Exquisite snapshots released on Monday (April 28) provide a rare glimpse into the earliest stages of planet formation in more than a dozen star systems, revealing where planets emerge, how quickly they form and what materials they're made from. Scientists say the data could help refine computer models of planetary formation and evolution, as well as shed new light on how these infant systems compare to the myriad of mature exoplanets already discovered.

The high-resolution, science-packed images come thanks to advanced imaging techniques courtesy of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. These techniques reduce distortions and sharpen clarity, boosting astronomers' ability to map out the planet formation process with greater precision by revealing finer structures within the protoplanetary disks — the swirling gas and dust surrounding young stars, according to a statement.

The newly developed techniques "are like switching from reading glasses to high-powered binoculars," Richard Teague of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who serves as the principal investigator of the project, said in the statement. "They reveal a whole new level of detail in these planet-forming systems."

Using ALMA, Teague's team captured images of 15 young star systems sprinkled in space between a few hundred to 1,000 light-years from Earth. Rather than rely on direct detection of a young planet's faint light, Teague's team looked for the subtle clues these infant worlds imprint on their surroundings — such as gaps and rings in dusty disks, swirling gas motions caused by a planet's gravity, and other physical disturbances that hint at a planet's presence. To uncover these signatures, the researchers used ALMA to map the motion of gas within over a dozen protoplanetary disks.

"It's like trying to spot a fish by looking for ripples in a pond, rather than trying to see the fish itself," Christophe Pinte, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Planetary sciences and Astrophysics in France, who was also a principal investigator of the project, said in the statement.

Initial analysis of the images, detailed in 17 newly published papers, clearly shows that these protoplanetary disks with still-forming planets are highly dynamic, chaotic places that already harbor complex structures, the team says.

Among the key findings are fresh insights into how large dust grains are gathered into rings — precursors to planets — and subtle signs of the disks' gravitational influence, providing astronomers with a new way to gauge the mass available for forming planets.

"We're seeing evidence of hugely perturbed and dynamic disks, highly suggestive of young planets shaping the disks they're born in," Teague said.A particularly notable aspect of the project, according to the research team, is that early-career scientists took the lead — authoring 12 of the 17 published papers, with more expected to follow later this year.

I've been hunting around the internet as eagerly as Boba Fett hunting down Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, and found that Walmart has some of our favorite sets from our Lego Star Wars buyers guide, all with big discounts. From the droids everyone is looking for — R2-D2 and C3-P0 to Luke Skywalker's legendary X-Wing Fighter, there's a Star Wars set for all ages.

Our Lego experts here at Space.com have reviewed most of the sets featured, so they all come highly recommended by people who've built hundreds upon hundreds of sets. So it's safe to say you won't have a bad feeling about buying one of these Lego sets.

It's also worth noting that it's Walmart+ Week, running from April 28th to May 5th, and you can get big member-only offers like 50¢ off per gallon at Exxon or Mobil stations. There's a 30-day Free Trial or you can skip the trial and sign up straight away to unlock every Walmart+ offer.

Best Star Wars Lego deals at Walmart

Check out our best discounts and deals on telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, Lego and much more.

Directed by "Attack on Titan's" Masashi Koizuka and boasting exceptional character designs from "Fullmetal Alchemist" creator Hiromu Arakawa, "Moonrise" unceremoniously first appeared on April 10, 2025, with a full complement of 18 episodes and a compelling Earth versus the Moon setup.

Prior to its official release, a frustrated "Moonrise" producer Ryoma Kawamura even took to social media regarding the anime show's lack of marketing attention from Netflix, stating, "Please do your best to promote it. I can't do it on my own. Seriously please!! It's still buried deep. Red 'N' Company!! It's time to show the world your power!"

"Moonrise's" material is based on a novel from "Psycho-Pass" writer Tou Ubukata, with animation hailing from WIT Studio, the artists who delivered "Attack on Titan" Seasons 1-3, "Spy x Family," "Vinland Saga," and others. The result is breathtaking animation wrapped up inside a sometimes-convoluted tale of AI overdependence, genetics, capitalistic greed, and class inequality.

Its plot is centered around the Earth Army Investigator Jack Shadow, who travels to the Moon to take down a violent lunar revolt and hunt down revolutionaries that caused the death of his family after orbital elevators connecting the two worlds are destroyed by insurgents demanding total independence.

Sapientia, a powerful AI that has balanced world peace, is the target of the discontented terrorists. The Moon's Joint Army unleashes soldiers while an elite commando unit from Earth called VC3 Squad, led by Jack, infiltrates undercover to wipe out the rebel faction known as the Moon Chains.

At times, the overstuffed narrative is stretched to the point of snapping with too many story threads dangling in the vacuum of outer space, but as you hunker down and remain steadfast, dedicated viewers will see the ambitious scope its creators were striving for.

Copernicus City, the show's main operating lunar civilization, is fascinating and well-detailed, as are the impressive spaceships and vehicles inhabiting the filmmakers' vast worldbuilding. Imagine three seasons of an epic anime endeavor all shuffled into one!

With its DNA firmly rooted in hardcore space opera, "Moonrise" has staged some spectacular action sequences that allow you to forget some of its screenwriting deficits, puzzling character motivation, sudden pacing shifts, and more than a couple of plot holes.

