today. Last year, it flew 165 missions — more than all of the world's other orbital rockets combined. And all 165 of those flights were fully successful.

Extensive first-stage reuse is the Falcon 9's secret sauce, making it cheaper and more efficient to fly than its competitors. Those competitors are racing to catch up, however, and some are making strides. In the past six weeks, for example, two different Chinese rockets aced landings during orbital missions.

But neither one of those newcomers has made it back to the pad for a second flight. SpaceX, meanwhile, has six Falcon 9 boosters with at least 30 flights under their belts, led by B1067's 36. (The others are B1077 and B1078 with 30, B1069 with 32, B1063 with 34 and B1071 with 35).

And SpaceX plans to take reuse to even higher levels. The company's next-gen megarocket, Starship, is designed to be completely and rapidly reusable, with each vehicle capable of flying multiple times per day, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. (The Falcon 9 and its cousin the Falcon Heavy are only partially reusable; they have expendable upper stages.)

If all goes according to plan on Tuesday morning, the Falcon 9 will return to Earth for recovery and yet more reuse. About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the booster will land on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas," which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocket's upper stage, meanwhile, will haul the 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there 61.5 minutes after launch.

Tuesday's liftoff will be the 77th of 2026 devoted to building out Starlink, by far the largest satellite constellation ever assembled. It currently consists of more than 11,000 operational spacecraft, and that number is growing all the time.

The Falcon 9 isn't the only SpaceX rocket to have flown this year. The company has also launched one Falcon Heavy mission and two suborbital Starship test flights. Starship will try to go orbital for the first time on its next liftoff, which is expected in early to mid-September.

Twenty years after Pluto lost its planetary status, people are still arguing about it.

This spring, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman publicly threw his support behind "make Pluto a planet again," reigniting the familiar debate. Social media threads are filled with people arguing over whether Pluto should be grandfathered into the planetary club, whether dwarf planets are simply another kind of planet, and whether the distinction matters at all.

The disagreement dates to August 24, 2006, when members of the International Astronomical Union adopted a definition of a planet that placed Pluto in the dwarf-planet category. The scientific debate over how best to define a planet has continued in the years since, and the public has many thoughts, too — many people still cling to Pluto's identity as a planet. But why?

The planet we grew up with

From its discovery on February 18, 1930 to its demotion, Pluto belonged to one of the first maps of the universe that students learned: our solar system. There were nine planets, usually memorized in order through classroom diagrams, models and mnemonics such as "My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies."

Deana Weibel, a cultural anthropologist at Grand Valley State University, says those childhood associations have staying power long into adulthood. As a planet, Pluto was also particularly memorable: the farthest planet, the smallest planet, and a relatively recent addition to the solar system. "It was the knowledge that new planets could be added, with its story of being discovered in the 20th century," says Weibel.

For people who absorbed that version of the solar system as children, the 2006 decision required replacing something that had been an established fact. Laurie Groh, a licensed psychotherapist and owner of Shoreside Therapies in Milwaukee, says that helps explain why the change could provoke an emotional reaction disproportionate to its effect on everyday life. "People aren't grieving a planet," says Groh. "They're grieving the idea that what they learn is permanent. It isn't. Science changes and evolves."

That attachment may fade as generations raised with eight planets get older — but there's not a black-and-white cutoff date. Rob Crotzer, founder and editor of OuterSpaceTrip.com, has watched his own nine-planet upbringing filter down to his daughter Emily, who was born well after Pluto's reclassification. She learned about Pluto from him, her grandmother, and an astronomy atlas published before the 2006 vote. "My daughter was born into the eight-planet solar system," Crotzer says, "yet she has decided that eight isn't enough."

Why our brains resist recategorization

Nostalgia isn't the only force at play. "Our brains work via comparison and categories. That's how we make sense of anything and everything," says Matthew Leahy, a licensed clinical psychologist who studies memory and cognition. Humans rely on categories to organize enormous amounts of information, and changing an established category requires revising a framework that was already functioning perfectly well.

But Pluto presents an especially curious case because the stakes for most people are so low — its planetary status hardly affects the general public day-to-day. "The emotional meaning of a category can sometimes matter much more to us than its practical importance," says Leahy.

Groh also points to the way the change happened. Unlike Pluto's naming, when the public suggested monikers for the new planet, the public didn't participate in the scientific process of its recategorization. Changes imposed quickly from outside, Groh says, can invite resistance even when there is a solid reason behind them.

Rooting for the underdog

Then there is Pluto itself: small, distant, and lonely. "For many people, the issue is less about astronomy and more about rooting for the little guy, the underdog," says Kevin Schindler, historian and public information officer at Lowell Observatory, where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930.

The language surrounding the change encourages that interpretation. Pluto is routinely described as having been "demoted," rather than simply reclassified, turning a technical distinction into something that sounds punitive. "We don't like the idea of the 'little guy' getting kicked out," Groh says. "We personify Pluto when we have that reaction."

That personification has helped give Pluto a cultural life all its own. At Lowell Observatory, affection for the dwarf planet is strong enough to inspire the annual I Heart Pluto Festival, a multi-day celebration of its discovery, science, and history. Nearly a century after Tombaugh first spotted Pluto from Flagstaff — and two decades after its reclassification — people still gather specifically to celebrate it.

In other words, becoming a dwarf planet didn't necessarily diminish Pluto's popularity; if anything, it gave people another reason to rally behind it.

Does it matter what Pluto is called?

Scientifically, yes, it does matter how we classify Pluto. Jessica Libby-Roberts, an assistant professor and exoplanet scientist at the University of Tampa, points to Pluto's unusual orbit, small size, and similarities to other Kuiper Belt objects as reasons the dwarf-planet classification makes sense. Categories allow researchers to compare objects and make sense of how the solar system formed.

But Libby-Roberts doesn't view its exclusion from the eight planets as a knock against Pluto. "Honestly, I think Pluto would rather not be grouped in with the boring rule-abiding planets anyway," she says. "It seems much happier doing its own thing."

A scientific label doesn't determine whether Pluto is interesting, either. Libby-Roberts notes that the 2015 New Horizons mission overturned expectations of a relatively generic, cratered world, instead revealing a dynamic one with mountains, glaciers, and an atmosphere.

"In some ways, it doesn't matter what Pluto is called because regardless of what label we humans assign to it, Pluto will keep orbiting the sun and doing its thing," Schindler says.

The Perseid meteor shower dazzled stagazers with a spectacular natural light show around its peak on Aug. 12-13. But could we be in for even more impressive displays of shooting stars in the years to come?

Perseid shooting stars can be seen each year as Earth crashes through the trail of debris shed by the icy comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Many of these cometary shards are no larger than a single grain of sand. Yet they're capable of burning bright enough to be seen with the naked eye as they collide with our planet's atmosphere at 37 miles (59 kilometers) per second, often destroying themselves in the process.

The 2026 Perseid shower peaked overnight on Aug. 12-13, as Earth plunged into the densest region of Comet Swift-Tuttle's debris stream. But as spectacular as this year's display was, Jupiter's powerful gravity could make 2028 an even more impressive year for the Perseid meteor shower, as the gas giant passes close to Swift-Tuttle's debris stream, drawing more of the meteoroids into a collision course with Earth's atmosphere.

Are the Perseids going to get stronger in 2028?

According to scientists, there is a distinct possibility that our solar system's largest planet could influence the Perseid meteor shower in the upcoming years. "Jupiter passes close to a portion of the stream of particles generated by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle once every twelve years," meteor expert Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society (AMS) told Space.com. "The timing and position of this intersection determines if the particles will pass closer or further from Earth. The 2028 passage indicates that some particles will shift into an orbit closer to Earth so that hourly rates could be higher than usual."

Lunsford notes that while computer models are helpful for predicting when a surge in meteor activity may occur, they lack key data on the density of particles within the stream, which are usually separated by hundreds, or even thousands of miles from one another. As such, predictions on hourly rates for upcoming meteors are best treated as educated guesses, Lunsford said.

"The results of the 2027 display should provide a clue," continued Lunsford. "If rates during 2027 are enhanced to at least 100 per hour, then we can expect 200-300 per hour for 2028."

Will moonlight be a problem?

Even if 2027 does see an uptick in Perseid activity, we may not necessarily be able to appreciate it.

That year, the Perseids will peak in the glare of a waxing moon just four days from turning full, and the moonlight will hide many of the shower's fainter shooting stars. Though there will be a few hours before dawn when the moon sets below the western horizon, granting peak meteor hunting conditions.

In 2028 — the year of the potential Jupiter-caused Perseid outburst — the shower will peak around Aug. 12-13 in the light of a third quarter moon, which will rise after midnight and be present until sunrise.

"This is much better than having a full moon, but the faintest meteors may still be obscured if your sky is not transparent," said Lunsford. "You could also view prior to moonrise for the 2028 event, but the radiant will be low. The timing of greatest intensity seems to be between 23-00 Universal Time on Aug.13/14, 2027 and 5-6 UT on Aug. 12, 2028."

Want to be ready to capture the next big meteor shower? Then be sure to read our guide to photographing shooting stars, along with our roundups of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography in 2026.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

A partial lunar eclipse takes place this Aug. 27-28 and this beginner-friendly Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ telescope, nearly $50 off at Walmart, will let you zoom in on what promises to be a stunning sight.

Save $49 on this Celestron PowerSeeker 80Q telescope at Walmart.

Ideal for exploring our own solar system, the Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ comes with 20mm and 4mm eyepieces, a 3x Barlow lens, a German equatorial mount, finderscope and Starry Night astronomy software. In short, it has everything you need to get stargazing.

It's perfect for newcomers to the hobby, adults and children alike, or those on a budget. And, this October 4, it'll let you experience Saturn at opposition, when the planet is at its brightest.

• We're constantly checking the best prices on our pages for big discounts on the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

Where do you start if you want to get into astronomy? This Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ telescope is a good jumping-on point, particularly if you're on a budget. At $150, it's ideal for beginners and older children and, with some supervision, young stargazers.

It has everything you need to get started; the 20mm and 4mm eyepieces will provide magnifications of 45x and 225x respectively, enough to pick out the moon's major craters and zoom in on the planets in our solar system.

As a refractor telescope, it won't invert the image, so you can also use it for nature watching. And while the Barlow lens will likely push the telescope's practical limits, it's a neat bonus, as is Celestron's Starry Night software, which contains over 36,000 objects to explore.

Key features: 80mm objective, manual EQ mount and tripod, 20mm, 4mm and 3x Barlow lenses, 13.9 lbs (6.3 kg) weight

Price history: This is the cheapest the Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ has been in nearly two years.

Price comparison: Amazon: $190 | Walmart: $150

Review consensus: The Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ has been well received by purchasers, with Amazon reviews praising how beginner-friendly it is, suitable for spotting the Moon and planets.

✅ Buy it if: You want a beginner-friendly telescope that won't break the bank.

❌ Don't buy it if: You want to look beyond our solar system. Instead, consider one of the best deep space telescopes.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

The massive glaciers of Greenland are disappearing right before our very eyes in new satellite imagery.

What is it?

Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic ocean. Petermann's "ice tongue" has previously measured 43 miles (70 kilometers) long and 9 miles (15 km) wide. But new satellite imagery has revealed the glacier's floating "ice tongue" has broken apart in the glacier's most dramatic loss of floating ice since 2012.

On August 4, 2026, the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captured imagery of the glacier that revealed that a 29 square mile (76 square km) section of the ice tongue has broken away. This is the most significant ice calving event (where ice breaks off of a glacier) seen in the Arctic since 2020.

"Satellite missions such as Sentinel-1 provide the systematic, long-term observations needed to track these changes, helping scientists better understand the processes driving calving and the wider impacts on the polar environment, and ultimately the Earth system as a whole," ESA Earth scientist Martin Wearing said in a statement.

Why is it incredible?

It is no secret that worsening climate change is contributing to significant ice loss. Antarctica has lost 5,000 square miles (12,950 square km) of grounded ice over the last three decades. Warming oceans are consistently eroding the arctic ice we have left which, when melted, contributes to rising sea levels.

But knowledge is power, and by studying Earth from the vantage point of space, Earth scientists can gather critical information about our changing planet.

"By studying Arctic ice islands, we will gain knowledge that can be transferred across polar regions. This is critical for understanding how the calving and deterioration of ice islands impact glacier dynamics, sea-level rise and the ocean environment," Anna Crawford, a glaciologist at the University of Stirling, said in the same statement.

On Aug. 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided that Pluto wasn't a planet anymore.

Since that date, Pluto has been officially classified as a dwarf planet along with four other confirmed dwarf planets in the outskirts of the solar system.

This decision sparked outrage around the world, and the controversy is still very much alive today. Astronomers in favor of Pluto's demotion argued that a planet by definition should have cleared its orbit around the sun. Pluto and the more distant dwarf planets fail to meet this criterion.

Why it mattered

When Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet, many astronomers and scientists weren't happy with the result.

"I'm embarrassed for astronomy," said Alan Stern, leader of NASA's New Horizon's mission to Pluto and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. "Less than 5 percent of the world's astronomers voted."

Stern argued that according to the IAU's new definition, many other planets in our solar system would fail to meet the same criterion. Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune, for example, all share their orbits with asteroids.

But if Pluto were to keep its planetary status, many of the solar system's dwarf planets would also need to be classified as planets  — and there could be hundreds in our solar system.

While astronomers continue to debate the definition of planet and the implications thereof, the public has come together multiple times to defend Pluto's title.

For now, Pluto will just have to be the king of the dwarf planets. And that's pretty cool, too.

The Milky Way has something of a torrid and violent history, given that our galaxy has fueled its own growth by cannibalistically devouring smaller galaxies. Now, astronomers have discovered evidence of our galaxy's earliest bout of cannibalism in the form of "scarring" at the heart of the Milky Way left behind by a galactic morsel it devoured around 12 billion years ago.

Working as part of the ARMA (Cluster Ages to Reconstruct the Milky Way Assembly) project, the team behind this discovery used dense conglomerations of ancient stars called globular clusters to find traces of a merger that occurred around 1.8 billion years earlier than the previously earliest known event of this type.

Prior to this, the history of the Milky Way colliding and merging with both smaller and larger galaxies had only been reconstructed up to around 10 billion years ago, around 3.8 billion years after the Big Bang. The earliest bout of cosmic cannibalism involved the collision with and consumption of the dwarf galaxy Gaia-Enceladus about 10 billion years ago. That means the earliest history of the Milky Way was, until now, shrouded in mystery.

"This work tells us what happened to the Milky Way in its infancy," team member Chiara Zerbinati of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Bologna, Italy, said in a statement. "It sheds light on a particularly significant event that influenced the entire subsequent evolution of the galaxy. If one of humanity's great questions is 'where do we come from?', we offer at least a piece of the answer."

A helping hand from Hubble

The key development in the quest to delve further back into the history of the Milky Way was delivered by the Hubble Space Telescope.

"We started with the ambition of reconstructing the assembly history of the Milky Way, that is, all the galactic merger events that led to its current appearance," team leader Davide Massari of the Italian Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) said. "We used globular clusters as tracers: especially in the inner regions of the galaxy, where extinction is highest, they are the only objects for which we can obtain excellent measurements of both orbital motion and age."

Astronomers developed a technique using Hubble data that allowed them to discover the ages of globular clusters with a far greater precision than had ever been possible before. This revealed that the globular clusters at the heart of our galaxy can be categorized in three distinct ways based upon their age and their metallicity, a measure of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers refer to as metals.

One group of globular clusters could be linked directly to the Gaia-Enceladus merger; one belonged to the original Milky Way; but there also existed a third group distinct enough from the other two groups that it must have come from some hitherto undiscovered merger event.

