NASA still doesn't know when two astronauts will be able to come home
NASA still is not sure when two astronauts might come home in Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft.
Space
The fate of the most powerful X-ray telescope is in doubt
NASA's budget proposal would basically axe the most powerful X-ray telescope in the world, and astronomers are scrambling to save it.
Dark energy — which causes the expansion of the universe — may be changing
One of the big mysteries of the universe is how it's expanding. The phenomenon causing that expansion is known as dark energy — and recently, scientists have started to wonder if its changing.
Astronomers are scrambling to save the world's most powerful X-ray space telescope
NASA is facing a tight budget and wants to wrap up the Chandra X-ray Observatory, but astronomers don't want to see the 25-year-old X-ray space telescope mission go.
Outer space changes you, literally. Here's what it does to the human body
Lower gravity. Higher radiation. No ER access. These are just a few of the challenges that humans face in outer space. Emily and Regina talk to a NASA astronaut (and astronaut scientist) about the impact of spaceflight on the human body. Plus, we learn about telomeres (hint: They change in space)!
Check out more of our series on space: https://www.npr.org/spacecamp
Interested in more space science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Check out more of our series on space: https://www.npr.org/spacecamp
Interested in more space science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Shortwave podcast explores Pluto's planetary demotion
In this except from "Space Camp," a special series from NPR science podcast Short Wave, host Regina Barber delves into Pluto's demotion from planet to dwarf planet.
This mysterious energy is everywhere. Scientists still don't know what it is
The universe — everything in existence — is expanding every second! It's only been about a hundred years that humanity has known this, too — that most galaxies are traveling away from us and the universe is expanding. Just a few decades ago, in the late 1990s, scientists started to notice another peculiar thing: The expansion of the universe is speeding up over time. It's like an explosion where the debris gets faster instead of slowing down. The mysterious force pushing the universe outward faster and faster was named dark energy. Cosmologist Brian Nord joins host Regina G. Barber in a conversation that talks about what dark energy could be and what it implies about the end of our universe.
Check out more of our series on space at https://www.npr.org/spacecamp.
Curious about other happenings in our universe? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Check out more of our series on space at https://www.npr.org/spacecamp.
Curious about other happenings in our universe? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Astronomers spot a mysterious black hole nestled in a cluster of stars
A report from Nature shows that astronomers may have found a medium-sized black hole, a kind they've long looked for.
SpaceX rocket accident leaves the company's Starlink satellites in the wrong orbit
A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company’s internet satellites in an orbit so low that they're doomed to fall through the atmosphere and burn up.
2 galaxies, the Penguin and the Egg, get a family portrait thanks to Webb Telescope
The galaxies' fanciful names belie their actual ages: In this case of the Penguin and the Egg, it’s the Egg that came first.