If you sip slowly, pay close attention to its erratic time jumps and flashbacks, focus on its gorgeous visuals, technology presentations, and dynamic action sequences, and forgive its all-too-human storytelling flaws, then Moonrise is one of the most interesting sci-fi anime we've seen in years.

"Moonrise" is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.

Astrophotographer Joel Martin captured a magnificent view of Bode's Galaxy in February 2025 during the annual Dark Sky Festival held in California's Death Valley National Park.

The frames used to create Martin's galactic portrait were captured on the night of Feb. 21 using a 150mm f/4 Newtonian telescope connected to a ASI533 astrophotography camera capable of taking full color images in a single exposure without the need for filters.

Bode's Galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +6.94, making it one of the brightest galaxies visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Martin was able to bring out exquisite detail in the grand spiral galaxy by executing a set of 18 separate 300 second exposures, which were then stacked and post-processed using PixInsight astrophotography software.

The end result is a stunning view of M81 that highlights active star forming regions embedded in the galaxy's spiral arms, the light from which has travelled for 11.6 million light-years before rushing headlong into Martin's telescope. The prominent core of Bode's Galaxy also shines brightly with the light of older, redder stars in this shot, which orbit a monstrous supermassive black hole that is estimated to have a mass the equivalent to 15 times that of the Milky Way's Sagittarius A*.

April just so happens to be the best month to view Bode's Galaxy, so why not head out and try to spot it for yourself? You can track down M81 by locating the Big Dipper asterism in the constellation Ursa Major - which is high overhead this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere - and engaging in a little star hopping.

First off, locate the bright star Phecda, and draw an imaginary diagonal line from this star through Dubhe, which is located on the 'pouring tip' of the Big Dipper's bowl.

Continue this line outwards for the same distance that it took to cross the bowl, and you will find the patch of sky containing Bode's Galaxy.

Remember, M81 is invisible to the naked eye. However, as explained by NASA it can be seen through a good pair of binoculars as a smudge of light, with the smaller cigar-shaped galaxy M82 also in frame, but a small telescope is needed to resolve the bright galactic core and elegant, sweeping spiral arms.

If you want to try and find Bode's Galaxy for yourself then why not avail yourself of our guides detailing the best binoculars deals and best telescope deals available this year. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight.

The award-winning actor is set to star in the new podcast "BUZZ" about the life of one of the first humans to land on the moon. In the 11-episode scripted audio series debuting on May 6, Lithgow gives voice to the astronaut's thoughts as he reflects on his past.

"I want to tell you about my new fiction podcast," says Lithgow in a teaser released on Tuesday (April 29) by iHeartPodcasts and Thoroughbred Studios. "It's an audio thriller about Buzz Aldrin, one of the true pioneers of space."

On July 20, 1969, Aldrin and Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong achieved humanity's first landing on another celestial body, landing NASA's lunar module "Eagle" at Tranquility Base. Armstrong then took the first step onto the lunar surface, declaring, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

"Those words would become cemented in our culture, but they weren't my words," says Lithgow as Aldrin in "BUZZ."

After Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, the two moonwalkers spent about two and a half hours collecting moon rocks, planting the American flag and deploying science experiments, all while becoming two of the most famous people alive at the time. They returned to Earth (together with command module pilot Michael Collins) as heroes and were celebrated as they toured around the world.

"That's the story you think you know. This is the story you don't," Lithgow says.

Written by Stephen Kronish ("24"), the series is described as a "riveting human drama" with Aldrin at its center, "examining the ups and downs of the Apollo 11 mission." As the podcast unfolds, listeners will hear Aldrin as he "faces his own frailties, overcomes demons he inherited through no fault of his own, repairs relationships and triumphs over addiction."

"And become a true hero — not because he conquers space, but because he conquers himself," says Lithgow.

In addition to Lithgow ("Conclave", "The Crown"), who portrays Aldrin today, "BUZZ" also features actor Geoffrey Arend ("Body of Proof," "Madam Secretary") as the astronaut at the time of the Apollo 11 mission.

"John Lithgow gives an extraordinary performance, taking us into the mind of Apollo 11's most enigmatic character, Buzz Aldrin, who came back to Earth to face an even greater challenge than going to the moon," said John Scott Dryden, director of "BUZZ," in a statement. "A story few of us know, 'Buzz' is an immersive space drama in audio that puts the listener at the heart of the action."

Although Aldrin, now 95, was not involved in this podcast, he has written and talked extensively about the personal challenges he faced before and after flying to the moon. He published four memoirs between 1973 and 2016, each providing insight into the pressure that he felt from his parents, his interactions with his fellow astronauts, his failed marriages and his recovery from alcoholism.

"BUZZ marks an exciting step forward in our partnership with Thoroughbred Studios to reimagine monumental moments in American history through top-tier talent and exceptional production," said Will Pearson, president of iHeartPodcasts.

"BUZZ" is produced and cast by Emma Hearn for Goldhawk Productions. It is executive produced by Jeremy Fox and Howard Stringer for Thoroughbred Studios, John Scott Dryden for Goldhawk Productions, Stephen Kronish and Jason English for iHeartPodcasts.

