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USA Today
a day ago
- Science
- USA Today
First quarter moon will grace the sky on June 2. How to catch a glimpse.
First quarter moon will grace the sky on June 2. How to catch a glimpse. Show Caption Hide Caption James Webb captures Jupiter's shimmering aurora NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope captured new details of auroras on Jupiter. Half of the moon will be illuminated as it reaches its first quarter phase on Monday, June 2. The first quarter phase marks the quarter point on the moon's monthly journey, according to NASA. During this position, the moon's illuminated side is half-lit, according to the agency. A first-quarter moon is ideal for observing here on Earth, NASA says, because it rises in the afternoon — around noon — and is high above the horizon in the evening before setting around midnight. Here's what to know about the first quarter phase and how to best view the moon. What is the moon's first quarter phase? The moon has both a day and night side, with the sun always illuminating half of the moon. The portion of the illuminated half changes as the moon travels through its orbit. First quarter is the third phase of the moon's eight lunar phases. The cycle repeats about every 29.5 days, according to NASA. During the first quarter phase, one half of the moon will appear illuminated by direct sunlight, per NASA. However, even though the moon is half-visible from Earth during first quarter, it's not actually a half moon. According to NASA, during first quarter, only half of the moon's illuminated half is visible on Earth. A full moon is technically a half moon, because the sun is illuminating the full day side of the moon during that phase, per NASA. When will the moon be half-lit? According to NASA, the moon will reach first quarter, or 50% illuminated, just before 11 p.m. EST, in the Northern Hemisphere on June 2. The exact timing will differ based on location. On the East Coast, the moon is expected to be at first quarter around 11:40 p.m. EST, according to The next first quarter phase will be on July 2, according to NASA. How to see a first quarter moon The moon's first quarter phase will be visible here on Earth. For those looking to catch a glimpse, NASA recommends a set of binoculars or a telescope, which will highlight the moon's texture and terrain. However, bare eyes also work. With no tools on hand, NASA says to look carefully and give your eyes time plenty of time to adjust — what you can see will vary based on your eyesight. When eyeballing the moon, you'll mostly see areas of either white or gray. The gray patches, called lunar maria or seas, are solidified volcanic lavas, according to NASA. NASA has a daily viewing guide which highlights the lunar maria that you may be able to see from Earth. Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at
New York Post
3 days ago
- Science
- New York Post
Astronomers baffled by mystery object flashing signals at Earth every 44 minutes: ‘Like nothing we've ever seen'
The truth is out there. Astronomers say they're stunned by an unidentified object flashing strange signals from deep space. The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, was detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and NASA'S Chandra X-ray observatory — the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. 'It is unlike anything we have seen before,' Andy Wang, an astronomer at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, declared in a statement published this week. ASKAP J1832-0911 emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes, according to the experts, who documented their findings in Nature journal. An image of the sky showing the region around ASKAP J1832-0911. Ziteng Wang, ICRAR ASKAP J1832-0911 has been classified as a 'long-period transient' or 'LPT' — a cosmic body that emits radio pulses separated by a few minutes or a few hours. Wang and has team theorize that the object could be a dead star, but they don't know why it 'switches on' and 'switches off' at 'long, regular and unusual intervals,' reports. 'ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution),' Wang wrote. 'However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing,' he added. 'This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.' Wang and his team hope to detect similar another using radio waves and the Chandra X-ray observatory, saying a subsequent discovery will help them learn more about the nature of such LPTs. An artist's illustration of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space. NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan, NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan It's not the only space discovery to hit headlines and spark conversation in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Cambridge University Press revealed that astronomers had detected a signal extracted from interstellar noise that could be a sign of active biology on another planet. 'Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious,' a press release from the prestigious publisher read.
USA Today
24-05-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Pluto's 'extreme cousin' is a dwarf planet found at the far reaches of our solar system
Pluto's 'extreme cousin' is a dwarf planet found at the far reaches of our solar system Astrophysicists have found a new planet, smaller than Pluto and considered that dwarf planet's 'extreme cousin' in a far-away part of the solar system thought to be empty. Show Caption Hide Caption James Webb captures Jupiter's shimmering aurora NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope captured new details of auroras on Jupiter. Earth has a newly-discovered neighbor in the solar system. But the heavenly body – possibly a dwarf planet à la Pluto – isn't a frequent visitor. Located beyond Neptune, its extreme orbit circumnavigates the sun once every 25,000 years, taking it beyond our solar system. The new object, named 2017 OF201, was discovered by researchers in an astronomical image database while searching for trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and possible new planets in the outer solar system. Sihao Cheng, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences, led the team that discovered the object, which he described as an "extreme 'cousin' of Pluto," in a comment on his personal website. 2017 OF201 is about one-third the size of Pluto, which was reclassified as a dwarf planet in August 2006, and "is likely large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, and its orbit is extremely wide," Cheng said. Jupiter: Our solar system's biggest planet used to be twice as large: Study New tough-to-detect dwarf planet has an extreme orbit 'The object's aphelion – the farthest point on the orbit from the Sun – is more than 1600 times that of the Earth's orbit,' Cheng said in a synopsis of the findings posted May 22 on the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) website. "Meanwhile, its perihelion – the closest point on its orbit to the Sun – is 44.5 times that of the Earth's orbit, similar to Pluto's orbit." The researchers identified 2017 OF201 using 19 different astronomical database exposures, captured over seven years. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center officially announced the new object's discovery on May 21, the IAS said. 2017 OF201's extreme orbit makes it detectable about 1% of the time, the researchers said. Spotting 2017 OF201 beyond the Kuiper Belt, a donut-shaped section of space past the orbit of Neptune filled with icy debris, suggests the region may not be as empty as previously thought. "The presence of this single object suggests that there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbit and size; they are just too far away to be detectable now,' Cheng said in the synopsis. 'Even though advances in telescopes have enabled us to explore distant parts of the universe, there is still a great deal to discover about our own solar system.' The extreme orbit of 2017 OF201 also suggests the object "must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit,' said Eritas Yang, a Princeton University graduate student who assisted in the research, in the study synopsis. More than one galactic event could have created 2017 OF201's orbit, Cheng added. "It's possible that this object was first ejected to the Oort cloud, the most distant region in our solar system, which is home to many comets, and then sent back," he said. New dwarf planet could dash Planet X hypothesis The new object could also challenge the hypothesis that there's a "Planet X" or "Planet Nine" beyond Pluto, with gravity affecting dwarf planets and other objects in the Kuiper Belt. That's because 2017 OF201's orbit is "well outside the clustering observed in extreme (TNOs), which has been proposed as dynamical evidence for a distant, undetected planet," the researchers write in a draft version of their submitted research. "The existence of 2017 OF201 might suggest that Planet 9 or X doesn't exist," said Jiaxuan Li, another Princeton University astrophysical sciences grad student who collaborated on the research, on his personal website. But research will continue. "I hope Planet 9 still exists, because that'll be more interesting," Cheng told the New Scientist. Contributing: Doyle Rice and Elizabeth Weise. Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@ What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New to Congress, Florida's Haridopolos leads debate on Artemis, moon and China
Congress began grappling in earnest with the future of NASA'S Artemis program last week amid indications the moon may lose out to Mars under President Trump's new administration. The Space Coast's new representative in the U.S. House, Mike Haridopolos, led the U.S. House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee in a hearing weighing the rising costs of Artemis' Space Launch System rocket against the threat of losing to China in a new race to return to the moon. 'We stand at a crossroads. The world is watching, and our competitors, like communist China, are racing to beat us there,' Haridopolos, who chairs the subcommittee, said during opening remarks. 'We cannot afford to fall behind. This is an opportunity to prove that America still leads the world in exploration and innovation.' While no NASA official came to the hearing, it did feature two witnesses discussing how long to stick with the current Artemis program, which has many critics including Trump's close advisor and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Haridopolos asked the witnesses to gauge the risks and benefits of changing up the Artemis program. One witness, former NASA official Dan Dumbacher, warned against shifting the focus to Mars. NASA should keep its short-term attention on the moon, he said. 'It's about doing the right thing at the right time,' Dumbacher said. 'Therefore the discussion is not moon or Mars, rather, timing dictates that we must first master the moon and then proceed to Mars.' Another witness, former executive secretary of the National Space Council Scott Pace, who is now the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, agreed the moon should be the focus, but called for a quick revision to the current Artemis plan. 'A primary concern is the Space Launch System, which is expensive and not reusable,' he said. 'It's time to consider alternatives for going from the Earth to the moon and back.' He said instead of NASA footing the bill for the complicated SLS rocket, the agency should able to buy heavy-lift services to send payloads to the moon. To date, only the uncrewed Artemis I mission has made it to space, with the much-delayed crewed Artemis II mission that will fly around but not land on the moon slated for no later April 2026. Artemis III is next up by summer 2027, which would aim to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Artemis is made up of the Orion capsule built by Lockheed Martin and the SLS rocket, made up of a core stage built by Boeing and solid rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman. A NASA Office of the Inspector General audit in late 2023 cited the cost of each SLS rocket to taxpayers at $2.5 billion, part of the overall ballooning cost of Artemis that was projected to top $93 billion by the time Artemis II launches. The audit said the SLS rocket represented 26% of that cost to the tune of $23.8 billion. 'A revised Artemis campaign plan should be a high priority for the new administrator,' Pace said. 'There may be some painful adjustments with industry and our international partners, but it's better to do so now than to continue on an unsustainable and unaffordable path.' The OIG audit also recommended NASA look at alternatives for heavy-lift services, citing both SpaceX with its in-development Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket as options. Existing contractors and many NASA officials, though, have stumped for sticking with the current plan as the quickest way to return to the moon, as major changes can often mean major delays. Orion, for instance, was originally part of the Constellation program announced under President George W. Bush, but then was canceled under the Obama administration. Its resurrection as what would eventually be called the Artemis program began in 2012, but it took more than a decade before the first launch. Pace estimates that switch from Constellation to Artemis added at least five years in the nation's efforts to return to the moon. He said scrapping Artemis entirely would mean the U.S. would certainly not beat China's stated goal of landing their taikonauts on the moon by 2030. Both Pace and Dumbacher, though, questioned if any American would set foot on the moon by 2030. Dumbacher, who most recently was the recently the CEO of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is now an adjunct professor at Purdue University, said the nation should stick with the current SLS rockets at least through the next two missions. When asked what he would do to ensure the U.S. get back to the moon before China, he said, 'I take advantage of the hardware I already have in the in the barn, and the hardware available in Artemis II and III to go make it happen.' 'We are at a key crossroads for U.S. leadership in space. Our global competitors, primarily China and its allies, are outplanning and outpacing us in their drive to become dominant in space,' he said. 'This is a critical national security and economic concern.' He said there's no reason to believe China won't hit their 2030 target. 'China has met every space milestone they have proposed within plus or minus a year,' he said. 'The United States must protect our potential economic opportunity, protect our national security, lead the building of the necessary infrastructure, and importantly, lead chartering the rules of the road.'