The team was able to deduce some things about this doomed galaxy from this third group of globular clusters. They found the unfortunate galaxy had around the same mass as Gaia-Enceladus, about 500 million times the mass of the sun. For comparison, the Milky Way today has a mass of around 1.5 trillion solar masses.

The researchers also found that most of the matter from this devoured dwarf galaxy was dumped into the Milky Way within 20,000 light-years of our galaxy's heart. They also gave a name to this violent, yet formative cosmic event.

"The final name, Low-energy-Kraken-Heracles (LKH), is an acronym that pays homage to the three papers that first hypothesized the existence of this ancient galactic encounter," Massari concluded.

The team's research was published on Monday, August 17, in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Here's what to expect during each stage of the Aug. 27-28 partial lunar eclipse, as our planet's colossal shadow swallows 96% of the moon's surface for billions on the night side of Earth.

August's lunar eclipse is the closing act of a dramatic two-part show, the opening act of which began on Aug. 12 as the moon covered the face of the sun to trigger a spectacular total solar eclipse over parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

Eclipses always come in pairs, but the stages to be expected during a lunar eclipse are staggeringly different from its solar equivalent. One major bonus of a lunar eclipse is that each stage unfolds simultaneously for everyone on the night side of Earth, where the lunar disk is above the horizon. However, the local time for each stage will differ based on your location.

Lunar eclipses are also completely safe to view with the naked eye, or even through a pair of binoculars of a telescope, which will offer a magnified view of the moon as Earth's shadow sweeps across its cratered landscape.

Earth's shadow is divided into two concentric cones that are only visible during the brief window of a lunar eclipse. The outer penumbral cone casts a soft, wide shadow, while the inner umbra reveals the distinct curve of Earth's silhouette.

The 5 stages of the partial lunar eclipse August 2026

Stage 1: Earth's penumbral shadow sweeps across the moon

The eclipse officially begins at 9:23 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27 (0123GMT on Aug. 28), as Earth's outer penumbral shadow begins to cover the moon's surface, according to TimeandDate.com.

Darkening of the lunar disk during this stage is incredibly subtle, becoming most apparent in the moments before Earth's inner shadow appears to transform August's "Sturgeon Moon", which is named for the time of year when the large fish were easily caught in North America.

Stage 2: Partial lunar eclipse begins

Earth's inner umbral shadow will take its first "bite" out of the moon at 10:33 EDT on Aug. 27 (0233 GMT on Aug. 28), announcing the start of the partial phase of today's deep lunar eclipse.

The umbral shadow will first appear as a small semicircle of shadow close to the dark expanses of Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms) and Mare Humorum on the moon's southwestern edge, before swiftly spreading to swallow the nearby moonscape.

This partial phase of a lunar eclipse is the only opportunity most of us will get to see the grand sweep of Earth's silhouette with our own eyes, as our planet performs like a doll in a cosmic marionette, casting its shape in shadow against the backdrop of its natural satellite.

Stage 3: Maximum eclipse

The eclipse will reach its peak at 12:12 a.m. EDT (0412 GMT) on Aug. 28, as 96% of the lunar disk is smothered in Earth's umbral shadow, leaving a dazzling crescent exposed to direct sunlight on the moon's northern limb.

Around this time, you may notice a subtle red hue infuse the moon, as sunlight filtered through Earth's atmosphere is refracted, or bent onto its surface. It may appear as if the light from every sunset and sunrise on Earth is simultaneously striking the lunar disk, revealing prominent craters and dark lunar seas in spite of the shadow covering it.

Stage 4: Earth's inner shadow slips from the moon

Earth's inner umbral shadow will steadily retreat from the moon in the hours. The crimson hue that may have been visible at the height of the eclipse will gradually fade as the crescent of the lunar disk exposed to direct sunlight grows, and normality reasserts itself over the natural satellite.

The last vestige of Earth's inner shadow will depart the lunar surface at 1:51 a.m. EDT (0551 GMT) on Aug. 28.

Stage 5: Earth's outer shadow exits the Sturgeon Moon

Our planet's outer penumbral shadow will disappear from the Sturgeon Moon shortly after at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT), bringing the eclipse to an end. We won't see another like it until New Year's Eve 2028, when a total lunar eclipse will be visible across Asia, Australia and Europe

Eager to photograph August's partial lunar eclipse? Then be sure to read our expert's guide on how to photograph a lunar eclipse, along with a roundup of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography. You should also check out our picks of the best binoculars and telescopes available in 2026, which will give you a closer look at the moon as Earth's shadow swallows its ancient surface.

Editor's Note: If you capture a photo of the August lunar eclipse and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

In August of 2006, astronomers at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) democratically voted to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet — but 20 years later, with our greater knowledge and understanding of planetary systems, is it time to revisit the controversial decision? Should Pluto be called a planet again?

For several years before the IAU vote, there had been agitators among the astronomical community lobbying for our solar system's nine worlds to become eight, and for Pluto's planetary status to be revoked. In 2000, Neil DeGrasse Tyson even went as far as to remove Pluto from the planets display at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. The questioning of Pluto's status began even earlier, in the 1990s, with the discovery of distant objects in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune which had similar orbits to Pluto.

It all came to a head in July of 2005 with the discovery of Eris, which is a Pluto-size body even further from the sun than Pluto is. Was Eris the 10th planet? If it was not a planet, then how could we still call Pluto a planet? A year later, the issue was debated at a meeting of the IAU, where astronomers from all over the world convened to discuss various conundrums. Numerous proposals and counter-proposals were put forward, some of which even increased the number of recognized planets to as many as 14. But in the end, Pluto became a dwarf planet.

Though Pluto was officially "reclassified," to many in the public it seemed as though Pluto had experienced a demotion. This viewpoint was the one promoted by those scientists who were against the decision such as Alan Stern, who was the principal investigator on the New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern's spacecraft would launch in 2005 on a journey to a planet, but arrive at a dwarf planet in 2015.

Some argued that Pluto was still a kind of planet, just a small one. This argument is undermined somewhat by the IAU giving Pluto a minor planet number — 134340 — which is typically reserved for asteroids. Nationalistic arguments from some in the United States said Pluto should remain a planet because it was discovered by an American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, at Arizona's Lowell Observatory in 1930. And when New Horizons reached Pluto, it revealed not a minor body, but rather a complex world in its own right.

What is Pluto?

Nevertheless, for 20 years, Pluto has remained a dwarf planet, but on the anniversary of that fateful IAU vote, is it time to revisit that decision? Paul Byrne, a planetary astronomer at the University of Washington in St Louis, certainly thinks so.

"Yes, Pluto is a planet," he told Space.com. And not just Pluto, but the other dwarf planets too: Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea, not to mention the likes of Sedna and Quaoar that are dwarf planets in all but name.

"Ultimately I think they are all planets and I don't think there's any benefit to not including Pluto as a planet," Byrne said.

To a point this entire debate is semantics, and Byrne accepts this viewpoint, reminding us that: "Nature doesn't care what we call Pluto."

However, perception is another matter, which is where Byrne thinks that the IAU's 2006 decree ultimately failed us. Byrne describes how, when he gives public talks about the planets, members of the audience don't ask questions about Pluto's amazing active nitrogen glaciers or what formed its giant heart-shaped feature. Instead, they want to know why it was demoted. The entire issue has got in the way of presenting the science to the public.

"We've done a massive disservice to the public from a science communication perspective," Byrne said. "The messaging has got in the way of trying to understand what Pluto is."

One of the arguments in 2006 was that models of the solar system's formation predict that there could be hundreds of objects like Pluto and Eris that remain undiscovered in the Scattered Disk and the Oort Cloud, which is a vast unexplored region that could extend up to a light-year from the sun.

"One of the issues people brought up was, how would kids remember the names of 200 planets?" said Byrne. "But just look at how many Pokémon there are that kids know the names of. If ultimately there are 200 planets in the solar system, then so what?"

The IAU definition of a planet

Semantics or not, how we categorize celestial objects has to be grounded in some kind of scientific thinking. In 2006, the IAU came up with a three-point plan on what makes a planet.

First, a planet had to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning that its gravity has pulled it into a spherical shape. Furthermore, its interior will have become differentiated, with the heavier elements sinking to the core. Everyone seems to agree with this part of the planetary definition.

Second was that it must be in orbit around the sun, so a moon isn't a planet because a moon doesn't orbit the sun, it orbits a planet instead (though Byrne notes that if he had his way, he'd call the large moons planets too). Strictly speaking, this rules out exoplanets because they don't orbit our sun, but common sense dictates that they're fine because they orbit their own star instead. However, what about rogue planets that wander interstellar space alone? Astronomers are now beginning to discover very many of these free-floating worlds. It could be argued that most of these did indeed form in orbit around a star only to be ejected, so it's okay to still call them planets, but some rogue planets seem to have formed directly from the collapse of a gas cloud without having a parent star. Such planets fall through the gaps in the IAU's definition.

It's the third point that draws the critics' ire the most. It states that to be a planet, an object must have cleared its neighborhood. In other words, it must be dominant in the region around its orbit, its gravity having swept away any other bodies. Pluto fails at this because its orbit actually crosses Neptune's, and it's accompanied by other Kuiper belt objects in neighboring orbits. But then you could say Neptune mustn't be a planet because it has Pluto infringing on its orbital realm. And what about the existence of near-Earth asteroids? Does their existence mean that Earth isn't a planet because it hasn't cleared those away yet? There certainly does seem to be some sloppiness in this part of the definition of a planet, perhaps resulting from the somewhat rushed nature of the vote 20 years ago.

Planetary processes

But if the IAU decision were to be rejected, what should replace it? How should we classify planets? Byrne has some ideas.

"Being round and having some amount of differentiation makes a lot of sense to me," he said. "Geophysically, if they are big enough to pull themselves into balls, then they are big enough to have undergone some kind of internal chemical processing and are capable of having some kind of active geology, in terms of the outgassing of volatiles to form an atmosphere, volcanism, surface geomorphological processes, even a short-lived magnetic field. That's why I count the moon as a planet because it has had these planetary processes."

Byrne acknowledges that gas giants don't have these properties since they have no solid surface, but no one is doubting Jupiter's planetary credentials, and when it comes to Uranus and Neptune we don't actually know whether or not there is some sort of super-Earth itself lurking deep within them.

The moniker "dwarf" doesn't impress Byrne either. To him, it sounds like it implies there is a hierarchy of planets with the gas giants at the top and the dwarf planets at the bottom.

"There is no natural hierarchy; they don't form according to one," he said. And although Pluto, Eris and the other dwarf planets are made from detritus left over from the construction of the solar system, they still coalesced in the same way as the other planets, in the sense that building blocks came together to form these larger objects.

A counterargument to Pluto being a planet, however, is that if it is just one of 200, then it is nothing special; it would become forgotten and ultimately treated almost incidentally. As a dwarf planet, it is the standard bearer of its kind, the guardian of an entire realm of similarly sized worlds. It's a choice between being a big fish in a little pond, or a little fish in a big pond.

The other 200 planets?

The real test will come when astronomers begin to discover some of these purported 200 or so planets far from the sun. As long as they are all roughly Pluto-size, there will be no debate — but what happens when astronomers discover one the size of Mars, or one even as large as Earth? We would surely think of an object so large as a planet. Perhaps this world would have formed closer to the sun but was kicked out through gravitational interactions with one of the giant planets, but on the other hand perhaps it formed out there in the outer solar system from the same detritus as Pluto did.

"By the IAU definition it would fail to be defined as a planet because it wouldn't have cleared its neighborhood," said Byrne. "If we did find such a planet it would be another nail in the coffin of trying to distinguish these things solely on the basis of where they are and not what they are."

Whatever the case, if Pluto is to be a planet again, it must deserve to be so scientifically. Nostalgia, or nationalistic pride, or giving kids names of planets to remember aren;t sufficient reasons to revoke the original IAU decision. Revisiting the name "dwarf planet" and finding a more appropriate category could be the way to go instead.

Or, perhaps we just don't have the words to describe the things that we are discovering. Concepts such as planets are rooted in history going back millennia when there was no understanding what these wandering "stars" really were, so perhaps it is not surprising that we are now running into difficulty when trying to apply the term "planet" to our modern understanding of the different types of worlds. If there is no way of categorizing these objects that is consistent and satisfactory to everyone, then perhaps we ought to stop worrying so much about it.

Whatever we decide to call it, Pluto will always be Pluto.

The "Star Trek" franchise's 60th anniversary is coming straight at us warp speed and will be arriving on Sept. 8, 2026. "Trek" faithful from around the globe are expected to pause and salute this space fantasy institution created by Gene Roddenberry in whichever way they deem appropriate.

The celebration has already begun earlier this year at the 2026 Rose Parade and will accelerate past September and into the fall, where there’ll no doubt be 40th anniversary screenings of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and 30th anniversary tributes to "Star Trek: First Contact" in November, amid a galaxy of other 'Trek'-centric events and retrospectives.

William Shatner's innumerable contributions to the "Star Trek" universe are as infinite as the heavens, and to add to the historic occasion’s festivities, he's co-executive produced a new documentary about the show's history and impact.

Titled "The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television And The World", the documentary will launch exclusively into Regal Cinemas beginning on Oct. 9, 2026.

Written and directed by Mark A. Altman ("Star Trek: The Fifty-Year Mission") in association with Michael S. Broder of Galaxie Pictures, "The Sixty-Year Mission" will focus on the rare combination of creative genius, epic struggles, personal conflicts, and indefatigable spirit that caused the cosmic tumblers to align and birth "Star Trek: The Original Series" in 1966.

"This film is a love letter to 'Star Trek,'" Altman told Deadline. "I’m immensely grateful to Regal to offer this gift to fans for the show’s 60th birthday. I'm confident that the film will appeal both to longtime fans of the franchise as well as new viewers who might be wondering what the unique alchemy of this pop culture icon is really about."

"The Sixty-Year Mission" burrows into the genesis of the seminal TV series that, against all odds, forever altered the landscape of small screen science fiction and ushered in a true classic.

It's brimming with archival footage and fresh insights from "The Original Series" luminaries William Shatner, Walter Koenig, and George Takei, as well as visits with Gene “Rod” Roddenberry, Jr., Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Ethan Peck, Robert Picardo, Christina Chong, and Denise Crosby.

“"We could not be more excited to partner with Regal to ensure that fans have a chance to see this remarkable film honoring the incredible 60-year legacy of 'Star Trek,'" adds Broder. "I am delighted to join forces with William Shatner and many of the franchise’s greatest stars and creatives to bring this film to theaters. And since every birthday deserves a party, we’ll be bringing key 'Star Trek' talent to theaters for exclusive Q&A’s."

Except for the two-part pilot, "The Menagerie," Shatner appeared as the USS Enterprise's Captain James T. Kirk in every one of "Star Trek: The Original Series"' 79 episodes over three seasons and forged a palpable bond with viewers that helped forge "Star Trek's" legacy. His involvement with this documentary at the age of 95 gives the project a definite luster.

"The Sixty-Year Mission" will dock in Regal theaters starting Oct. 9, 2026.

A misbehaving coronal mass ejection (CME) that blew out a hidden cloud of charged particles aimed at Earth has been tracked by a record 17 spacecraft spread throughout the solar system, revealing the CME to be surprisingly lopsided.

CMEs are "burps" from the sun – huge clouds of magnetized plasma belched out from the sun's hot outer atmosphere, the corona, by the energy resulting from a solar flare. The magnetized CME cloud then expands out into the solar system, and the charged particles that the cloud contains are a significant radiation hazard to astronauts, spacecraft and even passengers on jet liners, but they also have a beautiful side as they can trigger the beautiful lights of the aurora when they intercept Earth.