"'BUZZ' pays homage to the original trailblazers who risked their lives to go to the moon. This is a perfect start to our partnership with iHeart," said Bewkes.

Click through to collectSPACE to listen to an audio teaser for the new 'BUZZ" podcast from iHeartPodcasts and Thoroughbred Studios.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

How to take photos of the solar eclipse

If you've followed our guide on how to photograph a solar eclipse, you may have taken a series of images using your camera and lens combination. Then, in both Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, you can locate the time of each stage of the eclipse and build your images using a series of layers and blending modes.

How to find the time on an image

Follow these steps to find the times on the images you'd like to incorporate into your solar eclipse photo.

1. Load your images. Begin by loading your images into a photo library, such as Adobe Lightroom. This is where you will apply basic photo adjustments and locate the times of the images. Such image "metadata" will help you identify the time of each stage of the eclipse.

2. Choose how many sub-images you want to use. Next, decide how many "subs" will be integrated into your final composition. You can plan these timings from your imaging location using an app like SkySafari 7 Pro so you can select photos with the same timestamp as each eclipse stage. If the weather obscures some of your images around these times, the nearest frame will be more than adequate.

How to edit solar eclipse photos

When you're reviewing your images, you may need to apply a few minor adjustments to result in a cleaner blend between multiple images. The first adjustment may be to correct the overall exposure of the image. Before I took photographs of the solar eclipse, I had noted to capture an image off-peak to the right.

A quality image of the solar disk is one that is in focus, with crisp, defined edges and any sunspots and solar granulation visible. Applying a minor exposure adjustment will naturally boost the contrast between darker and lighter tones of your image, and a good result will be one where the solar disk does not appear under- or overexposed.

Keep an eye on the histogram levels of the image to aid your judgment. If highlights peak, pull back, and vice versa for shadows and darker tones

Next, you can "crush" the blacks, where you darken the darkest parts of the image, in this case the moon and the area around the eclipse. This will not only apply more contrast to the overall image but also minimize any image artifacts in the background image data. Apply a very minor adjustment, without clipping data of the solar disk, to create the look and feel you desire.

To make solar details pop, you can apply a minor sharpness adjustment to your images. Use the control-click of the sharpness adjustment tool to reveal a sharpening layer mask. (At first, the image will appear inverted, and you can control how much of the adjustment to apply.)

How to apply an artificial warmth to your images

In some circumstances, astrophotographers decide to apply an "artificial warmth" to their images. When you photograph the sun using a white-light solar filter, the resulting images tend to appear neutral in color, and an artificial color (typically warmer in nature) can be used to bring out surface details and make for a more attractive visual.

To achieve this effect, increase the temperature of your image until a warm, orange tinge is visible across the solar disk.

Next, apply a saturation boost, being careful not to oversaturate the image, and assess the balance between the saturation and the surface detail on the lunar disk.

How to use open layers in Photoshop

Follow these steps to edit your solar eclipse images as layers in Adobe Photoshop.

1. Select and upload your images. Choose the images you wish to incorporate. In Lightroom, choose Sync on the lower right of the screen. Select All Adjustments, and click Continue. This will copy and paste your edits across your selected images, which are now ready to be loaded into your preferred editing software. In this case, any photo editing software can be used. (At this stage, we recommend saving all of your images as TIFF files, at 16 bits to preserve resolution.) For this demonstration, we will be using Adobe Photoshop.

2. Open the images. Open your images as consecutive layers. This will allow you to manually adjust the position of each frame.

3. Find the central image. Once the layers are loaded, locate what will be your central image, capturing the peak of the eclipse — totality, annularity or the point of greatest eclipse, depending on the type of eclipse.

4. Get creative. Work the composition frame by frame. Use the ruler tools to aid your composition and mark the spacing between the images. This is where your creativity comes in. You can boost the image scale or blend the images as a row across the image frame. This technique provides you with a workable canvas, scaled to the size of your image files, and thus will preserve the resolution. If you opt for a greater canvas size, this can be edited under Image > Adjustments. Locate the canvas size and adjust it according to your taste.

5. Change the blend mode. After you arrange your images into a composition that works for you, the next stage is to change the blend mode of each layer. Adjust the mode from Normal to Lighten. The adjacent layer will appear to interact with the layer, and you can now fine-tune your composition to reposition your images accordingly.

Experimental compositions

Now that you have completed your first composition, you can apply a series of other compositions. You may decide to use fewer frames from your imaging session or simply select the most dramatic images from the event. Try different compositions, such as vertical or horizontal. Or, experiment with a series of artificial shapes — such as figure eights, spirals, or circular compositions — using individual eclipse photos.

With higher-resolution images, it is possible to retain the resolution when you increase the image scale. The rule of thumb is not to exceed an image scale of around 1920 x 1080, as this will result in an overall degradation of your image.

Through trial and error, you will capture a striking image that will document the nature of solar eclipses from our perspective here on Earth.

The first mention of the Three Leaps of the Gazelle asterism was seemingly penned by the 13th century Arabic astronomer and mathematician Ulugh Beg, according to a 2021 post from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The three star pairings - an asterism named Kafzah al Thiba in Beg's time - represent the glowing tracks made by a celestial gazelle that was spooked when the lion of the Leo constellation swished its tail, causing it to flee to safety.

