HercuList Secrets

Things are getting tense for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, literally

NASA has begun a multi-day process to tighten the tension on Webb's huge sunshield.

NASA resumes Webb deployments after pausing for weekend

Spaceflight Now

Spaceflight Now

Mission controllers started the delicate work of tightening the five razor-thin layers of the James Webb Space Telescope's sunshade Monday. Managers said the nearly $10 billion observatory is "hunky-dory" after pausing deployments over ...

China's Mars orbiter snaps amazing selfies above Red Planet

China's Tianwen 1 spacecraft at Mars pulled a big New Year's surprise with stunning new images captured by a small camera that flew free of the orbiter to snap epic selfies above the Red Planet. The new images published by the China National Space ...

Comet Leonard makes its closest approach to the sun today, one year after its discovery

The brightest comet in the night sky right now makes its closest approach to the sun Monday (Jan. 3) and — even if it survives the journey — that will be the only time the comet sees our star close up. That icy wanderer is Comet Leonard, ...

Watch 'coronal streamers' streak off the sun in close-up video from Parker Solar Probe

"These structures can be seen as bright features moving upward and downward in this video compiled from the spacecraft's WISPR [Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe] instrument," the laboratory said. WISPR is designed to study the density of charged ...

To Study the Next Earth, NASA May Need to Throw Some Shade

How do you tell whether a planet trillions of miles away is Earth-like? You look at its orbit and the starlight reflecting off its surface and atmosphere, which can reveal whether it has oceans, oxygen, or ozone. This is hard to do.

Dinosaur footprints from 200 million years ago discovered on beach in Wales

USA TODAY

USA TODAY

At first, scientists thought they were just part of the "geological process" of the beach and were skeptical they could be footprints, but further evaluation suggested they were actually dinosaur tracks from the late Triassic period, just when dinosaurs ...

Scientists Settled a Century-Old Family Drama Using DNA From Postcards

Swiss forensic geneticists analyzed DNA recovered from postage stamps dating back to World War I and solved a century-old paternity puzzle.

Quadrantids meteor shower: How to watch the shooting star show peak tonight

The Quadrantid meteor shower gave ISS astronauts quite a show in 2020. NASA/Christina Koch. The best meteor shower of 2022 for stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere could hit within just a few days of New Year's tonight and tomorrow morning.

How to watch the 2022 Quadrantids meteor shower put on a show tonight

The Quadrantid meteor shower gave ISS astronauts quite a show. NASA/Christina Koch. The best meteor shower of 2022 for stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere could hit within just a few days of New Year's tonight and tomorrow morning.