CMEs occur on a regular basis, but one that erupted from the sun at 00:48 UT (7:48 p.m. ET) on Dec. 15, 2024 proved to be rather special.

"We used observations from 17 spacecraft to track and characterize this CME," Adrienn Luspay-Kuti of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who led the research that drew all the observations together, told Space.com. "This was a record number of spacecraft for tracking and characterizing a single CME, and gave us an exceptionally detailed view of how the CME evolved."

The previous record had been 10 spacecraft, but they had mostly been in a rough line from the sun through to the Earth and beyond, meaning that their measurements were somewhat one-dimensional. This time, for the December 2024 CME, the spacecraft were spread far and wide, not just at different distances from the sun, but also substantially wide of the Earth–sun line.

They revealed that the CME had two asymmetric lobes, one moving faster than the other. One of those lobes, which headed for Earth and Mars, would have gone unseen, obscured by the larger but slower lobe that left the sun at a tangent, were it not for the wide spread of the spacecraft.

"Our observations showed a fast lobe propagating through the Earth–Mars sector and a much slower lobe farther west toward STEREO-A," said Luspay-Kuti. STEREO-A is one half of NASA's two-spacecraft space weather monitoring system known as the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory.

The onset of the CME was seen by the joint NASA–ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO), which has been constantly monitoring the sun for more than 30 years. Yet it only saw the slower lobe that erupted at an angle to Earth; the faster lobe heading for our planet was missed, obscured by the slower, larger lobe.

The CME was next detected at a distance from the sun of 0.35 astronomical units (AU; 1 AU is the distance of Earth from the sun) on Dec. 16 moving through space near Mercury and the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission (which finally arrives into orbit around the innermost planet in November 2026).

The next detection, on Dec. 17, was of the "hidden" component arriving at Earth, where a multitude of spacecraft picked it up. The CME was not strong enough to produce significant aurorae. Intriguingly Europe's Solar Orbiter mission, on an elongated orbit around the sun and at the time 0.94 AU from the sun and just 10 degrees off the Earth–sun line, did not detect the CME. This non-detection was actually vital since it helped to constrain the shape of the CME.

Then on Dec. 18, the slower moving lobe reached NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft, which orbits the sun at the same distance as Earth — 1 AU —- but substantially ahead of Earth in its orbit. The lobe that intersected the Earth had an average velocity of 522 miles (840 kilometers) per second, but the other lobe dragged its feet, moving at an average of 332 miles (534 km) per second from the sun and past BepiColombo and STEREO-A. In fact, by the time it reached STEREO-A, it had slowed to about 248.5 miles (400 km) per second. Both lobes decelerated as a result of friction with the regular solar wind that the CME was overtaking, and the range of velocities measured in the CME told researchers that the solar eruption was not traveling as a single, unified front.

Beyond Earth NASA's Europa Clipper mission, on which Luspay-Kuti is the Principal Investigator for the spacecraft's Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) experiment, detected the faster moving lobe at 1.19 AU as the spacecraft was cruising to Mars for a gravity assist to help it on its journey to Jupiter. At the red planet, the now-defunct MAVEN mission also detected the CME on Dec. 19 to Dec. 20.

To have not only so many spacecraft follow the progress of a CME but also enough spacecraft off the Earth–sun line to measure the shape of the CME, at least in two dimensions, is a significant step forward in understanding and forecasting the propagation of CMEs.

"This matters for future human exploration because a missed CME can mean losing valuable warning time," said Luspay-Kuti. "Fast CMEs can drive shocks that accelerate high-energy particles, which can pose a radiation hazard to astronauts outside Earth's protective magnetic field. This is why observations from multiple viewpoints, including spacecraft away from the sun–Earth line and planetary missions operating during their cruise phase, will become increasingly important for space-weather forecasting as human exploration moves further from Earth."

The asymmetrical double-lobed structure of this particular CME was certainly a surprise. The cause of the asymmetry remains unclear at present, though Luspay-Kuti told Space.com that researchers are investigating. The main question is, how frequent are asymmetric CMEs?

"In the context of previous observations, this event is at the most extreme end of observed CME variability," said Luspay-Kuti. "Are highly asymmetric CMEs actually fairly common but we fail to recognize them because we don't have enough observational coverage, or are they genuinely rare?"

The 17 spacecraft that detected or imaged the CME across some or all of its various stages – the bow shock and turbulent sheath ahead of the magnetic cloud, the CME itself and the turbulent wake left in the solar wind after its passing – were the following: SOHO (initial imaging), BepiColombo, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, STEREO-A, the four spacecraft of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, the two spacecraft of the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the sun) mission, NASA's Wind, ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer), GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) and DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) missions, Europa Clipper, MAVEN and Solar Orbiter, the latter of which made measurements but did not detect the CME.

In the future, these missions will be joined by the European Space Agency's Vigil mission that will watch for space weather when it launches in 2031 for the sun–Earth L5 Lagrange point, 60 degrees behind Earth in its orbit and therefore providing additional off-axis monitoring.

The findings were published on Aug. 19 in the journal Science Advances.

Poor weather has delayed the launch of China's latest moon mission.

According to reports, the growth of Tropical Depression Narra in the Gulf of Tonkin has prompted China's space agency to delay the liftoff of Chang'e 7 significantly — possibly until 2027.

"China's Chang'e 7 lunar probe does not meet launch conditions, and its launch therefore cannot take place during the planned window this year," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported today (Aug. 23), citing the China Manned Space Agency.

Chang'e 7 had originally been scheduled to launch today from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan. But then Narra started brewing in the Gulf of Tonkin, just to the island's west.

Launching a rocket into a howling gale is less than ideal. Chinese space officials initially pushed the launch back a day, to Monday (Aug. 24), before concluding that the new target was unattainable as well.

It's now unclear when Chang'e 7 might lift off; messaging on the topic has been characteristically murky. (China is fairly tight-lipped about its space activities, revealing far less publicly than, say, NASA or the European Space Agency does. For example, China announces who's flying on its crewed missions just one day before liftoff.)

The Chang'e 7 launch requires a certain lineup of Earth and the moon, so it cannot simply occur as soon as the skies around Wenchang clear. Some online reports suggest that Chang'e 7 could lift off as soon as September, while others — including today's Xinua story — have it launching sometime in 2027.

Whenever it occurs, the liftoff will draw a lot of attention. Chang'e 7 is an ambitious and exciting mission, and it could have serious implications for lunar exploration down the road.

Chang'e 7 consists of an orbiter and a lander, which will likely touch down on the rim of Shackleton Crater, near the moon's south pole (though China has not announced an official landing site).

This region is thought to harbor lots of water ice, most of it on crater floors that have not seen the sun for billions of years. Chang'e 7's lander will deploy a rover and a hopping robot to hunt for this precious resource, which could help support human settlements in the area.

China aims to build such an outpost in the coming years, as does the United States, via NASA's Artemis program. U.S. officials have stressed the need for the nation to win this new space race so that it can establish the norms for living and working on Earth's nearest neighbor.

NASA is giving a financial boost to nearly 20 technology investigations to help fuel the incubation of tomorrow's spaceflight research capabilities.

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has selected 18 projects for this year's Phase I awards, which will each split a total of $3.2 million in development funding. NIAC is designed to bolster technology breakthroughs that NASA could use on future space missions.

This year's awards include an array of mission concepts and research proposals NASA views as having "transformative potential," according to a July 29 announcement of winners. Among them are ideas for hardening spacecraft to explore and withstand the harsh conditions of Venus, radioisotope-heated lunar spacesuits and using space dust to partially block out the sun to reduce solar radiation.

The selected projects aren't actual NASA missions, but serve as a sampling of technologies the agency sees as potentially contributing to projects like establishing a moon base as part of the Artemis program.

"Achieving that will require more than incremental technological advancement. It means we need great leaps," Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology division in NASA's Research and Technology Mission Directorate, said in the awards announcement. "These awards are the kinds of innovation the world needs NASA to help foster."

Each of the 18 award winners will receive up to $175,000 to complete a nine-month investigation of their proposals to determine their feasibility and determine the next steps in maturing their technologies.

As NASA's plans for long-term lunar habitation evolve, underground dwellings that are naturally shielded from the harsh solar radiation are a serious consideration for habitation spaces. One of the NIAC winning ideas includes the Lunar Underground eXplorer (LUX), from Gilly Elor, at Texas-based Stone Aerospace, Inc. LUX would send hovering robots to map the potentially miles-long lava tubes beneath the moon's Mare Tranquilitatitis. These drones, obscured from sunlight in the depths of these lunar labyrinths, would each be tethered by an extra lightweight fiber-optic cable spooled out from a lander or rover on the moon's surface, which would shoot the line with a laser to supply the cave-diving probe's power and communications link.

Another NIAC winner aims to map the continents of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. Today, we can determine the size and makeup of exoplanets, but discerning their physical features isn't something that's been attempted on a large scale.

Paul Stankus, from Brookhaven Science Associates in New York, proposes designing a new type of "nulling interferometer," which uses data from different telescopes to cancel out a star's light, via a technique called "dynamic hierarchical nulling." His idea would merge data from a pair of "nuller" space telescopes positioned about 60 miles (100 kilometers) apart to achieve a resolution fine enough to detect the contrast of surface features on exoplanets 10 billion times dimmer than their star.

Another award-winning concept comes from Michael Rubenstein and Northwestern University. They propose exploring Saturn's rings by throwing thousands of "femtosats" (small satellite probes weighing less than 100 grams) into the gas giant's orbit.

According to the project's page on NASA's website, "Conducting in-situ surveys of Saturn's rings with a single flagship mission, such as Cassini, would carry an unacceptably high risk of mission failure due to particle collisions." Instead, the femtosat fleet proposal suggests flying 10,000 spacecraft into Saturn's rings, knowing a significant portion could be lost. "The distributed nature of the proposed mission means it can accept a risk that could destroy many of [the] femtosats in the constellation, making in-situ survey of the ring possible."

"Every innovation, every leap in technology, starts with a seed of an idea," Phillip Williams, NIAC's acting program executive, said in NASA's statement. "The NIAC program allows NASA to germinate those seeds and determine if there's something that could be grown to benefit future space missions and our nation's aerospace economy."

HOUSTON — What does NASA's astronaut training hub look like these days, as the agency aims to bring more commercial space stations into the fold?

It's an interesting mix of government and private companies, of space agency personnel and of contractors, all working together to keep U.S. and international astronauts flying through the end of the ISS — currently expected around 2030 — and the new breed of commercial space stations expected to take its place.

Canadian reporters like myself were invited on a tour of Johnson Space Center (JSC) on Aug. 4 ahead of the launch of SpaceX Crew-13, which launches no earlier than Sept. 12. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutryk is a mission specialist on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which also includes NASA commander Jessica Watkins, NASA pilot Luke Delaney and Roscosmos mission specialist Teteryatnikov.

The ISS remains an active program for at least a few years; NASA managers reiterated in a press conference here on Aug. 3 that they are still targeting an end-of-operations in about 2030 — but they are prepared to extend the lifetime of the station if directed by Congress (which wants to keep going at least another two years).

The space station has had a leak on the Russian side for several years, and astronauts recently and briefly sheltered in a Crew Dragon during discussions of a fix. At the press conference, NASA added the situation is under control as Roscosmos agreed to essentially seal off that area. Major station systems, they added, are otherwise in good health.

But as spaceflight takes planning, teams are already thinking about "lessons learned" when the ISS retires for a new generation of mission planners, which would include an even greater focus on companies. NASA's Commercial LEO (Low Earth Orbit) Destinations or CLD program aims to have private space stations for astronauts by the time the ISS retires, and handed out early-stage contracts valued at about $415 million in 2021 to three teams led by Nanoracks, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. After NASA briefly considered changing the program's scope, after input from industry a new request for proposals advancing CLD should be out soon.

Meanwhile, companies like Vast Space have their own self-funded modules almost ready to fly, while Bigelow Aerospace has an inflatable module on ISS that is being tested, long-duration wise, to make sure the concept holds up for a future free-flying destination. No matter who hosts astronauts, however, NASA officials on the tour said they are prepared to offer expertise and help — and there is no other visible demonstration of that expertise to the public than the ISS Mission Control, which is often shown live on NASA+ during a selection of space station operations.

Mission Control: 'We have all of those disciplines'

The Mission Control building holds several dedicated control rooms for different mission purposes, including an historic Apollo control center and another room alternately used for Boeing Starliner and Artemis missions. I've been lucky enough to visit all of these in the past. Our only stop in the building Aug. 4, however, was the iconic ISS mission control.

On screen at the front of the room, the Expedition 75 astronauts were awake and active, occasionally zooming by a camera mounted inside the Destiny U.S. lab sandwiched between two station "nodes" leading to other modules. Flight director Diane Dailey told us the controllers are watching for things like if the astronauts are loaded down with equipment, which indicates that would not be a good time to call unless urgent. "We usually have that live camera view just up for awareness. It just helps us understand," she said.

Speaking of calls, an open laptop screen, deliberately positioned within view of the camera, showed all "green" on the comms channels—which helps ground controllers figure out if the crew can hear them, as the station flies in and out of satellite and ground station views all the time. (A flight map, also at the front of the room, also allows for tracking the station and its communications capabilities as it flies around the world.)

While it was hard not to keep gazing at these screens, what was almost as mesmerizing was watching the quiet group of ISS controllers positioned in front of their own laptops and occasionally holding side conversations about their systems. SpaceX now has its own Mission Control in California for its spacecraft, while Boeing chose to integrate theirs with NASA's. Whatever pathway companies choose, however, Mission Control will remain an important example of "division of labor" for future space stations.

"You're going to see different consoles that specialize in different aspects of spacecraft operations," Dailey said. "I like to kind of think of it in terms of, 'What are all the capabilities you'd need on any given spacecraft', right? You'd need propulsion. You'd need communications. You'd need computers. All of those things. So, we have all of those disciplines and all those areas in the spacecraft represented here."

Building 9: What to do 'when you no longer have gravity assisting you'

The Space Vehicle Mockup Facility — known to JSC workers as Building 9 — is constantly in flux, because modules constantly shift in and out of the facility for different missions. The facility's goal these days is not only to support NASA missions, but also private industry, by providing the physical space and hardware to simulate problems in space if they arise.

When it comes to astronaut training, one example is learning how to do CPR: "CPR is hard enough when you have gravity. When you no longer have gravity assisting you, they [astronauts] have to learn to 'strap in'," said Mathieu Caron, the CSA's director of astronauts, life sciences and space medicine, who accompanied reporters on the tour of Building 9.

That's only one example of an emergency, of course. Another one is fire alarms—in which the astronauts learn how to quickly gather their team in a "safe haven" with communications and computers available to talk with Earth, then to make sure everyone is there before assessing the situation and figuring out how to deal with it (which could mean fighting the fire, or heading to an escape vehicle.)

When astronauts are training for fire alarms in Building 9, Caron said, there's an extra step involved: letting nearby personnel know that the simulated fire alarm in the ISS area is not the actual fire alarm for the building. "Like, if you hear this specific bell, it's because they're just practicing that training," he explained.

The emphasis of our visit was on ISS operations, given that we were visiting in association with Crew-13, but the facility's website also mentions "commercial space flight companies and exploration programs" among the customers.

While walking the perimeter of the building alongside NASA and CSA, we could see some distant glimpses of other companies' hardware — from SpaceX and Blue Origin, for example, as well as the Starlab Space consortium's multi-floor space station mockup. As NASA very much intends to be the customer on future CLD destinations, surely more of these companies will be occupying the floor of Building 9 after the ISS retires.

Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory: 'The better they get, the more we treat it like the real world'

Our last stop on the Gilligan-like three-hour tour was the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, which is part of JSC's Sonny Carter Training Facility and about a 15-minute drive from the heart of the NASA campus. Most space people would easily recognize this place as the spot where astronauts rehearse spacewalks, clad in adapted spacesuits simulating what they'll feel for real the moment they step out the hatch.

I spent much of my childhood in community center pools, learning how to swim, and when I walked beside the football-field-sized pool for the first time the humidity — and the echoes on the ceiling and walls from noises — felt somewhat like old times. The scale, however, was strange. The echoes were happening much further away from me, while the humidity was less intense given the expanse of the huge facility. It was hard for my mind to settle, as the setting felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

We only spent a few moments poolside, however, as getting up on the catwalks allowed a much better view of the scene. In one zone were the ISS module mockups inside the pool, through which a couple of astronauts were training while surrounded by divers. (You could track the team's progress by watching the bubbles and hoses on the surface.)

"When they [astronaut candidates] first start, we help them a lot," the NBL's Tim Hall told our media group. "The more mature they get in their training, and the better they get, the more we treat it like the real world — and let them execute on their own."

In another was an area where the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 2 moon mission was put through its paces during training: Could the arriving divers handle waves? What if the spacecraft landed upside-down? All of these things were simulated repeatedly to ease recovery operations.

"Have you ever watched 'Apollo 13'?" Hall asked us. (It's the movie that sparked my interest in space when I saw it on VHS in 1996, so yes.) "If you're a fan, at the end of the movie, you'll see them at 'Stable 1'," he continued — that means the spacecraft is upright in the water.

"We have Stable 1, 2, 3, 4. Those are all the positions of the vehicle when it's laying in the water. So, this thing is actually training for the crew. … we can rotate [the spacecraft], so they train the crew how to get in and out of it in the different stable conditions."

The deep-ocean capabilities are not only useful for spacecraft, but for applications like the oil industry: the pool has been used in past years to simulate offshore work and fire training for the engineers on distant rigs, for example. Private space companies also have had their own time in the pool for spacesuit applications, such as what Axiom Space advertised in 2025 to test the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit that NASA astronauts are expected to use on the lunar surface.

Could more companies come in as the ISS program winds down? Hall says right now a lot of the spare capacity is taken up by the U.S. Navy, but the NBL does expect to offer more of these commercial services in future — as it's already advertised on their website.

"We're open to that for sure," Hall said. "We haven't had anybody out here yet for, like, a recovery or anything on training like that from a private space [company], but that's definitely something we'll address."

After all these years, we still want to believe.

Whether you're a bona fide believer or a staunch skeptic, we can all agree that UFO legends and lore is a fascinating subject that continues to fuel endless debate. And with pop culture feeding our lizard brains lurid tales of flying saucers and alien invasions, it’s no wonder humanity is always up for a good story of inexplicable aerial sightings or various uncanny encounters of the third kind.

In "We Want To Believe: How Aliens Went Mainstream And Why It Matters" (Aug. 25, Columbia Global Reports), acclaimed literary critic and Senior Editor at The Atlantic Adam Kirsch explores this insatiable drive to wonder at unidentified phenomena. For Kirsch, the topic asks many of the same questions that human religions do. "For me, humanity's way into the subject is that UFOs are a way of thinking about a lot of the same questions we might also think about in religious or philosophical terms," Kirsch told Space in an interview. "Questions like what is unique about humanity, are we alone in the universe, are there other minds, what's our destiny as a species?"

Kirsch says the recent wave of alleged whistleblowers helped push him towards studying UFOs, or UAP, as they're now known.

"The real start of my interest in the subject was in 2017 when there was this sudden reporting in the mainstream media about the Pentagon UFO videos and the so-called secret program to collect UFO reports. For the first time, it seemed like maybe there was some legitimate news or evidence."

Kirsch recognized that monumental occasion as a pivotal moment that truly altered the way that American culture and media talked about the titillating topic.

"I got more into the history and the lore of UFOs and partly out of just that basic idea that it would be really cool if there were other minds in the universe. It would be amazing if we could find proof of that. Over the years it's happened repeatedly in this history of UFOs. There's a lot of public excitement and then it peters out because there is no evidence and there isn't anything concrete to point to. And that's definitely what's happened over this last cycle."

Using grounded scientific logic and basic common sense, Kirsch brings a calm measured approach to the UAP hysteria that's been gripping the whole country.

"One of the interesting things about testimony that people like David Fravor and Ryan Graves gave about this is, 'When the camera sees something, the person doesn't see it. And when the person sees something, the camera doesn't see it.' It's always one or the other, it's never both at the same time. Even as long ago as the 1950s, people were saying that UFOs for some reason are not photogenic. No one ever seems to be able to get a real clear image of a UFO the way you’d think you'd be able to if they actually exist in the atmosphere."

"The obvious and logical explanation is that there's nothing to take a picture of. But it does get to this basic question of how do we go from, 'I had an experience' to 'This is what the experience tells me about the world.' I talk in the book about the difference between evidence and testimony. When they're talking about UFOs, people often blur that distinction. Testimony is an account and people are often wrong or misinterpret about what happened to them."

After all the smoke clears, the test that Kirsch declares must be applied to these reports is the same test that 18th-century philosopher David Hume said when talking about religious miracles.

"You don't have to prove that a miracle didn't happen, all you have to do is prove that it's more likely that someone was wrong, than that the laws of nature were suspended," Kirsch adds. "The same is true of UFOs. They're not supernatural or miraculous. If they really existed they'd exist in time and space and three dimensions like everything else. Based on the way we understand the universe and space travel, makes the odds very small that a UFO report would really be an actual extraterrestrial spacecraft. It's always going to be more likely that someone is wrong about what they saw.

"Modern science and scientific education is all about learning to not trust your instincts. It's about learning to say that the way that I spontaneously understand the world is wrong and there's a better way to understand it. UFOs are a perfect example of this because there's no evidence for them, but there's lots of people that see things in the sky they don't understand.

"With these released UAP videos, we might not be getting the whole truth, but that doesn't mean the whole truth is as interesting as I want it to be, and that there's some cosmic secret."

"We Want To Believe" is available at bookstores and online outlets Aug. 25, 2026.

On Episode 224 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and guest co-host Rick Jenet are joined by Dr. David Kring to discuss the where, whys, and hows of the Artemis Program's lunar exploration plans.

It has been said that the Moon is a harsh mistress, and nowhere is this more apparent than at the lunar south pole. That is, however, where the Artemis program is headed, and we need to figure out how to best explore the region.

Kring of the Universities Space Research Association's Lunar and Planetary Institute joins us to explore the answers — and risks — that await us.

Download or subscribe to this show at: https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

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Space news of the week

• Dr. Scott Pace

Model Falcon 9!

Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners collectSPACE.com.

About This Week In Space

This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars?

Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Space.com as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites this morning (Aug. 22) on a milestone mission for the company's Falcon rocket family.

A Falcon 9 carrying 27 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today at 3:25 a.m. EDT (0725 GMT; 12:25 a.m. local California time).

It was the 99th Falcon 9 liftoff of the year, and the 100th Falcon mission of 2026 overall. The other flight was performed by a Falcon Heavy, which lofted the telecom satellite Viasat-3 F3 in April.

Hitting the century mark at this point in the year is impressive. But SpaceX has a ways to go to equal its single-year Falcon launch record of 165, which was set in 2025. All of those were Falcon 9 missions.

The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth today as planned. It touched down about 8.5 minutes after launch in the Pacific Ocean, atop the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You." It was the ninth flight for this particular booster, which carries the designation B1100.

The 27 Starlink satellites, meanwhile, kept traveling to low Earth orbit aboard the Falcon 9's upper stage, deploying on schedule just under 62 minutes after launch.

Today's launch makes the largest-ever satellite constellation even bigger: Starlink already consists of more than 11,000 operational spacecraft.

As you might expect, Starlink satellites are SpaceX's most common payload; 76 of this year's 99 Falcon 9 flights have been dedicated Starlink missions.

And the number of SpaceX satellites is expected to rise considerably in the coming years. The company has said it wants to launch 100,000 of its next-gen Starlink V3 satellites and operate a constellation of one million data centers in Earth orbit. These spacecraft will fly atop SpaceX's Starship megarocket, which remains in development.

On Aug. 22, 1963, U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Walker flew an X-15 rocket plane higher than any pilot had ever flown before.

Walker reached an altitude of over 67 miles (108 kilometers). That's about 5 miles (8 km) above the edge of space! Walker experienced about five minutes of weightlessness over the course of the 11-minute flight.

This was the second and final suborbital spaceflight of the X-15 program. Walker piloted both flights and became the first person to go to space twice. For both flights, he flew in the space plane X-15 #3, which also became the first reused spacecraft to return to space.

Photos: X-15 Rocket Plane Reaches Space in Test Flights

Why it mattered

Walker's flight was part of an X-15 program that helped aerospace engineers learn how humans and vehicles operate at hypersonic speeds and transition between the atmosphere and the vacuum of space. The rocket planes tested reaction-control systems for maneuvering where the air was too thin for normal aerodynamic controls, while gathering data on heating, stability, structural loads, human performance and piloting techniques during reentry. Those lessons contributed to NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and, later, the development of the Space Shuttle.

Walker's Aug. 22 flight also highlighted an idea that would become increasingly important decades later: reusability. The same X-15 #3 had already carried Walker beyond the Kármán line a month earlier, making it one of the earliest demonstrations that a spacecraft could fly to space, return safely and then fly again. NASA's space shuttle became the central example of spacecraft reuse when it was introduced in the 1980s. Today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is the leader in reusable space vehicles, with nearly 600 launches of boosters that have lifted off at least once before, and counting.

Earth's shadow will swallow 96% of the lunar surface overnight on Aug. 27-28, potentially turning the moon a gorgeous shade of crimson as it bathes in light filtered and refracted by our planet's atmosphere.

The partial lunar eclipse will occur as Earth passes between the sun and moon during the monthly full moon phase. Around this time, Earth's curved inner shadow will appear to creep across the lunar surface while leaving a thin crescent exposed to direct sunlight at the point of maximum eclipse.

But who will actually get to see it? As usual, it's all a matter of location.

Where is the August 2026 partial lunar eclipse visible?

The Aug. 27-28 partial lunar eclipse will be visible to roughly 3.3 billion people spread across North America, South America and parts of Europe and Africa. Each phase will occur simultaneously for everyone watching from Earth, through the local timings for each eclipse phase will vary depending on your location.

For stargazers on the West Coast of America in cities like Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon, the point of maximum eclipse will arrive just a few hours after sunset. While anyone watching from East Coast cities including New York and Jacksonville will see the lunar spectacle peak around midnight local time.

For the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa, the eclipse will be an early morning affair, occurring shortly before sunrise as the moon arcs low towards the western horizon. You can check the exact timings and altitude of the moon during key phases of the Aug. 27-28 eclipse on TimeandDate.com.

The full extent of a partial lunar eclipse can be enjoyed by anyone who happens to be on the night side of Earth at the time that it occurs. You also won't need safety glasses or specialized equipment to view a lunar eclipse. It'll look magnificent to the naked eye, though binoculars, or even a telescope can heighten the experience by granting a magnified view of the moon as Earth's shadow slowly marches across its cratered surface!

Sadly, the moon will be out of sight below the horizon for anyone on the day side of Earth as the eclipse unfolds, making it impossible to view with the naked eye from a host of countries including Australia, India, China and Japan to name but a few.

But we've got you covered.

Space.com will be sharing details on how to watch the partial lunar eclipse live online closer to the time, along with all the latest news via our live blog. Why not also read up our expert tips on how to photograph the moon using a DSLR or mirrorless camera to ensure that you're ready to immortalize the deepest lunar eclipse until New Years Eve 2028-2029?

Editor's Note: If you capture a photo of the partial lunar eclipse and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Astronomers have discovered a hitherto unseen population of so-called "radio galaxies" with fading "radio lobes." The discovery reveals what happens when the supermassive black hole engines that power these vast, blooming outflows of plasma stall. This discovery increases our understanding of the life cycles of galaxies.

The team behind this research studied 14 candidates for faded or remnant radio galaxies found in a region of the sky over Earth, studied intensely by the XMM-Newton X-ray spacecraft, called the XMM–Newton Large-Scale Structure (XMM–LSS) field.

Radio galaxies are extremely bright in radio waves and feature vast lobes of gas that can stretch out for millions of light-years. Remnant radio galaxies represent the final stage in the evolution of radio galaxies, at which point the jets from the galaxies' central regions, or active galactic nuclei (AGNs) powered by feeding supermassive black holes, have switched off. Therefore, these jets can no longer replenish the vast radio lobes, causing them to gradually fade.

The researchers studied the XMM–LSS field using the MeerKAT radio telescope, an array of 64 antennas located in the desert-like region of the Northern Cape, South Africa, the Jansky Very Large Array, and the LOFAR (Low-Frequency Array) network.

This powerful combination of observations allowed them to study how radio emissions from the lobes of radio galaxies change as the particles within them "age" and lose energy.

This allowed the researchers to determine that 12 of the 14 candidates actually are remnant radio galaxies, while the other two remain active radio galaxies.

The team also discovered something striking about the 12 confirmed radio galaxy remnants.

One thing that really stood out in this study was the ages of these remnants, which appeared to have been fading for between 8 million and 42 million years, with the average "fade age" being 12 million years.

This age is younger than the ages measured for radio galaxy remnants, which could indicate that astronomers have been missing a population of short-lived remnants.

This wasn't the only extraordinary finding in this study. The scientists also found that the remnants they looked at exist in a wide range of evolutionary stages, with some having jets that have only just switched off, while others are more evolved, having "powered down" long ago.

The new findings represent a major step forward in understanding the life cycles of radio galaxies, and also how supermassive black holes function as the engines powering jets that drive vast radio lobes.

The team's research was published on July 14 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The United States is updating its approach to managing spaceflights that lift off and land within its borders, and aims to expand the nation's capabilities to support more than 1,000 rocket launches per year by 2030.

President Donald Trump just signed a new National Space Transportation Policy that lays out priorities for commercial, civil and national security missions to orbit. The memorandum, published Thursday (Aug. 20), introduces the first update to the policy since 2013, and comes as commercial operators such as SpaceX have driven U.S. launch cadences up more than 800% since 2015.

The policy centers on expanding the infrastructure and procedures needed to support a much busier space industry. It directs federal agencies to identify and broaden commercial access to additional launch and reentry sites, and to incorporate spaceflight operations and critical launch corridors into air traffic control management and modernization efforts. The document gives agencies a deadline to get the work started.

Within 180 days of the memo's publication, NASA, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Defense (DOD) are directed to begin identifying potential locations for future launch activities, as well as existing facilities that could be upgraded to further increase capacity. Agencies were also directed to establish leases and commercial investment opportunities to incentivize the co-development of new launch sites. The new properties can be funded, in part, by the same private entities that are lined up to use them.

Rocket landing sites are getting extra attention, with the president's policy designating agencies to identify federal lands available for development as independent launch vehicle reentry sites within the next 90 days. It also reinforces a framework to expedite environmental review processes first laid out in a commercial space executive order that Trump signed in August 2025, which sought to remove regulatory hurdles for commercial launches and spaceport construction.

SpaceX is already planning for launch rates far beyond the administration’s 2030 target. The company's Starship rocket, which remains in development, is poised to become the first fully reusable launch vehicle in history. In response to the new policy on Thursday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his company is aiming to launch 30 or more Starship flights a day by 2030, which equates to more than 10,000 flights per year.