Two of the three stellar pairings that mark the gazelle's hoofprints have since been designated by the International Astronomical Union as the feet of the Great Bear represented by Ursa Major. The stars of the Three Leaps of the Gazelle Asterism are not particularly bright at magnitudes between +3 and +4, and so to spot them with the naked eye we'd recommend seeking out a dark sky free of the artificial light pollution found in large towns and cities.

In order to find the ancient Three Leaps of the Gazelle asterism you must first locate the Big Dipper, which is high in the sky in late April after sunset, close to your local zenith - the point in the sky directly above your head.

Then, locate the bright star Phecda in the bowl of the Big Dipper, along with the magnitude +3.33 star Coxa (also known as Chertan, or Theta Leonis) in the constellation Leo.

Roughly half way along that imaginary line you will find two points of light that represent the final 'leap' of the otherworldly gazelle, made up of the star Alula Borealis (Mag +3.63), and the spectroscopic binary Alula Australis (Mag +4).

Then trace a line from Alula Borealis - the star closer to the Big Dipper - to the bright star Capella in the constellation Auriga in the north western sky. Along this path you will find the second leap of the gazelle composed of the binary star system Tania Australis (Mag 3.14) and lone star Tania Borealis (Mag +3.45).

Next you will come across the first 'hoofprints' made from the stellar binaries of Kappa Ursae Majoris (Mag +3.56), also known as Alkaphrah, and Iota Ursae Majoris A (Mag +3.19), also known as Talitha.

The latter two pairings are part of the constellation Ursa Major, and so are particularly easy to find with the help of stargazing apps like Stellarium, which can make use of augmented reality tech to reveal the shapes and constituent elements of constellations. Check out our roundup of the best stargazing apps available in 2025 to find the best fit for your needs.

Fancy checking out the stars of the Three Leaps of the Gazelle for yourself or exploring galaxies even further afield? Our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help you with that. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight.

Get the Nikon D850 for just $1,796.95 and save $600 at Adorama.

Our resident camera guru, Jase Parnell-Brookes, called the D850 an astrophotography master, and Jase highlighted the Nikon D850's brilliant design with its backlit buttons, excellent low-light autofocus and good high ISO noise handling, making it perfect for shooting in the dark. Jase gave the Nikon D850 a 4.5 out of 5-star review and highlighted its impeccable tech specs and a robust, weather-sealed body that won’t ever let you down, saying the D850 is a magnificent option.

• We're constantly checking the best prices for big discounts on the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

Its impeccable performance also means the D850 is a powerhouse of a DLSR in other fields of photography, so no matter what type of photography you're into, this camera won't let you down.

Our sister site Live Science names the Nikon D850 the best DSLR in their best astrophotography buyers guide and it takes the best DSLR for wildlife photography crown in that guide too, which confirms the D850's credentials as a wonderfully versatile DSLR camera.

Whether you're a serious photographer, shooting for business, or just an enthusiastic amateur, the Nikon D850 is an absolute steal at $600 off. It's a camera that you'll have for years, with solid weather-sealing, it's perfect for outdoor adventures, whether shooting May's full moon and the Eta Aquarid meteor showers or capturing the wonders of the Aurora Borealis.

There's a long, long list of accolades to throw at the Nikon D850, but perhaps one of the most important is its high resolution compared to other DSLRs on the market. It's capable of capturing gorgeous imagery with a stunning level of detail, largely thanks to its back-illuminated sensor, which works incredibly well in low-light conditions, which of course makes it a winner when it comes to astrophotography.

The Nikon D850 also has a fantastic ISO ranging from 320 to 102400, and its 9fps continuous shooting range means it's capable of capturing fast-moving subjects, so great if you like to photograph wildlife or sport, it has you covered there.

This DSLR camera deal is US-only. If you're not in the US, you'll find Nikon D850 deals for your region at the bottom of this post.

Key features: 45.7MP full-frame CMOS sensor, 9fps burst rate, 8K UHD video, ISO range from 32-25,600 (extendable to 32-102,400) and superb auto-focus.

Product launched: September 2017.

Price history: This is the lowest price we've seen on the D850, and beats last year's Black Friday/Cyber Monday price of $2,196.95.

Price comparison: The Nikon D850 is even cheaper at Walmart, although that is via a third-party seller — Walmart for $1,728.68 or at Best Buy for $1,799.95.

Reviews consensus: The D850 features in our best camera for astrophotography buyers guide as one of the best DSLR cameras. It gets top marks across our sister sites thanks to its versatile performance, and it's an incredibly powerful tool for almost every kind of photography and video. At this discounted price, the D850 represents incredible value for money.

Space: ★★★★½ | Live Science: ★★★★½ | TechRadar: ★★★★★

Featured in guides: Best camera for Astrophotography.

✅ Buy it if: You want incredibly detailed images, 8K UHD video footage and a superbly versatile offering that makes the D850 probably the best DSLR camera ever made.

❌ Don't buy it if: You want a lighter camera, the D850 is fairly heavy when compared to the best mirrorless cameras, and we'd recommend the Canon R5 or the Nikon Z8 as two good, lightweight mirrorless camera options.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

Like the lingering chime of a struck bell, tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime are created when massive objects like black holes spiral toward each other and merge into a single, larger black hole. These ripples are known as "gravitational waves," and astronomers rely on theoretical models to decode the waves' faint signals, both in the final moments leading up to the merger and in the aftermath.

