Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover. A French-led team reported Wednesday that the crackling of electrical discharges was captured by a microphone on the rover. The researchers examined 28 hours of audio recordings, documenting 55 episodes of what they consider to be “mini lightning” over two Martian years. Almost all of them occurred during dust storms or dust devils. Lightning has already been confirmed at Jupiter and Saturn, and has long been suspected at Mars.
NASA is unveiling close-up pictures of the interstellar comet that's making a quick one-and-done tour of our solar system. Discovered over the summer, the comet known as 3I/Atlas is only the third confirmed object to visit from another star. It zipped harmlessly past Mars last month. Several NASA spacecraft at and near the red planet zoomed in on the comet as it passed just 18 million miles away. The closest the comet will come to Earth is 167 million miles in mid-December. Then it will hightail it back into interstellar space, never to return. NASA’s acting astrophysics director, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, said during a news conference Wednesday that getting a glimpse of the comet presents “a fascinating and rare opportunity.”
Blue Origin has launched its huge New Glenn rocket with a pair of NASA spacecraft destined for Mars. Thursday's successful liftoff from Florida is only the second flight of the rocket that Jeff Bezos' company and NASA are counting on to get people and supplies to the moon. The Mars orbiters will spend a year hanging around Earth before setting off for the red planet. They're due to arrive in 2027. The University of California, Berkeley runs the $80 million mission. The rocket's inaugural test flight earlier this year reached orbit, but failed to land the booster on a barge in the Atlantic. This time, Blue Origin recovered the booster on its floating platform.
Solar storms brought colorful auroras to unexpected places and there could be more to come. Space weather forecasters confirmed that storms reached severe levels Tuesday night, triggering northern lights in Europe and as far south as Kansas and Texas in the U.S. There were some impacts to GPS communications and the power grid. Over the past few days, the sun has burped out several bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections. Two have reached Earth, but at least one more is still on the way. The sun is at the maximum phase of its 11-year activity cycle, making auroras more common and widespread.
The world has seen faster climate change than expected since the Paris Agreement a decade ago. Scientists say Earth's warming has outpaced efforts to reduce fossil fuel pollution that came out of the 2015 accord. This issue will be a focus of this week's UN climate talks in Brazil. There has been some progress like cheaper renewable energy and increased electric vehicle sales. But warming's harms have overwhelmed those gains. Extreme weather events such as major Atlantic hurricanes have increased since 2015. More than 7 trillion tons of ice have melted. The seas have risen by enough water to fill 30 lakes the size of Lake Erie.
The closest supermoon of the year is approaching in November. It happens when a full moon is closer to Earth in its orbit, making it appear slightly bigger and brighter. Wednesday’s event is the second of three supermoons this year and also the closest. The moon will come within just under 222,000 miles of Earth. The change in the moon’s size can be tough to discern with the naked eye. Supermoons happen a few times a year. A supermoon in October made the moon look somewhat larger. The last supermoon of the year will rise in December.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - A special planetary sight - a great conjunction of Jupiter an Saturn - can be seen by the public in a Monday virtu…
(WAND) – NASA’s latest discovery might make you laugh a little.