For government missions, the strategy also emphasizes having more than one ride to orbit, with NASA and DOD tasked with maintaining multiple launch options and developing adaptable interfaces that would allow payloads to move between rockets from varying providers.

Commercial launch services are already standard for most NASA and DOD missions, but the memorandum broadens that approach to transportation after reaching orbit, including spacecraft servicing and logistics. And the DOD is specifically being asked to investigate commercial options for in-space transportation and more diverse orbital delivery systems, like space planes.

Speed is particularly important for national security launches, and the new policy addresses one effort already ongoing by the Pentagon: achieving consistently dependable access to space within a 48-hour timeframe. The Space Force's Space Systems Command has been testing that capability through its Tactically Responsive Space program, launching the Victus Nox mission with Firefly Aerospace with 27 hours' notice in 2023 and the Victus Haze mission in June, which Rocket Lab launched within just 17 hours.

The White House highlighted some of the economic benefits beyond transportation that the policy is poised to impact in a fact sheet accompanying its publication. According to that fact sheet, the new policy will lead to advancements in things like in-space manufacturing and the development of pharmaceuticals and "high-value materials," while improvements to satellite positioning, navigation and timing services could support more precise agricultural operations and weather forecasts on Earth.

The transportation strategy also extends far beyond low Earth orbit. NASA is being asked to develop a commercial lunar logistics architecture capable of moving cargo and other payloads to and from the moon's surface. The agency is already engaged in these efforts through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and Artemis programs, which share a complementary focus of returning astronauts to the lunar surface and building out the infrastructure necessary to sustain a lunar base, and is now tasked with extending that reach much farther.

Trump's policy directs the space agency to develop partnerships to facilitate commercial robotic access to Mars and, down the road, architectures capable of carrying astronauts to the Martian surface and back to Earth.

Filming a high-profile episodic TV series like "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is often a Herculean task for any professional cast and crew, but toss in massive spaceship sets, a colorful constellation of costume changes, tone and stylistic shifts, hand-to-hand combat, horseback riding, and puppets, and you’ve got a mad sci-fi circus.

We connected with Ethan Peck (Spock), Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh) and Paul Wesley (James T. Kirk) for Paramount+’s "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'" penultimate season to hear more about the rigors of shooting, genre-hopping, and character evolution.

"Every season feels kind of manic," Peck tells Space. "Grind has such a negative connotation, but it really is a marathon. We lose so much sleep, we have crazy hours, we say crazy things, we even look crazy.

"But I’d say we really found our groove in season four because we’ve had all this experience with these characters. And the writers have had all this experience writing for these actors playing these characters. So we grow over time and become more comfortable. I think that's what allows us to pull off these crazy swings in season four and five, perhaps."

Chong echoes those thoughts and felt like leaping from one genre to the other was far more intense this time around than previous seasons.

"I was also taking horse riding lessons throughout, I was doing fight rehearsals, and then getting to see the digital mockups of our puppets," she shares. "Then we were thinking about how to approach the puppet episode and then obviously the horror of it all. It was a lot of jumping around because of the big genre swings.

"Every season has been incredible so far, and I think this was really upping the stakes. For horse riding, I’ve ridden once before for a show, but it was ten years ago, so it was like starting from scratch again. But we had plenty of time to rehearse. And I absolutely loved my puppet; I thought she was brilliant."

For Wesley, being able to stretch his performance skills by portraying the legendary spacefaring hero and exploring his transcendent connection to Spock has been an immensely rewarding challenge.

"The writers are very good at identifying our strengths and identifying what dialog would suit us, not as our characters but also as actors," he notes. "Having been on the show now for two seasons, I think the writers really were able to give me the ability to play a variety of things like comedy and horror.

"These big swings carry a lot of risk, and what’s so brilliant about this show is that they somehow pull it off," continues Wesley. "It all works. Kudos to the writers, and I'm just really excited for the audience to experience the evolution of Kirk becoming the man they know he’ll be eventually.

"You know these characters as having one of the most iconic friendships on television, but you don’t really know how they met and what brought them there. In the shore leave episode, you get to see Spock express his vulnerabilities inadvertently to Kirk, and they will, in turn, allow them to become closer. These little things are so important because they begin to establish why these characters are so connected in 'TOS.'"

Peck instinctively recognizes that these episodes do a fantastic job of slowly and naturally helping Kirk and Spock build trust with one another.

"It's a great joy and privilege to be able to convey this relationship because it is so iconic," Peck reveals. "And that’s so strange as an actor, to be filling in some of this missing history for these characters that have been around for so long and that were so beautifully performed by other actors before us."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 4 is currently streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes arriving each Thursday through the finale episode on Sept. 24, 2026.

NASA's Artemis II moon astronauts will join a very exclusive club next week.

President Donald Trump will award those spaceflyers the Congressional Space Medal of Honor next Friday (Aug. 28) at Johnson Space Center in Houston to recognize their historic journey around the moon this past April.

The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) and will feature NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, President Trump and the Artemis II astronauts. You'll be able to watch it live when the time comes.

Artemis II sent NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day trip around Earth's nearest neighbor. It was the first crewed voyage beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, when the Apollo 17 astronauts returned home from the moon.

The mission's success was a huge step for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a base near the lunar south pole in the coming years.

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is the highest award that the U.S. government can bestow upon an astronaut. It's possible that only Wiseman, Glover and Koch will receive it next week; NASA's media advisory about the event states that Trump will give the medal to "each of NASA's Artemis II crew members," suggesting that Hansen might not be included. (The award is not limited to American citizens.)

Thirty people have received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to date. They are:

• Neil A. Armstrong
• Frank Borman
• Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr.
• John H. Glenn, Jr.
• Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
• Alan B. Shepard
• John W. Young
• Thomas P. Stafford
• James A. Lovell
• Shannon W. Lucid
• Roger B. Chaffee
• Edward H. White, II
• William M. Shepherd
• Rick D. Husband
• William C. McCool
• Michael P. Anderson
• Kalpana Chawla
• David M. Brown
• Laurel B. Clark
• Ilan Ramon
• Francis R. (Dick) Scobee
• Michael J. Smith
• Judith A. Resnik
• Ronald E. McNair
• Ellison S. Onizuka
• Gregory B. Jarvis
• Sharon Christa McAuliffe
• Robert L. Crippen
• Douglas G. Hurley
• Robert L. Behnken

The world just got its first good looks at some hardware that will make spaceflight history.

Last Thursday (Aug. 13), Japan unveiled the spacecraft that make up its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which aims to snag samples of the Mars moon Phobos and haul them to Earth — something that has never been done.

The big reveal came at Tanegashima Space Center, the site from which MMX will launch toward the Red Planet atop an H3 rocket. And we just got some clarity about when that liftoff will take place.

If all goes according to plan, MMX will launch on Oct. 19 at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT; 4:41 a.m. on Oct. 20 Japan time), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Thursday (Aug. 20). That's the first day of the mission's launch window, which extends through Nov. 7.

JAXA originally intended to launch MMX in 2024 but had to stand down due to issues with the H3. Mars and Earth align properly for interplanetary launches just once every 26 months, so this was a significant delay.

MMX will spend about a year traveling to Mars. Once in orbit around the Red Planet, the mission will map and study its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are just 14 miles (22 kilometers) and 7.5 miles (12 km) wide, respectively.

Part of this work will help the mission team pick a landing site on Phobos, where they'll drop a 55-pound (25 kilograms) French-German rover called Idefix. That little robot — which is named after the dog in the French comic "Asterix" — will study Phobos' surface in detail using a variety of instruments.

The MMX spacecraft itself will then spiral down toward Phobos, eventually making contact and collecting about 0.35 ounces (10 grams) of material. MMX will leave Mars orbit with these samples in 2030 and deliver them to Earth for analysis a year later.

The mission aims to shed light on the nature and origin of Phobos and Deimos.

"Understanding how Mars and the two moons formed is a heavily debated topic in solar system science," JAXA officials wrote in a mission description.

"Remote-sensing observations by the MMX spacecraft and the detailed analyses of the returned sample will determine whether Phobos and Deimos are remnants of early Mars created from debris produced by a giant impact with the young planet, or whether the moons are asteroids captured by Mars's gravity that brought material from outer solar system," they added.

To date, no spacecraft has returned material from the Mars system. Russia tried to do so with its Phobos-Grunt mission, which aimed to sample the eponymous Red Planet moon, but that effort failed shortly after its November 2011 launch. (The Soviet Union also launched two probes to Phobos in 1988, but neither one of them met its mission objectives.)

NASA plans to collect and haul home pristine samples that have already been collected on the Martian surface by its Perseverance rover, but it's unclear when or if that will happen. The agency has deemed its original sample-return architecture too expensive and is currently investigating other options.

There are good reasons to believe that Japan will succeed where others have failed, however. The country has a history of small-body sample-return success; its Hayabusa mission brought home pieces of the asteroid Itokawa in June 2010, and Hayabusa2 did the same with material from the space rock Ryugu in December 2020.

SpaceX is picking up the pace of preparations for the next launch of its giant Starship rocket.

On Wednesday night (Aug. 19), the company completed a single-engine static fire test with its Ship 41 vehicle, the upper stage that's in line to fly Starship's upcoming Flight 14 mission. As its name suggests, Flight 14 will be Starship's 14th test flight, but it will be the rocket's first launch into orbit, if all goes according to plan.

The recent engine burn was designed to prepare for that jaunt. "Starship completed a single engine static fire demonstrating a deorbit burn for upcoming orbital missions," SpaceX wrote in an X post on Thursday (Aug. 20).

Video included in the post shows Ship 41 standing at SpaceX's Massey's test site, near the company's Starbase facility in South Texas. The clip shows the moment of ignition of one of the spacecraft's six Raptor 3 engines, which burns for approximately 15 seconds.

SpaceX followed up Wednesday night's test with a full six-engine test on Thursday (Aug. 20). That burn lasted approximately 60 seconds, as seen in video posted by the company the next day.

With the completion of Ship 41's first static fires, SpaceX could be on track to launch Flight 14 sometime in early to mid-September. However, there are still a number of prelaunch activities for the ship and its Super Heavy first-stage booster to clear before SpaceX will declare them launch ready, and, with Flight 14 tasked with placing Starship in orbit for the first time, the company is likely to be extra cautious.

Flight 14 will be Starship's third launch of 2026, and the third to feature the upgraded "Version 3" (V3) of the vehicle, which SpaceX introduced in May. SpaceX is also modifying a Starship V3 to dock with NASA's Orion spacecraft as a part of the Artemis III mission to Earth orbit next year.

NASA contracted SpaceX as one of two commercial moon lander providers for the Artemis program. The agency plans to land astronauts on the surface of the moon aboard a Starship lunar landing vehicle on the Artemis IV mission in late 2028.

SpaceX had apparently originally intended to attempt a return-to-launch-site recovery for Ship 41, but company founder and CEO Elon Musk recently said that milestone will now likely happen "in a few months."

Ship 41 will instead likely attempt a soft ocean splashdown at the end of its flight, and its Super Heavy counterpart, Booster 21, is expected to do the same. SpaceX has returned three of its Super Heavy boosters to Starbase for successful catches using chopstick-like arms on the rocket's "Mechazilla" launch tower, and it has managed to refly two of those. But a V3 Super Heavy catch has not yet been attempted.

Returning and reflying both Starship stages is a key component in SpaceX's design for the giant rocket, which will be the largest, most powerful launch vehicle in history once the company works out all its kinks. If it can, Musk said on a recent earnings call that he expects the rocket to launch "at least one flight a day, possibly more." In an Aug. 20 X post, Musk said SpaceX aims to support 30 Starship launches per day, or more.

A mysterious hum of gravitational waves that fills the cosmos may be the echo of "dark stars" that served as the seeds of the first supermassive black holes.

These low-frequency gravitational waves were detected back in 2023 using an array of cosmic lighthouses, or pulsars, in a so-called "pulsar timing array." Pulsars are neutron stars that spin rapidly and regularly while blasting out collimated beams of radiation from their poles that can be used to detect tiny fluctuations in space and time. Such fluctuations are caused by the gravitational waves, or ripples in spacetime.

For a long time, the source of this particular low-frequency gravitational wave background has been somewhat shrouded in mystery, but scientists have hoped that they may be encoded with the secrets of the universe as it was around 13 billion years ago. Indeed, the team behind this research believes this hum of spacetime ripples could help explain how supermassive black holes grew so rapidly before the universe was even a billion years old. They link this solution to hypothetical supermassive "dark stars" that may have collapsed and died in the early universe to birth massive black hole seeds, giving supermassive black hole growth a head start.

"Dark stars were originally proposed as objects that might be seen directly at cosmic dawn," Ilie said. "This work points to a completely different way of testing their possible role in cosmic history," team member Cosmin Ilie of Colgate University said in a statement. "Their descendants could leave a gravitational-wave imprint that persists all the way to the present-day universe."

Cosmic clocks and collapsing Dark Stars

Pulsar timing arrays detect gravitational waves when their passage squashes and stretches space as the waves ripple past them, causing tiny delays in the pulsars' beams of radiation reaching Earth.

Detecting a gravitational wave background, however, required monitoring pulsar timing arrays for many years.

"Pulsar timing arrays are usually thought of as probes of supermassive black-hole binaries in the relatively recent universe," Ilie said. "What our work shows is that the signal may also contain information about how the ancestors of those black holes formed at cosmic dawn.

"In that sense, gravitational waves observed today could provide a new window onto the birth of the first supermassive black holes."

The currently favored explanation for this background is a cosmic history of binary black holes spiraling together before merging, particularly pairings with combined masses of over 1 billion times the mass of the sun.

However, that doesn't explain where these supermassive black holes came from and how the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is routinely detecting them before the universe was even 1 billion years old — despite the fact that the feeding and merger chains proposed to create supermassive black holes should take over 1 billion years.

Ilie and his Colgate University colleague Sohan Ghodla questioned if supermassive balck hole growth began with heavy seeds, and if these heavy seeds were created by the collapse of dark stars.

Dark stars are hypothetical primordial stars that, rather than producing energy through nuclear fusion, are instead powered by self-annihilating dark matter within their cores. As dark matter fuels these primordial stars, they would remain cool compared to other stellar bodies, allowing them to continue to accrete matter throughout their lives.

This process would continue until Dark Stars reached masses millions of times that of the sun and collapsed under their own gravity, creating massive black holes; seeds that collide and merge to form supermassive black holes.

Ilie and Ghodla modeled the environment in which the resultant black hole seeds would exist and merge, calculating merger rates and the influence on the gravitational wave background.

They found supermassive dark star remnants could indeed provide a major, perhaps dominant, contribution to the gravitational wave background detected in 2023. That means the measurements provided by pulsar timing arrays could help determine how abundant heavy black hole seeds were in the early universe.

"Produce too many of these massive seeds, and you end up over-producing the pulsar timing array-detected signal," Ghodla said. "Produce too few, and you need other sources to efficiently assemble these supermassive black holes later in the life of the universe to match pulsar timing array observations."

The key determining factor here would be the masses of the dark matter haloes in which the dark stars live and in which the heavy black hole seeds form.

Determining if the researchers' theory is correct may have to wait for improvements in pulsar timing array measurements of the gravitational wave background, along with a better understanding of populations of black holes and their characteristics in the early universe.

The team's research was published on Monday (August 17) in the journal Physical Review D.

SpaceX launched yet another Starlink mission today (Aug. 21), sending 29 more of the broadband satellites to orbit from Florida's Space Coast.

The spacecraft flew aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 11:14 a.m. EDT (1514 GMT). That was a day later than planned; SpaceX scrubbed a liftoff attempt on Thursday (Aug. 20) for reasons that were not immediately clear.