In theory, as the newly formed black hole behemoth settles into a stable, spinning form, it should radiate a distinctive pattern of gravitational waves — known to astronomers as quasinormal modes (QNMs) — which are shaped by the black hole's intrinsic properties, such as its mass and spin.

Astronomers have long expected these waveforms to follow a predictable pattern, with each mode gradually fading over time — much like the diminishing chime of a struck bell. But in 1997, theorists identified a puzzling exception: one particular mode appeared out of sync, an inconsistency that couldn't be explained by existing models. This anomaly raised the possibility that QNMs do not evolve independently, but instead interact in complex, nonlinear ways, suggesting the internal structure of black holes, and indeed the gravitational waves they emit, might be far more complex than previously thought.

Now, new theoretical work by Hayato Motohashi, an astrophysicist at the University of Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan, builds on the 30-year mystery. By analyzing the behavior of multiple such QNMs, Motohashi found that the original "dissonance" wasn't a cosmic glitch but rather the result of two modes interacting with each other. This kind of interaction, according to Motohashi, happens regularly across many modes, suggesting it could be a fundamental feature of black hole physics.

Such coupled cosmic ringing is more than just a mathematical curiosity, scientists say. Because gravitational wave signals, including QNMs, are shaped by the geometry of the black hole's spacetime — the "fabric" of the universe surrounding it — analyzing the interactions between modes could lead to more precise "maps" of the black holes themselves.

For example, just as a bell ringing slightly out of tune might indicate a crack or imperfection, deviations in gravitational wave frequencies can point to asymmetries in the black hole's shape. These imperfections, which scientists expect decay over time but leave a temporary imprint on the QNMs, could even reveal signs of new physics, according to the new study.

"Our findings pave the way for rigorous examinations of black holes and the exploration of new physics in gravity," Motohashi wrote in the new study.

This research is described in a paper published April 9in the journal Physical Review Letters.

China's three-person Shenzhou 19 mission came home on Wednesday (April 30) after six months in orbit.

The Shenzhou 19 spacecraft — carrying astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze — undocked from the Tiangong space station on Tuesday (April 29) at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT; 4 a.m. on April 30 China Standard Time), according to Chinese space officials.

The trio spent about nine hours in transit back to Earth, touching down at the Dongfeng landing site in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Wednesday at about 1:08 a.m. EDT (0508 GMT; 1:08 p.m. China Standard Time). That was a day later than originally planned; the landing had been scheduled for Tuesday, but mission planners pushed it back due to windy weather at Dongfeng.

The Shenzhou 19 astronauts had been in space since Oct. 29, when they launched toward Tiangong. And they notched some notable milestones during that stretch.

For example, Cai, who was Shenzhou 19's commander, and Song spent more than nine hours outside Tiangong during a mid-December spacewalk, setting a new record for the longest extravehicular activity.

The duo installed a new space debris shield on Tiangong during the super-long spacewalk. Cai and Song also conducted spacewalks on Jan. 20 and March 21, installing more shielding and inspecting extravehicular systems and equipment.

The Shenzhou 19 astronauts also performed 86 scientific experiments during their time in orbit. One of those projects placed a brick made from lunar soil simulant on Tiangong's exterior, to see how it holds up in the space environment. The results could help China plan out a moon base, which it intends to build with international partners in the 2030s.

Shenzhou 19 was the second spaceflight for Cai; he also flew to Tiangong on Shenzhou 14 in 2022. Song and Wang were spaceflight rookies.

The Shenzhou 19 crew was China's youngest to date. Cai is 48, and both Song and Wang — currently the nation's only female spaceflight engineer — were born in 1990.

The trio welcomed the three-person Shenzhou 20 mission to Tiangong on April 24 and officially handed the keys to the station over to the newcomers during a change-of-command ceremony on April 27.

China finished assembling the three-module Tiangong, which is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station, in November 2022. Shenzhou 19 was the eighth crewed mission to the orbiting lab.

Phoenix 1, a prototype spacecraft built by German company Atmos Space Cargo, rode to the final frontier on April 21 via SpaceX's Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission.

Phoenix 1 was tasked with demonstrating some key reentry tech, such as the capsule's inflatable heat shield. Atmos also aimed to collect information about the flight and record scientific data from the customer experiments that flew aboard Phoenix 1 as well. All of these objectives were indeed met during the flight, according to Atmos.

"Phoenix 1 was a milestone mission that showcased the incredible capabilities of our team," Marta Oliveira, Atmos' co-founder and chief operating officer, said in an April 23 update. "This mission proves that we’re not only solving the technical challenge of re-entry — we're laying the groundwork for a future where space is accessible, testable and impactful for innovation here on Earth."

That update included two photos of Phoenix 1 in space. In one image, it's still attached to the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage; in the other, the capsule has just separated and started its return to Earth.

Phoenix 1 reentered Earth's atmosphere southeast of the Brazilian coast about two hours after launch, according to update. The capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) offshore.

