Moons

Lily Gladstone made Oscar history by being the first Native American woman to be among the 2024 Oscar nominees for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. Her performance as Osage Nation member Mollie Burkhart has been adored by the Academy, audiences, and critics alike. With this Oscar nomination, big things are coming to Gladstone’s career, like getting to re-team with Scorsese on a very different kind of movie.To go from roles in indie films to putting her name on the map by starring in Martin Scorsese’s…

When you think of the Moon, the adjective "damp" generally doesn't spring to mind.Earth's natural satellite is known to be very dry; a gray ball of gunpowder-scented dust and ancient volcanic rock. It's been a long time since anyone thought there might be an ocean of liquid water up there.Yet the Moon isn't as devoid of water as appearances suggest… and early in its history, it may have been wetter still.According to a new analysis of a meteorite determined to have originated on the Moon, the lunar crust was once far…

Upcoming exploration of the Moon is a highlight for space lovers. However, not everything about these upcoming missions has astronomers excited. In fact, some have even warned that the Moon’s resources could be at risk if we don’t control our exploitation of the minerals and other resources found on the lunar surface.There are several dozens of probes set to survey the lunar surface over the next few years, as well as manned missions to the surface that will see astronauts setting foot on the lunar surface for…

Hours before sunrise on Monday morning, United Launch Alliance’s brand spankin’ new Vulcan Centaur rocket is scheduled to make its maiden flight carrying a historic passenger: Peregrine, the first American lunar lander to be sent to the moon in over 50 years. And its mission could mark a turning point in humankind’s exploration of the cosmos. Peregrine is not a NASA spacecraft, but one developed by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, a private company. If it survives touchdown, Peregrine will be the first commercial craft to…

ESA’s 2023 in space exploration featured major milestones: the Juice mission to Jupiter, Euclid telescope’s dark matter studies, Aeolus mission’s end, the Zero Debris Charter for space debris, and Galileo’s new high-accuracy service. Key developments included ESA’s Hera spacecraft for asteroid impact analysis and advancements in Earth observation technology. Credit: ESA2023 was a landmark year in space exploration for the European Space Agency (ESA), marked by significant missions like Juice’s journey to Jupiter, the…

Lily Gladstone’s chilling performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon has made the talent a frontrunner during the 2024 award season set to honor the best achievements in film from the 2023 movie release schedule. Ahead of the Oscars this spring, Gladstone is entering the ongoing conversation about gendered award categories, as the actor discusses her own preferred pronouns. In this year’s Best Actress race, Gladstone’s performance in Killers of the Flower Moon (one of our voted best movies of 2023) seems…

The year 2023 proved to be an important one for space missions, with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returning a sample from an asteroid and India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission exploring the lunar south pole, and 2024 is shaping up to be another exciting year for space exploration. Several new missions under NASA’s Artemis plan and Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will target the Moon. The latter half of the year will feature several exciting launches, with the launch of the Martian Moons eXploration mission in…

NASA’s campaign to gather names for a sort of “message in a bottle” that will fly with its upcoming Europa Clipper mission closes after this weekend, so if you were hoping to participate but haven’t yet made your submission, you’d better hurry up and do so. The signatures will accompany a poem written for Europa by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, which will be engraved in Limón’s handwriting on a metal plate attached to the spacecraft. Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, is thought to have a deep saltwater ocean beneath…

This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam. Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Ted StrykThe orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons.NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, December…

Fans of Game of Thrones will remember that a key character, hunky sellsword Daario Naharis, looked rather different in season four after debuting in season three—and now the two actors who played him, Ed Skrein and Michiel Huisman, are sharing the screen in Zack Snyder’s new Netflix film Rebel Moon.Spoilers of the Week Feb 14-18Actors replacing other actors in established roles isn’t unheard-of in Hollywood; aside from maybe the most famous example (Bewitched, obviously), Prime Video’s Wheel of Time just did it, swapping…