The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned today, landing about 8.5 minutes after launch in the Atlantic Ocean atop the SpaceX droneship "A Shortfall of Gravitas." It was the 30th liftoff and touchdown for this particular booster, which is designated B1078.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the Starlink satellites skyward. It will deploy the new batch into low Earth orbit 61.5 minutes after liftoff, if all goes to plan.

There are already quite a few operational Starlink spacecraft up there —nearly 11,000, in fact, according to astronomer and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

Today's launch was the 98th Falcon 9 flight of the year already. Seventy-five of them have been dedicated Starlink missions.

SpaceX also has three other liftoffs under its belt in 2026 — one launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket and two test flights of its Starship megarocket, which is still in development.

On Aug. 21, 1914, a total solar eclipse temporarily darkened skies across Europe and Asia. A young German astronomer and friend of Albert Einstein's, Erwin Finlay-Freundlich, led an expedition to the Crimean Peninsula of Russia, where he hoped to record observations that would verify Albert Einstein's general relativity theory.

This theory predicted that the light from distant stars appearing very close to the sun's edge should shift due to the curvature of space. Those stars would only be visible during a total solar eclipse, when the moon blocks out the sun's bright light. Unfortunately, the start of World War I just 20 days before the eclipse foiled the expedition. After Germany declared war on Russia, Freundlich and his colleagues were captured by the Russian army and their equipment was confiscated.

After the war, a solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 was used to confirm Einstein's theory of general relativity, so the experiment was ultimately a success.

Why it mattered

Today, Einstein's general relativity theory is a given. This theory is firmly cemented in our modern understanding of how the universe works (not counting fringe conspiracists). But looking back just over 100 years, it is interesting to see how hard scientists had to work to gather evidence to validate this theory and consider the way war and geopolitics played a part in postponing this work.

Scientists continue to validate the theory to this day through a variety of methods and observations, though a modern trek to witness a total solar eclipse would be a lot easier than it would have been in 1914.

This expedition, or rather the planned expedition, took place well over 100 years ago. Whether for the purposes of trying to validate Einstein's general theory of relativity or just for fun, people have experienced eclipses for as long as we can date back.

It's fascinating to look at the parallels between this planned expedition over 100 years ago and the treks that people around the world (including Space.com reporters) take in modern times to see a total solar eclipse. For example, during the 2026 total solar eclipse, people flocked from all over to locations like Spain and Iceland to experience the eclipse far from home.

Stars scattered across the cosmos sparkle in the appropriately named Chandelier Cluster.

What is it?

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this twinkling image of NGC 6723, or the Chandelier Cluster, a globular star cluster located 27,000 light-years away in our Milky Way galaxy.

Every bright spot in this mesmerizing cosmic chandelier is an individual star in the cluster. Globular clusters typically contain older stars. In fact, they're known to hold some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, with some being 10 billion years old or older. Globular clusters are thought to contain some of the first stars, or the oldest stars in the universe.

As their name implies, globular star clusters are groups of stars. But this particular type of star cluster isn't just full of ancient stars; it's also giant. Globular star clusters can contain tens of thousands to millions of stars. And just in our Milky Way galaxy, there are about 150 known globular clusters.

Why is it incredible?

While this incredible image was captured by an ultra-powerful space telescope, backyard astronomers could spot the far-off globular cluster with binoculars or a telescope.

This type of star cluster is so visible because they are so massive and contain so many stars. With all those stars clumped together, even fainter globular clusters will typically be easier to spot than the smaller variety.

In fact, the Chandelier Cluster was discovered long before space telescopes were even a remote possibility. The cluster was discovered in 1826 by British astronomer James Dunlop.

For night sky enthusiasts, astrophotographers or casual skywatchers looking for this cluster, you can find it nestled in the constellation Sagittarius near the constellation Corona Australis. Have you ever spotted the Chandelier Cluster? Will you try to spot it now?

What's your favorite thing in the night sky? Maybe it's the Pleiades, that sparkling open cluster that dominates winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps it's a sight of the Milky Way arching across the summer sky. Or could it be Saturn, a close-up sight of which has many people reaching for their wallets to buy a bigger telescope.

My favorite sight? It's us or, rather, our shadow. It's something that's only observable during a partial lunar eclipse — and there's one coming up very soon. Overnight on Aug. 27-28, an unusually deep partial lunar eclipse will be visible across Europe and North America, during which I will be watching Earth's shadow do something spectacular for precisely 3 hours, 18 minutes and 5 seconds.

A lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Earth and a full moon — in this case, August's Sturgeon Moon — line up closely enough for the moon to pass through Earth's shadow, a vast cone of darkness stretching away into space. Because the sun is a disk rather than a point of light, Earth's shadow tapers as it travels, narrowing like the beam of a flashlight in reverse. It creates two distinct shadows:

• Umbra: its dark inner section, which extends roughly 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) into space, four times farther than the moon. Earth passes through it during a partial and total lunar eclipse.
• Penumbra: a paler outer shadow where Earth blocks only part of the sun. During a penumbral eclipse, the moon merely brushes this outer zone and often appears only subtly dimmed.

Those shadows create, in turn, three phases — penumbral, partial and total — as the moon passes through Earth's shadow. What we'll get on Aug. 27-28 is a penumbral phase, followed by a partial phase, followed once again by a penumbral phase. No totality, no drama? Not quite. During a partial lunar eclipse, part of the moon enters the umbra, allowing us to see the curved edge of our planet's shadow projected onto the lunar surface. It is one of astronomy's most direct visual proofs that Earth is a sphere.

During the Aug. 27-28 event, just over 96% of the moon will pass into the umbra, which is why it will look almost, but not quite, total. It may even make the moon look pinkish close to that maximum eclipse, because the umbra is not completely black. Sunlight bent and filtered through Earth's atmosphere leaks into the shadow, carrying the red-orange glow of every sunrise and sunset around the world.

Total lunar eclipses get the "blood moon" nickname, leaving partial lunar eclipses sounding like leftovers. But a deep partial eclipse can be stranger because one bright sliver remains outside the darkest part of Earth's shadow while the rest of the moon turns dim and rusty. You also get more of an impression of the moon moving slowly through a circular shadow in space.

What's happening and when to look

North and South America get the best view. In North America, maximum eclipse occurs late on Aug. 27 in the west and around or after midnight on Aug. 28 farther east. Europe sees the eclipse before dawn on Aug. 28, with the moon low and setting during the later stages in many places. A clear western horizon will matter there.

Knowing the schedule is key. Punch in your location to Time Date, and you'll get timings for the eclipse's phases, with the partial phase the one to watch. For example, the partial phase in New York will begin at 10:33 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27, peak at 96% at 00:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 28, and end at 01:51 a.m. EDT. In Los Angeles, it will be 7:33 p.m. PDT, 9:12 p.m. PDT and 10:51 p.m. PDT on Aug. 27. From London, it will be 3:33 a.m. BST, 5:12 a.m. BST and end as the moon sets at 6:15 a.m. BST on Aug. 28.

How and when I'm watching it

The beginner's mistake is to look at the maximum eclipse once and call that the event. Seeing and appreciating the curved edge of the umbra that reveals Earth's shape, projecting onto — and moving across — the moon, is what I'll be watching for. Every lunar eclipse quietly repeats the evidence: Earth casts a round shadow because Earth is round.

The best way to watch is with a telescope tracking the moon, so you can easily see the edge of the shadow creep across craters and maria, then recede over the 3 hours, 18 minutes and 5 seconds of partiality. I'll probably use my image-stabilized binoculars to give me a close-up, but this is a sight anyone can see easily and safely with the naked eye. Besides, the naked eye gives a better sense of the moon as a whole object entering a larger object's shadow.

You obviously need a clear sky to see it at all, but gaps in the cloud are fine — you only really need glimpses every now and then to get the full effect. If you're in a dark-sky park or somewhere away from light pollution, you may also see the Milky Way appear as the light of the full moon is temporarily flattened, but my favorite sight in the night sky will be far closer — the full moon slowly being marked by the planet I'm standing on.

Stargazer's corner: Aug. 21-27

The bright moon dominates this week, growing from a thickening gibbous toward full, which is bad news for faint deep-sky observing. I would also not plan a serious Milky Way-hunting session this week — though it may be wise to be somewhere as dark as possible for the eclipse (though the shadow moving across the moon can be seen from everywhere, even in the most light-polluted cities). While you moon-gaze, keep an eye out for Saturn late in the evening and into the night (it will be to the upper-left of the eclipsed full moon), and half an eye out for late Perseid stragglers — particularly during the eclipse. That said, this is a week largely for waiting for the full moon to do its one slow, peculiar thing.

Constellation of the week: Aquarius

Aquarius is not the easiest constellation to love from a bright suburban sky. It is large, faint and not especially helpful if you expect constellations to resemble their names. But it matters this week because the full moon sits within it during the eclipse. To find Aquarius, look south to southeast in the late evening from the northern hemisphere, below the Great Square of Pegasus and west of the Summer Triangle. The easiest time to find it this week is probably close to the peak of the partial lunar eclipse, when Aquarius will surround a darkened moon.

New research suggests that if dark matter is composed of "dark photons," it would not have heated the early cosmos like scientists previously thought. If correct, this discovery could represent a paradigm shift in the hunt for the universe's most mysterious stuff.

Dark matter remains so elusive because, despite outweighing the everyday matter that composes stars, planets, moons and our bodies by a ratio of five to one, it is effectively invisible. That is because it doesn't interact with light. And the fact that electrons, protons, and neutrons do interact with light (or, more accurately, electromagnetic radiation) has inspired the search for particles beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, leading to lots of hypothetical candidates for dark matter.

One of these candidates is the dark photon, the dark universe's version of a photon carrying a force other than electromagnetism, which is the responsibility of standard photons.

When dark photons have been considered in the past, scientists have concluded that they would have transformed into ordinary photons while still embedded in the thick and dense soup that filled the early cosmos. This would have further heated this already blisteringly hot plasma and left detectable traces of dark photons.

This severely limits the search parameters in which dark photons could exist — so much so that many cosmological observations rule out the existence of dark photons.

Now, new computer simulations show that the dismissal of dark photons may have been a little hasty. The conversion of dark photons to photons would have shut off before significant heating could occur.

That brings previously excluded search parameters back into play.

"These exclusions were saying the strength of dark matter had to be 10^8 times weaker than it actually can be," team member Anson Hook at the University of Maryland said in a statement. "This paper opens up a lot of new possibilities to look for dark matter."

The team behind this research first saw hints that the transformation of dark photons to photons may not be as straightforward as scientists had assumed when they realized the amount of energy involved is suspiciously large. The problem, they began to suspect, was the fact that this process had been considered to be linear; in other words, the energy released gradually and steadily converts to plasma.

"The treatment for the last 15 years is a linear treatment. If you use that approximation, you can compute the amount of energy transfer, and it's very large," team member Junwu Huang of the Perimeter Institute said in the statement. "And I realized it's not possible."

Performing their first computer simulations, Huang and colleagues realized that the linear process fails to paint a complete picture.

"What we realized is that, as you are converting energy into the Standard Model plasma, the plasma actually goes crazy," Huang said. "There are a lot of nonlinearities in the system, and these nonlinearities basically shut off the energy conversion after a tiny amount of energy is converted."

The research represents a major widening of the parameters in which dark photons could exist, expanding this metaphorical hunting ground considerably. In fact, it could also impact the hunt for hypothetical particles beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

"By calculating the early universe plasma correctly, experiments will probe new parameter spaces and potentially actually see something," team member Mohamad Shalaby of the Perimeter Institute said in the statement.

The team's research was published on August 13 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Update for Aug. 23: Bad weather has pushed the Chang'e 7 launch back considerably, possibly until 2027. Read our delay story.

China's moon exploration program is readying an ambitious robotic mission, one composed of an orbiter, a lander, a rover, a hopper, and a wide range of international experiments including a U.S.-supported payload.

In April of this year, Chang'e-7 hardware was transported to the Wenchang launch site, targeting an Aug. 24 launch atop a Long March 5 Y14 rocket. The lander's destination is the edge of Shackleton Crater in the lunar south pole region.

After launch, the Chang'e-7 orbiter will spend several months orbiting the moon before releasing its lander for an attempted touchdown near the end of the year. While Chang'e-7 will carry out ambitious, groundbreaking lunar science, it will also serve to lay the groundwork for the first Chinese human landing on the lunar surface by 2030.

James Head is a leading moon scientist at the department of geological sciences at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He says China's upcoming moon launch will set a new benchmark for lunar science voyages.

"Chang'e-7 is the most ambitious, comprehensive, and complex robotic lunar mission ever attempted by any nation or entity," Head told Space.

Likewise, Zhang Jingbo, a spokesman for the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) agency, said earlier this year that the mission will "fully leverage the technological expertise and practical experience accumulated over decades" to "spare no effort to strive for the goal of achieving the first Chinese landing on the moon by 2030."

Pockets of water ice

Once unleashed from the Chang'e-7 lander, the hopper is slated to "jump" from sunlit areas to shadowed craters in a quest to find pockets of water ice. The hopper utilizes active shock-absorption technology to safely land on slopes. The lander will also deploy China's inaugural deep-space "landmark image navigation" system.

While scientists around the globe believe there's water ice on the moon, said Ye Peijian, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, no one has definitively found and fully evaluated that resource as yet.

"Now China is going to look for it, [...] And we're using many methods, from searching the surface to exploring inside craters," Ye told China Central Television (CCTV).

Back-to-back duties

The Chang'e-7 mission will adopt an integrated exploration approach, added CCTV, combining orbiting, landing, roving, and hopping, to survey the environment and resources of the lunar south pole, while also carrying out international cooperation.

Moreover, a Chang'e-8 mission is set for around 2028, designed to test technologies for building habitats using lunar soil.

Taken together, the two robotic projects  — Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8  — are assigned duties to assist in orchestrating China's planned, multi-phased, International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

Variety of instruments

Chang'e-7 mission hardware is outfitted with a variety of instruments from other nations and organizations, such as:

• On the lander, a Russian Academy of Sciences' PmL-Ch7 suite to detect lunar dust and a Langmuir probe to gauge the temperature and density of nearby plasma.
• An Italian laser retroreflector array on the lander is provided by the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati.
• A small, state-of-the-art, wide-field optical telescope mounted on the lander developed by the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA Hawaii) and the Laboratory for Space Research at the University of Hong Kong (HKU-LSR).
• LunaHcam, a camera attached to the Chang'e-7 orbiter and jointly developed by the Bahrain Space Agency and the Egyptian Space Agency to churn out high-resolution hyperspectral images of the moon's surface.
• Moon Aiming Thai-Chinese Hodoscope (MATCH) onboard the orbiter and developed by the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand. It will assess high-energy particles related to space weather and cosmic radiation tossed out by the sun.
• Moon-based Dual-channel Earth Radiation Spectrometer on the orbiter has been provided by Switzerland's Physical Meteorological Observatory.

Compact lunar camera

The ILO-C instrument from ILOA Hawaii and the Laboratory for Space Research at the University of Hong Kong will be housed directly on the Chang'e-7 lunar lander, bound for the illuminated rim of Shackleton Crater.

"The HKU Lab for Space Research is proud to partner with ILOA for this historic lunar mission and we look forward to working with them to maximize the scientific return this exceptional wide field optical lunar camera will deliver," said Quentin Parker, professor emeritus of the University of Hong Kong.

Through visible color imaging, the ILO-C camera project aims to spark public interest in lunar exploration, astronomy, and space science, Parker said, thereby laying a social foundation for future lunar science missions.