Atmos could not retrieve data from the final stages of Phoenix 1's descent; the company didn't recover the capsule and said in the update that it hadn't planned to, given how far out to sea the craft landed.

Atmos says it developed the Phoenix 1 pathfinder in less than a year. The recently completed mission will help the company build Phoenix 2, which is expected to launch in 2026 and will be more capable than its predecessor.

"Atmos' current roadmap for Phoenix 2 confirms to feature its own propulsion system, enabling the capsule to choose its reentry trajectory and splashdown zone, enabling swift recovery," the company wrote in the April 23 update.

Over the longer haul, Atmos aims to provide customers with a cost-effective and efficient way to bring valuable materials from space down to Earth.

"Our mission is to revolutionize space logistics, enabling groundbreaking advancements in microgravity research, in-orbit manufacturing, defense applications and life sciences," the company's website reads.

Smylie, who was chief of NASA's crew systems division at the time, died on April 21, 2025, at the age of 95. His death came almost 55 years to the day after he and his team figured out how to combine a spacesuit hose, a sock, a plastic bag, cue cards and duct tape to clean the air for astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert during their emergency trip back to Earth.

"I guess that was our 15 minutes of fame," said Smylie in a 1999 interview with a NASA historian. "If you read the book and look at the movie ["Apollo 13"], it sounds like I did all of that. I went back and looked at the list of people that I identified were involved, and there was probably 60 people involved in one way or another."

The concern was that the carbon dioxide being exhaled by the astronauts would reach high enough concentrations to be deadly if not cleaned from the air.

Related: Apollo 13: Facts about NASA's near-disaster moon mission

The Apollo spacecraft had two areas where the crew lived, and each was built by different contractors. Inside the command module, the carbon dioxide scrubber (or lithium hydroxide canister, as it was technically known) was cube-shaped. In the lunar module, which on Apollo 13 served as the crew's lifeboat, the scrubber was cylindrical.

Initially, Smylie thought that the solution could be as simple as continuing to run the scrubbers in the command module and run hoses to redirect their cleaned air exhaust into the lunar module. That would have worked, had the command module not needed to be shut down to reserve power for the reentry into the atmosphere (only the command module was designed to return to Earth intact).

After working with others to come up with the basic concept, Smylie and his team needed to make sure that it would work.

"I called both Downey and Kennedy [Space Center] and asked for some canisters to be sent so we could test that," said Smylie, referencing the location of North American Rockwell, NASA's contractor for the command module. "We found them at the Cape, chartered an airplane — Grumman [NASA's contractor for the lunar module] chartered an airplane, I guess, or North American did, and flew them up, and we had them that afternoon."

After learning that their makeshift fix worked as intended, they needed to come up with how to tell the Apollo 13 crew how to build the so-called "mail box" in space.

"We got hold of T.K.," said Smylie, referring to Thomas "Ken" Mattingly, who until three days before the mission had been assigned to fly with Lovell and Haise, but was grounded after he was exposed to the German measles. "T.K. was busy doing other things, and he assigned [fellow astronaut] Tony England to work with us on developing procedures to send up to the crew on how to build this thing."

Although the jury-rigged solution sounded complex, Smylie said that it was "pretty straightforward."

"Even though we got a lot of publicity for it and [President Richard] Nixon even mentioned our names, I always argued that that was because that was one [problem] you could understand. Nobody really understood the hard things they were doing. Everybody could understand a filter," he said.

Robert Edwin "Ed" Smylie was born on Dec. 25, 1929, on his grandparents' farm in Lincoln County, Mississippi. He served in the Navy before attending Mississippi State University, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering in 1952 and 1956, respectively. A year later, he received his master's in management from MIT.

He was hired as an engineer by the Douglas Aircraft Company (today, Boeing), working on the DC-8 jetliner, as well as how to air condition supersonic transports and keep thermal control for the Skybolt missile. He joined NASA in 1962 as the head of the life systems section and then head of the environmental control systems branch at the Manned Spacecraft Center (today, Johnson Space Center) in Houston.

For more than a decade beginning in 1962, Smylie served as assistant chief for Apollo support, acting chief and then chief of the crew systems division. In 1973, he moved to Washington, D.C., where at NASA Headquarters he was the deputy associate administrator for aeronautics and space technology, followed by acting associate administrator and then associate administrator for space tracking and data systems.

Smylie concluded his 18 years with NASA as deputy director and acting director of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. After leaving NASA, Smylie held executive positions with RCA, General Electric, Grumman and the Mitre Corporation.

For his service to the space program, and in particular his role in saving the Apollo 13 crew, Smylie was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and GlobalSpec's Great Moments in Engineering Award. He was also presented with the NASA exceptional service medal, distinguished service medal and outstanding leadership medal.

Smylie was preceded in death by his wife of 41 years, Carolyn, his brother John, a stepson and his former wife, June. He is survived by three children, Carolyn's two children, 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

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The two-stage, 96.7-foot-tall (29.6 meters) Alpha lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base this morning (April 29), carrying a technology demonstration for aerospace giant Lockheed Martin toward low Earth orbit (LEO).

But the payload never got there. Alpha suffered an anomaly shortly after its two stages separated, which led to the loss of the nozzle extension for the upper stage's single Lightning engine. This significantly reduced the engine's thrust, dooming the mission, Firefly said in an update several hours after launch.