Moon-based vantage point

Operating in the extreme lunar environment, the compact camera will conduct first-ever astronomical color imagery from the moon, said Elisa Perednia, President and Chair of ILOA. The camera is designed to capture unprecedented wide-field, full color imagery of the Milky Way's Galactic plane from a stable, moon-based vantage point, she said.

One sad note: The camera onboard China's moon lander was pioneered by ILOA's founding director Steve Durst who passed earlier this year. He was a visionary leader that worked with Chinese aerospace representatives since the 1980s.

The Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics & Electricity (BISME) built the camera to ILO-C team member specifications.

"We are proud to have joined the mission and to help realize Steve's wonderful vision," Parker at HKU-LSR told Space.com.

We'll have to wait a bit longer for a highly anticipated Starship milestone, it appears.

On Aug. 4, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the company aimed to attempt the first-ever catch of Starship's upper stage on the vehicle's next test flight, which is tentatively targeted for late August.

But that doesn't seem to be in the cards anymore. "Looks like we will probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months," Musk said early this morning (Aug. 20) via X, the social media platform he bought in 2022.

SpaceX has high hopes for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. It consists of a giant first-stage booster called Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship, or simply Ship.

Both of these elements are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. Rapid reuse will be enabled by landings directly on the launch mount, with the aid of the launch tower's "chopstick" arms.

SpaceX has already pulled off such chopstick catches with Super Heavy on three of Starship's 13 suborbital test flights to date. And two of those missions featured a used Super Heavy: Flight 9 used the same booster as Flight 7, and Flight 11 employed the one from Flight 8.

SpaceX has not yet tried to catch Ship, however, because it's a tougher ask: The upper stage comes back down to Earth from much greater heights, and at much higher speeds, than Super Heavy.

But the company has made progress toward this goal recently. For example, on Flight 13, which launched on July 24, Ship survived reentry through Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in its target zone, a patch of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.

The vehicle even remained intact after toppling over, a feat none of its predecessors had pulled off. SpaceX subsequently towed Ship to Christmas Island and will study it in depth to inform future iterations of the vehicle.

This encouraging performance led to optimism about a coming tower-catch try for Ship.

"I'd say things look very good, and that's why we, assuming we receive regulatory approval to do so, will attempt to catch the Ship with the tower on the next flight, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of this month," Musk said on Aug. 4, during SpaceX's first call with investors as a public company.

As that quote indicates, however, a Ship tower catch is not entirely up to SpaceX. It also requires approval from regulators — specifically, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. It's possible that such approval has not yet been secured for Flight 14, and that's why the timeline has shifted.

After all, Musk has continued to voice confidence in Ship's abilities.

"If there had been a tower out to sea where we practiced landing the ship, it would have been caught," he added in this morning's X post. "First reflight of the ship will be either end of this year or early next. That will be a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars."

Even without a Ship catch attempt, Flight 14 should still feature some exciting action. During the earnings call, Musk said that Starship will go orbital on Flight 14, something it has never done before.

Microbes from Earth might survive the harsh surface of the moon, albeit in a state of suspended animation, a new study finds.

Previous research suggested the surface of the moon was too harsh for microbes to survive. Specifically, a 2019 study found ultraviolet rays and heat from the sun are the greatest barriers for microbial life on the lunar surface.

However, this prior work did not account for the shelter that hills and valleys might supply on the moon. These could prove especially significant at the lunar poles, where the sun never climbs high in the sky, leading to permanently shadowed regions that can host ice — and perhaps more.

In the new study, researchers analyzed three kinds of bacteria and two kinds of fungus. These are all commonly found on crewed space missions, and include microorganisms that prior work discovered were especially durable in the harsh conditions of space. Previous research found these lifeforms are resistant to vacuum, cold and high-energy particles.

The scientists compared previously compiled survivability data of these microbes with lunar maps that captured ultraviolet and heat readings on the moon's surface. They found that both lunar poles likely have areas where microbes could survive, albeit in a state of suspended animation known as cryptobiosis in which they could not move or grow unless more hospitable conditions appeared.

Microbes might not need much in the way of shelter on the moon. "Even a bootprint or a rover's tread may create a habitable area," study co-author Prabal Saxena, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told Space.com.

NASA's Artemis III mission is planned to be the first time humans will explore the lunar south pole. "Our findings show that we need to be even more thoughtful about the materials that we might unintentionally take with us when we are exploring space, and the impacts that we might have," study co-author Heather Graham, an organic geochemist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told Space.com.

In addition to the possibility that missions to the moon might bring microorganisms there, the scientists added it might be possible that ancient cosmic impacts might have blasted rocks bearing microbes off Earth that could have landed on the moon. "The moon might be like Earth's freezer, preserving really interesting bits of evidence of Earth's past if they landed at the moon's poles," Saxena said.

Future experiments may test just how well microbes of many kinds might survive on the moon, Saxena said. "We have this great opportunity to really think about the limits of life and how resilient it is even in incredibly extreme environments," he said.

All in all, "the moon is a really diverse and interesting body, and the lunar poles are really unique regions in terms of how they can trap volatiles like water, and the ability to trap life," Saxena said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 19 in the journal Science Advances.

LOS ANGELES – On a Saturday evening in Los Angeles, I found myself watching acclaimed actor Elizabeth Banks sing Tom Petty songs along with her fellow actors while writer/director David Wain played the drums. This incredible, bizarre performance celebrated the 25th anniversary of the raunchy, summer camp cult classic "Wet Hot American Summer." But do you remember that it's actually a space movie?

This movie — the debut feature film from co-creators David Wain and Michael Showalter — follows the events of "Camp Firewood," a sleepaway summer camp set in the summer of 1981. It has a cast chock-full of now-A-list actors, including Banks, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler and so many more. Looking back, it's almost baffling how star-studded the cast really is.

Campy in every sense of the word, the movie manages to balance vulgar jokes with some serious heart. And while the off-color comedy was infamously a box office bomb, this heart has cemented its status as a beloved cult classic, and watching it has become as time-honored a tradition as summer camp itself.

I am personally biased toward this film, as my teenage summers were spent as a camp counselor and the movie hits that perfect, nostalgic sweet spot. But when I sat down to watch the film again on Aug. 8 at an outdoor anniversary screening, I realized it had been many years since I'd actually seen it.

And while I remembered the warm, summer camp vibes, somehow I had completely forgotten something: The movie hinges on the plot that a piece of Skylab (yes, that Skylab) is falling to Earth, and a nearby, vacationing astrophysicist teams up with the nerdy kids at camp to build a homegrown device to try and stop it.

The strangest part? In 1979, Skylab did fall back to Earth, and a couple of pieces actually survived the trip (just not at Camp Firewood).

At its core, this beloved camp movie that I used to watch after camp with my fellow counselors (at our own camp, Summer Parks) is … science fiction. It might seem like a b-plot, but if you find yourself rewatching the film, you might be surprised at how much of a space movie it really is.

The first inklings of this emerge when camp director Beth (Janeane Garofalo) meets astrophysicist Professor Henry Newman (David Hyde Pierce), who is vacationing in a cabin near the camp. She asks if he might come to camp and teach some of the kids about space. And while he at first declines, he soon decides to show up at camp to spend time with some of the kids and chat about outer space.

As other camp hijinks are happening, we occasionally cut back to this group of "indoor kids" in the woods, pretending rocks are planets, having a great time. But at some point, it's revealed that the camp is in grave danger. Not only is a piece of Skylab, the first U.S. space station, falling, but it's headed right for camp! In fact, it's headed right for the talent show that's taking place on the last night of camp (of course).

Henry and his merry band of science-obsessed campers are quick to act, and they work together to cobble together a makeshift Skylab tracking device. But to transform the device so it can divert Skylab, they need to generate random numbers between one and 20. Thank goodness one of the campers just so happens to be carrying a D20 die.

In the end, Skylab does crash-land into camp, but it narrowly misses the talent show, and no one gets hurt. Did the device work? Did another camper demonstrating their wind-generating superpowers at the talent show secretly help out? Or was their Skylab tracking wrong all along?

After camp is finally over for the summer, we get to see the aftermath as campers walk out to their rides home past a giant hunk of the Skylab space station jutting out of the grass.

It's a fun easter egg to see Skylab crashing to Earth in a campy summer camp flick, and during a panel ahead of the screening, the cast and crew revealed that it was a lot of fun for them, too.

According to the panelists, which included Wain, Banks, Joe Lo Truglio (who plays Neil in the film), and Marguerite Moreau (who plays Katie), everyone on the set was taking turns getting their picture taken with Skylab. This is evident in the image above, snapped and shared with us by actor Zak Orth, who plays J.J.

While there were no reported injuries or property damage from the debris, roughly 26 tons of material fell to Earth, some of it surviving the trip and landing in Western Australia.

So in an alternate version of history where Camp Firewood is located in a remote area of Australia, this plot could have been more than science fiction.

Want to relive the sci-fi summer camp glory? To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Wet Hot American Summer is returning to select theaters from Aug. 14-21. If you miss that, you can also buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV.

When the 11,000-ton cruise ship Le Boréal set sail from Nice, France, on Thursday, Aug. 6, its 205 passengers and 136 crew members began a voyage whose success would depend not only on careful planning, but also on the ship's ability to outmaneuver clouds at the last critical hour.

The ship is owned and operated by the French cruise line Compagnie du Ponant. This eclipse cruise was the result of more than a year's planning by Ponant, and most of those who signed on were there specifically to witness the celestial spectacle; that shared purpose heightened the drama of the eclipse itself.

This was going to be a sunset eclipse, with the sun no more than three degrees above the horizon. To picture that height, make a fist and hold it out at arm's length. Place the bottom of your fist on the horizon; the top of your fist measures about ten degrees. During totality, the sun would appear only about one-third of a fist-width above the horizon. Even if the sky overhead was clear, clouds could still gather near the horizon, leaving open the possibility that the sun might be hidden at the critical moment.

I was on board Le Boréal as both a lecturer and the ship's onboard meteorologist. The main advantage of using a cruise ship to view an eclipse is its two-dimensional mobility, allowing it to maneuver around potential cloud cover. In practice, that meant working with Captain Mathieu Tsingrilaras to position Le Boréal on eclipse day in a location free of any clouds that might otherwise obscure the total eclipse.

Although the Iberian Peninsula and the adjacent waters of the Balearic Sea — a body of water between mainland Spain's eastern coast and the Balearic Islands — typically enjoy warm, dry, clear weather in August, the circumstances of this eclipse could still prove problematic.

Also serving as a lecturer for the cruise was Serge Brunier, a well-known French photographer, reporter, and writer who has specialized in popular depictions of astronomical subjects. He is also the co-author of the beautiful coffee-table book, Glorious Eclipses.

Serge would accommodate the French-speaking passengers onboard. Early in the cruise, as we were speaking with each other, a French passenger came up to Serge and asked, "Le temps sera-t-il dégagé pour l'éclipse?" ("Will we have clear weather for the eclipse?"). Serge nodded toward me and replied: "Il faudra demander à Joe ; c'est lui qui s'occupe de la météo." ("You will have to ask Joe; he is in charge of the weather.")

Our itinerary took us to many different places during our eight-day cruise, including two towns in Corsica (Calvi and Bonifacio), the French cities of Marseille and Port-Vendres as well as Spain where we stopped at Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands. Through it all, we experienced weather that was mainly sunny, very warm and quite humid. An upper-level ridge of high pressure acted as a heat dome over much of Europe.

Weather threat on eclipse day

The first warning came on Aug. 10, when a minor disturbance rippled through the heat ridge and produced widespread clouds, showery rains and thunderstorms across eastern Spain, spilling into the eclipse zone over the adjacent Balearic Sea. Had the eclipse taken place that day, no amount of mobility would have brought us a clear view. Fortunately, the disturbance quickly moved east, allowing high pressure to build back over the region.

By eclipse day, Aug. 12, conditions appeared to have turned in our favor. The day began beautifully sunny and continued that way into the afternoon. Our ship was docked at Palma de Mallorca, then set sail at 4 p.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) for our preselected viewing location, heading west-northwest along the center line of the path of totality.

Shortly after departure, images from EUMETSAT, a geostationary weather satellite looking down from 22,000 miles (35,400 km) above Europe, revealed the problem we had been trying to avoid.

A large convective cloud — formed when warm, damp air rises into colder air above — began to rapidly evolve over part of Spain's coastline just inland from the Gulf of Valencia. It soon became apparent that if we did not alter course, that cloud would almost certainly block our view of the total eclipse.

After consulting with Captain Tsingrilaras, we decided to take Le Boréal southwest. That maneuver would cause the cloud, then directly ahead of us, to shift to the right of the sun as it descended the west-northwest sky, improving our odds for viewing totality.

That course correction became the turning point of the voyage.

Totality at sea

As the eclipse began, other cruise ships apparently stayed their original courses. Le Boréal's course change, however, kept us clear of significant cloudiness, aside from a few thin clouds that occasionally crossed the sun but did little to hinder the show. At 7:37 p.m. CEST, the moon took its first bite out of the lower right limb of the sun.

At 8 p.m., Captain Tsingrilaras oriented Le Boréal, so that the back of the ship (the stern) faced directly toward the sun. Crowds gathered on the top three decks of the ship, observing the sun through special eclipse glasses that had been distributed the previous evening.

Moments before totality, when only a sliver of sun remained, I told passengers that I had been asked since the start of the day about what our chances were for seeing the total eclipse. "I think our chances of seeing it are now 100 percent!" That comment was met with a resounding cheer.

What was particularly striking was the approach of the moon's shadow; a diffuse darkening accompanied by a rapid west-to-east sweep of darkness. The onset of totality was marked by a dazzling diamond ring effect which lasted a couple of seconds, then a circular corona appeared around the darkened solar disk; it appeared somewhat yellowish in color as opposed to pearly white, likely due to a layer of haze near the horizon.

An unusually large and brilliant red prominence, readily visible even with the unaided eye, appeared at the 9 o'clock position. Because the sun was so low in the sky, the famous moon illusion caused it to appear especially large. This only added to the beauty of the spectacle.

Totality lasted 95 seconds. Even at its midpoint the overall light never became so dim that the second hand on a watch was hard to see. The only other object that was plainly visible in the sky was Venus, well off to the upper left of the eclipsed sun. The air temperature did not change much, probably due to the thermal inertia of the surrounding water.

The terminal diamond ring was perhaps even more stunning than the first. The corona could be kept in view for several seconds by blocking out the emerging crescent of sunlight with one's thumb. It seems that no shadow bands were observed either before or after totality.

As the sun gradually emerged from behind the moon, it sank lower in the sky and was still about two-thirds covered when it took on the shape of an orange-red shark fin disappearing beyond the horizon — a fitting final image for a spectacular eclipse at sea.

Nothing succeeds like success

In the end, Le Boréal's successful eclipse viewing was a reminder that even the most carefully planned astronomical event still depends on swift judgment and adaptability. By combining advance preparation with a timely course correction, the voyage transformed a looming weather threat into an unforgettable view of totality.

I would also like to thank my wife, Renate, who accompanied me on this amazing adventure and for reading so much for reading my first draft of this article and to my daughter Maria and Scott Zimmerman for assisting me with my video and image selections.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope, The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

SPOILERS AHEAD! ANYONE YET TO WATCH "LEVEL-FIVE TRANSPORTER ACCIDENT" SHOULD PROCEED WITH CAUTION TO AVOID VIOLATING TEMPORAL PRIME DIRECTIVES.

Back in the late '70s and early '80s, A-list stars were queuing up to guest on "The Muppet Show". Over five glorious seasons, the likes of Steve Martin, Diana Ross and Roger Moore were happy to have themselves upstaged by Kermit the Frog and his legendary felt ensemble. Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, C-3PO and Chewbacca even went on a crossover adventure with the show's resident astro-swine, those famous "Pigs in Space".

Now, the Enterprise's very own Mr Spock gets to join this select group by performing alongside the Jim Henson Company's elite puppeteers in "Level-Five Transporter Accident", the latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds". And we're delighted to report that the results are every bit as sensational, inspirational, celebrational, and downright Muppetational as anyone could possibly have hoped for.

It's important to reiterate that this episode makes negligible logical or canonical sense. Even within "Star Trek"'s frequently loose interpretation of "science", the idea that Scotty's transporter experiments on family puppet Little Ricky (a slightly disturbing presence, it has to be said) might transform an entire crew into fabric and stuffing is rather outlandish. Even the writers acknowledge they've exceeded the plausibility threshold when they hint that the whole affair took place in Spock's head.

But frankly, who cares about logic or canon when the results are so much madcap fun?

Even though the puppet versions of the Enterprise crew aren't officially Muppets, they're undoubtedly cut from the same cloth as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest. Those extremely talented Henson designers have somehow managed to find the sweet spot between the characters' human incarnations and their hilarious felt forms, whether it's Captain Pike's gravity-defying hair or Scotty's Beaker-esque expression of perpetual concern. The cast also throw themselves into their voice performances, relishing the unashamed comedy opportunities and — to quote T'Pring — "hijinks" of their radically redesigned roles.

"We had to do the [voice work] twice because the first time it was just completely wrong," Pike star Anson Mount told SFX magazine. "When the producers got the cut, they were telling me, 'Just do more, just feel more!' I was like, 'What are you talking about?', but when they played the scenes I was like, 'Oh, I need to do what [the puppeteers] are doing'. I had to set aside my ego for a little bit and follow the puppeteer's cues a little bit more."

Putting these puppets on the actual Enterprise set, rather than a scaled-down comedy recreation, is part of the episode's genius. They're dealing with a ship that isn't built for their new forms, from chairs that are way too big to touchscreen controls that don't work with the three fingers and a thumb of a felt hand.

And then there's Pike's realization that their mission to repel the invading Orion will be dependent on answering a long-standing question from an Oscar-winning song: Are they men (and women), or are they Muppets?

The answer falls affirmatively in the latter camp. The finest puppet crew in Starfleet throw themselves at bad guys like the ragdolls they are, and stand on each other's shoulders to masquerade as human-sized crew members (very "Pinky and the Brain").

They also come to embrace the fact they're essentially immortal — a needle and thread is all Pelia needs to recover from being sliced in half, while this week's redshirt guest star doesn't seem particularly fussed about the giant hole blasted in his midriff. There's also a glorious opportunity for the crew to unleash their inner WALL-E by floating through space without a spaceship. Indeed, it seems that when you're a puppet, your prime directive is fun.

"Strange New Worlds" has, at times, been guilty of overdoing the gimmick episodes, from the one that crossed over with "Lower Decks" to the one that temporarily transformed four members of the crew into Vulcans. There was also, of course, "Subspace Rhapsody", the one where everyone made a song and dance out of everything, but that was essentially a less memorable "Trek" spin on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s classic musical outing, "Once More, With Feeling" — a tuneful frontier also explored by "Scrubs", "Fringe", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and more.

The great thing about "Level-Five Transporter Accident", however, is that its felt-covered hijinks feel like "Strange New Worlds"' 'thing', rather than a retread of someone else's idea — as well as being a glorious excuse for the characters to embrace their inner Muppet, and literally have the stuffing knocked out of them.

And by advancing Spock's character arc and his relationship with T'Pring — this is presumably the first time Ethan Peck has ever been asked to kiss a puppet — it's also surprisingly pivotal to the show's continuity, just as "Once More…" was to "Buffy"'s sixth season.

It doesn't make a jot of sense, of course — and may just be a figment of Spock's overactive imagination — but it's also one of the most joyous, unashamedly fun episodes of "Star Trek" ever made. If there's any justice in the Alpha Quadrant, fans will be talking about this particular "Level-Five Transporter Accident" for years to come.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" debut on Paramount+ on Thursdays.

Europe's Mars Express orbiter has captured new, stunning imagery flying low over a geological region of the Red Planet shaped by ancient waterflow billions of years ago.

Mars Express launched in 2003 and is operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It's equipped with the High Resolution Stereo Camera, which scans multiple points of perspective across regions of Mars' surface to create 3D color renderings. During a low pass on the spacecraft's highly elliptical orbit, Mars Express flew over the planet's Southern Highlands and Schiaparelli Crater — one of Mars' largest impact sites.

Schiaparelli Crater is located in a heavily cratered region of Mars' Southern Highlands, where a wetter and warmer climate supported water flows that shaped the planet's geography 3.7 billion years ago, according to ESA's Mars Express video. Schiaparelli measures more than 285 miles (460 km) across, and has a bit of fictional fame. The crater happens to be the site where astronaut character Mark Watney gets stranded in Andy Weir's "The Martian". It also shares a namesake with ESA's real-life Schiaparelli Mars lander, which crashed on Mars' surface in 2016 (but wasn't headed for Schiaparelli Crater).

Both are named for Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835–1910), who made detailed observations of Mars during the planet's closest approach in 1877. Schiaparelli created a map of "canali," Italian for "channels," he saw as dark lines across its surface, which he assumed were filled with water. That was later mistranslated by English-speaking astronomers as "canals," leading to speculation about intelligent life on Mars constructing artificial structures.

Though that hypothesis for Mars' surface features was disproven by later astronomers (to date, there have been no discoveries on Mars that suggest intelligent life once lived there), it has since been discovered that Mars once did have active bodies of water on its surface. Schiarapelli's contributions to the astronomical field were significant enough to land him the honor of a Martian crater in his name.

Despite its massive diameter, Schiaparelli is considered shallow compared to other Martian craters its size. It was once much deeper, but sediment deposited by wind and ancient water flows, volcanic eruptions and asteroid impact debris have filled the crater over the last several billion years.

In addition to showcasing Mars Express' new footage, the ESA video also provides an explanation for how the satellite uses its High Resolution Stereo Camera to observe five simultaneous viewing angles over a four-color spectrum as it flies low over the planet. The low-orbit passes allow Mars Express to capture swaths of 3D data that span hundreds to thousands of miles long and dozens of miles across. Those are then stitched together to form more complete regional maps, which can be added to scientists' increasingly complex model of the entire Martian globe.

On Aug. 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 spacecraft on a mission to explore the outer planets. Despite its name, this was the first of the two Voyager missions NASA launched that year.

Voyager 2: Sailing Among Giant Planets

Thanks to a rare alignment of the planets, NASA had the opportunity to send a spacecraft on an unprecedented journey to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.While Voyager 1 ended its planetary mission after Saturn, Voyager 2 completed a 12-year journey to Neptune. But they didn't stop there!

Voyager 1 left the solar system and entered interstellar space in 2012, and Voyager 2 followed suit in 2018. As it approaches 50 years of operation, the probe continues to return data from three functioning science instruments.

Why it mattered

Nearly half a century later, it remains the only spacecraft to visit all four has giants in our solar system, and the only spacecraft humanity has ever sent past Uranus and Neptune. Some of Voyager 2’s biggest surprises came from the moons orbiting those planets. Its images of Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, revealed active geyser-like plumes blasting nitrogen miles above the surface — making it one of only three geologically active moons in the solar system (maybe four, depending on what Europa Clipper finds).

Decades beyond its original mission, Voyager 2 has begun studying the Kuiper Belt environment beyond the Sun’s protective heliosphere, giving scientists measurements from a region no spacecraft had been designed to reach. Voyager 2's plutonium power supply drops in efficiency about four watts per year, and NASA engineers were recently able to reduce how much power Voyager 2 needs by switching off a number of non-science components to adapt a less demanding method of warming the spacecraft while it continues traveling ever farther away from the sun.

The "Eye of Africa" swirls across Mauritania in a hypnotizing snapshot captured from space.

What is it?

A 25-mile-wide (40 kilometer-wide) circular structure made up of concentric ridged rings sticks up from the Earth in Mauritania, a country on the coast of northwestern Africa. While it might look like an elaborate, hand-carved piece of artwork, it's actually a natural geologic feature.

Formally known as the Richat Structure and nicknamed the "Eye of Africa," this geologic formation can be seen clearly from space.

The first time this feature was seen from space was in 1965 when NASA astronauts Ed White and James McDivitt photographed it during the Gemini IV mission.

61 years later, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir has photographed the feature from aboard the International Space Station where she is working as part of Expedition 75.

Why is it incredible?

Meir shared the photo of the structure on social media along with other photographs from that region.

"The Richat Structure (or Eye of Africa) in Mauritania is photographed from above by many astronauts, but something about the lighting and coloring on this day captured my artistic eye. This palette and textures of this region of Africa scream pure Earth Art, at least in my brain!" Meir said in the post where she shared her photos.

Amazingly, because of its massive size, this geologic feature is perhaps most clearly seen from space. While astronauts aboard the ISS are orbiting our planet from hundreds of miles away, theit vantage point actually allows them to see the full, expansive circles that make up the "Eye of Africa." And while we've been seeing it from space since 1965, the view really never gets old.

Imagine looking at a vast city on Earth from a great distance, knowing nothing about that city; you may assume that its only buildings are the largest, most visible skyscrapers. But, get closer or look with a far more powerful tool, and you would begin to discover smaller buildings between mountainous skyscrapers.

Now, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that this looks like that is a fitting analogy for early galaxies.

Astronomers are finding that in between the brightest stars, the 'tallest skyscrapers' in the above analogy, there are much fainter stars analogous to smaller buildings. That means early galaxies may actually have a lot more mass packed into them than we believed.

The team behind this research reached this conclusion by using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study nine early galaxies that have passed through their period of intense star formation. They combined this data with observations from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) here on Earth to measure the population of small and faint stars in these galaxies for the first time. What they found was that the proportion of small stars in these galaxies is much greater than is found in modern galaxies like the Milky Way. This comes as something of a surprise to scientists who have assumed these populations would be similar.

"This means that the galaxy as a whole is much more massive than previous estimates suggested," team member Chloe Cheng of Leiden University, Netherlands, said in a statement.

The first 'cosmic cities' weren't dominated by skyscrapers, it just looks that way

Astronomers study galaxies and calculate their stellar population rates using the total light, or spectrum, coming from these cosmic metropolises. The problem is, the more massive a star is, the brighter it is. Thus, the overall spectrum of a galaxy is dominated by the most massive stars, while smaller stars are drowned out.

The sensitivity of the JWST has allowed astronomers to finally give these smaller stars a chance to shine and stand out, like spotting an incredible piece of architecture in a vast metropolis of glass and steel.

"Until recently, this type of measurement was simply not possible," team member Martje Slob of Leiden University said. "We needed not only a telescope that collects sufficient light, but also spectra of exceptional quality and new analysis techniques to reliably distinguish the subtle features of small stars."

The team's discovery has implications for our understanding of young galaxies in the early universe. This is because scientists had always assumed the stars of different masses were born in the same proportion across cosmic history. Now that seemingly isn't the case.

That is especially true if more early galaxies are like one particularly striking example examined in this study. This galaxy, which formed less than 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, contains up to four times the mass previously estimated thanks to its huge population of smaller stars.

Thus, our models of galaxy formation may need some serious revision in the near future.

"This result shows that much more mass than previously thought is hidden in small stars," team leader Mariska Kriek of Leiden University said. "That has implications for all kinds of fields within astronomy. Because many planets orbit small stars, it could even mean that more planets formed in the early universe than we previously assumed."

The team now intends to apply this method to more of the universe's earliest galaxies, hoping to stretch their investigation back to the universe's first stars.

The team's research was published on Wednesday (August 18) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

We're just one week away from a stunning partial lunar eclipse on Aug. 27-28, when billions across North America, South America, Africa and Europe will see Earth's shadow dye the moon a subtle crimson hue, while leaving a thin crescent exposed to direct sunlight.

August's partial lunar eclipse will occur as Earth passes directly between the sun and moon during the full moon phase — an imperfect alignment that will see our planet's intense inner shadow cover 96% of the visible face of our natural satellite.

Stargazers on the night side of Earth will catch their first glimpse of our planet's umbra (the darkest, innermost part of its shadow) creeping onto the moon's surface at 10:33 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27 (0233 GMT on Aug. 28), according to TimeandDate.com. The vast shadow will continue its advance across the crater-scarred landscape in the hours that follow, until it hits the point of maximum eclipse at 12:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 28 (0412 GMT).

Around this time, you may notice the shadowed region of the moon take on a reddish-orange color, as sunlight filtered through Earth's atmosphere is bent onto the lunar surface — a phenomenon often referred to as a "Blood Moon" during a total eclipse.

Each phase of a lunar eclipse occurs simultaneously for everyone viewing from the night side of Earth, where the lunar disk is visible. However, local timings will differ significantly depending on your location on Earth.

If you're watching from a city on the West Coast of the United States like California, then the point of maximum eclipse will occur shortly after midnight local time on the night of Aug. 27-28.

Viewers in the United Kingdom, meanwhile, won't observe the moment of maximum eclipse until shortly before sunrise on Aug. 28, as the moon lurks low on the southwestern horizon. Be sure to check out a trusted website like TimeandDate for eclipse timings specific to your location.

You won't need any special kit to protect your eyes during a lunar eclipse as you would during a solar eclipse, when there is a serious risk of vision damage from looking directly upon the sun. However, a pair of quality binoculars or a telescope will give you a stunning view of Earth's shadow as it races across the lunar disk.

Need to upgrade your equipment? Then be sure to read our roundups of the best binoculars and telescopes available in 2026. You should also check out our guide to photographing a lunar eclipse, along with our picks of the top cameras and lenses for astrophotography.

Editor's Note: If you capture a photo of the lunar eclipse and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Rocket Lab launched a private Japanese satellite to orbit this morning (Aug. 20), adding to a growing constellation of Earth-observing spacecraft.

An Electron vehicle lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site at 9:04 a.m. EDT (1304 GMT; 1:04 a.m. on Aug. 21 local New Zealand time), carrying aloft a radar satellite for the Tokyo-based company iQPS.

The nine 3D-printed Rutherford engines that power Electron's first stage shut off as planned about 2.5 minutes after liftoff. Separation with the rocket's second stage immediately followed, which burned for another 6.5 minutes before releasing Electron's "kick stage" with the IQPS payload for a 40-minute coast phase.

This was Rocket Lab's ninth launch for iQPS, which is building a constellation of 36 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Such spacecraft can study Earth day or night, and they can peer through cloud cover as well.

The iQPS network "is being developed and deployed at a rapid pace to provide high resolution and near-real time SAR imagery to its global users," Rocket Lab wrote in a description of today's mission, which it calls "The Lightning God Defends."

That name is a reference to the satellite going up today: It's nicknamed SUSANOO-II, after a Japanese lightning god.

Following the 40-minute coast phase of Electron's kick stage, the rocket completed one final burn to circularize its orbit and successfully deployed SUSANOO-II about 50 minutes after launch, at an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers).

Today's flight was Rocket Lab's 14th of 2026 and 93rd overall. The company's most recent launch, on Aug. 6, also lofted an iQPS satellite to LEO.

The vast majority of the company's flights have been performed by Electron, a 59-foot-tall (18 meters) rocket that gives small satellites dedicated rides to Earth orbit and beyond. Rocket Lab also operates a suborbital variant of Electron called HASTE, which allows customers to test sensors and other tech in the hypersonic flight environment.