"Initial indications showed Alpha's upper stage reached 320 km [199 miles] in altitude. However, upon further assessment, the team learned the upper stage did not reach orbital velocity, and the stage and payload have now safely impacted the Pacific Ocean in a cleared zone north of Antarctica," the update reads.

"Firefly recognizes the hard work that went into payload development and would like to thank our mission partners at Lockheed Martin for their continued support," it continues. "The team is working closely with our customers and the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] to conduct an investigation and determine root cause of the anomaly. We will provide more information on our mission page after the investigation is completed."

Today's mission, which Firefly called "Message in a Booster," was the first of up to 25 that the company will conduct for Lockheed Martin over the next five years. The flight aimed to send a satellite technology demonstrator to LEO.

This demo payload "was specifically built to showcase the company's pathfinding efforts for its LM 400 mid-sized, multi-mission satellite bus, and to demonstrate the space vehicle's operational capabilities on orbit for potential customers," Firefly wrote in a prelaunch mission description.

Alpha, which can deliver up to 2,270 pounds (1,030 kilograms) of payload to LEO, debuted in September 2021. Just two of its six missions to date have been fully successful.

"Message in a Booster" was the last of a record-setting six launches in a 17.5-hour span from Monday (April 28) to today. Four of those missions sent broadband satellites to orbit for LEO megaconstellations, and the other one lofted the European Space Agency's Biomass forest-monitoring satellite.

Houston-based company Axiom Space announced on Tuesday (April 29) that it's targeting May 29 for the launch of its fourth crewed spaceflight to the orbiting lab, a mission known as Ax-4.

Ax-4 will carry a four-person crew representing four different nations to the ISS. The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, riding one of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft to orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The quartet will carry nearly 60 science investigations from a total of 31 countries worldwide  — a record for an Axiom mission.

Peggy Whitson, Axiom's director of human spaceflight and a record-setting former NASA astronaut, will command Ax-4. Whitson will be flying on her fifth mission to orbit and her second for Axiom Space. She will be joined by pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Polish mission specialist Sławosz Uznański of the European Space Agency (ESA), and mission specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

This will be the first time an astronaut from any of those three latter countries will fly aboard the ISS, and Uznański will be the first Polish astronaut to launch to space in more than 40 years.

"To date, these [Axiom] missions have represented 11 nations," Axiom Space Chief Scientist Lucie Low said during a call with reporters on Tuesday.

"We are opening the door to countries where, previously, access to space has been through the ISS partners, but we're opening the door to new countries, institutions and individuals that can bring new ideas that can really fuel an economy beyond Earth," she added.

Ax-4 is expected to remain docked with the ISS for about two weeks, as the crewmembers work their way through the record number of science experiments and technology demonstrations tasked to the mission.

As Axiom continues gaining on-orbit experience, the company gains confidence in its longer-term goal of constructing and operating a space station in low Earth orbit, according to Low.

"These private astronaut missions actually make us ready ourselves for Axiom Station," she said. "Our private astronaut missions are designed to flesh out and test procedures, communications, coordination, training and so much more, so that when Axiom Station is ready to become independent from the ISS, the private astronauts, the ground teams, the crews and the platform that they support will be fully functional and ready to hit the ground running."

Six different rockets launched toward orbit in a dizzying stretch of 18 hours, topping by two the previous record for most liftoffs in a 24-hour span.

The action started in China on Monday (April 28) at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT; 4:10 a.m. on April 29 local time), when a Long March 5B rocket sent a batch of satellites for the Guowang broadband megaconstellation to low Earth orbit (LEO) from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island.

Thirty-two minutes later, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying 27 of the company's Starlink internet craft to LEO.

Then, at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 GMT) the same day, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched the first 27 satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband megaconstellation from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Another Falcon 9 flew from the Space Coast about 3.5 hours later, lofting 23 Starlink satellites from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is next door to the Space Force facility.

Let's pause for a moment here to catch our breath, and to take stock: On Monday, four rockets launched from four different sites — one in China, two in Florida and one in California — within a span of approximately 6.5 hours. All of them were successful, and all were devoted to building out LEO broadband constellations, one of which is already established and operational (Starlink) and two of which are just getting off the ground (Guowang and Project Kuiper).

Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

But that's not all.

Two more liftoffs occurred on Tuesday morning (April 29), neither of which carried internet satellites.

At 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT), an Arianespace Vega-C rocket successfully launched the European Space Agency's Biomass forest-monitoring satellite to LEO from Kourou, French Guiana. It was the fourth-ever launch for the Vega-C, and its second since an anomaly caused a mission failure in December of 2022.

Then, at 9:37 a.m. EDT (1337 GMT) on Tuesday, Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket took to the skies for the sixth time ever, rising off a pad at Vandenberg with a Lockheed Martin satellite technology demonstrator on board. But things didn't go as planned; a mishap occurred during the separation of Alpha's first and second stages, and the payload was lost.

To sum up: We just saw six orbital launches in about 17.5 hours, five of them successful. That's some unprecedented action, but it may well be a taste of things to come: With SpaceX already launching multiple times per week and several other broadband megaconstellations under construction, we should expect the rockets to keep flying at a blistering pace.

Vermont-based astrophotographer Michele Hernandez Bayliss has captured stunning views of Messier 94 - also known as the Croc's Eye galaxy - and the famous Whirlpool galaxy (M 51), both of which are embedded in the constellation Canes Venatici.

The Croc's Eye galaxy was captured over the nights of April 20 and 21 using a Takahashi TOA-130NFB Refractor in concert with a Stellarvue SVX140T-R telescope, along with the host of peripherals needed to stably capture the deep sky images.

Over the course of 20 hours Hernandez Bayliss used the scopes to capture M94 with a series of luminance, red, green and blue (LRGB) filters, before combining the data using computer software to create a stunning view of the spiral galaxy, which exists 34 million light-years from our solar system.

"The tricky part about galaxies is the processing — for the Croc eye, the challenge was that it was a lot smaller than I thought in my 990mm scope but I was able to crop in a bit," explained Hernandez Bayliss In an email to Space.com. "Also, it's very bright in the core so I had to do a bit of HDR compression to bring out the core and do a careful job with the Synthetic Luminance I created from the LRGB," she continued, referring to the filters used to capture the data.

Hernandez Bayliss was a long time visual astronomer before taking up astrophotography fairly recently, and has spent the last two years building a backyard observatory at her home in Weybridge, Vermont.

"The other challenge is getting dark nights with no moon for galaxies and clear nights as we don't get that many clear nights in Vermont — so it was awesome to get two nights in quick succession with no clouds, no moon and clear skies — a miracle!"

Back in February, Hernandez Bayliss took aim at the Whirlpool galaxy using a set of RGB and hydrogen-alpha (Ha) filters to capture the fine structural detail of Messier 51, pictured above.

It took a grand total of 16 hours to capture data on the vast cosmic structure, which the amateur astronomer later compiled into a colorful portrait.

The image captures many of the sweeping features that one would hope to find in a 'grand-design' spiral galaxy, complete with a bright central core, dark dust lanes, and intense star forming regions.

As noted by NASA, some astronomers believe that the prominence of the M51's spiral arms is likely the result of a close pass by the smaller galaxy NGC 5195, which can be seen in close proximity to the tip of the Whirlpool galaxy's upper spiral arm in Hernandez Bayliss's portrait.

If you're looking for a telescope or binoculars to observe the solar system and beyond, our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight.

Editor's note: If you want to share your astronomy photographs with our readers at Space.com, please email them to [email protected]

The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted today (April 30) to advance his confirmation as Administrator to the full Senate. The votes tallied 19 to 9 in favor of Isaacman's advancement, but for some it came with stipulations.

"I will support his nomination, and hope that we will continue to get leadership out of the administration on clarification of supporting a robust NASA budget," said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, of Washington State (D), before the vote was called. Reports recently emerged that NASA's science budget could face a 50% budget cut. She also recognized his commitment, "to the current plan for both lander redundancies, Space Launch Systems and returning to the to the moon as fast as possible," under NASA's Artemis program.

Isaacman was nominated by Trump in December, and sat before the committee for a hearing on April 9. With the vote to secure his position as NASA Administrator on an imminent path, Isaacman stands to replace former administrator Bill Nelson, and take the reins from the current acting administrator, Janet Petro.

A billionaire philanthropist and entrepreneur, Isaacman is the CEO of Shift4 payments, a role that helped him acquire his fortune. With his wealth, Isaacman started Draken International, which provides fighter aircraft services and training to government and private customers, and the Polaris Program, which has flown two privately-funded SpaceX missions to space (Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn) with him aboard as commander. Through those SpaceX missions, Isaacman helped raise over $250 million for Saint Jude's Research Hospital.

During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Senators questioned Isaacman on his visions for NASA as they pertain to climate research, planetary science funding, the Artemis Program and his private relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

For his part, Isaacman largely held a firm line during his questioning, committing to NASA's current programs like Artemis, tacking on bigger-picture goals like a crewed Mars mission, while stopping short of full-on commitments to specific policy changes at the agency. He also signaled a willingness to cooperate with President Trump's efforts to drastically shrink the Federal government.

"First, American astronauts will lead the way in the ultimate 'high ground' of space. As the president stated, we will prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars," Isaacman said during his opening remarks April 9. In response to many of the questions thrown his way, Isaacman emphasized the importance of American dominance in space, especially as China eyes a crewed moon landing to beat NASA's return to the lunar surface with Artemis 3.

If confirmed, Isaacman will very likely have to put his personal space endeavors on hold, which means pausing future Polaris missions. At least one of those was slated to fly as the first crewed mission of SpaceX's Starship, once SpaceX completes development on the next generation heavy-lift launch vehicle.

Starship has also been contracted by NASA as the lunar lander for Artemis 3, which is currently slated for 2027 — one year short of Isaacman's potential administrative tenure at the space agency, should he be confirmed and remain the length of Trump's term.

As NASA moves closer to returning the first astronauts to the moon since the Apollo program more than 50 years ago, progress is being made on the hardware that will send the next humans to the lunar surface.

With all of the hardware in place in Florida for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will launch the Artemis 2 crew around the moon in 2026, work is picking up on the next booster's core stage that will fly on Artemis 3, planned as the new program's first moon landing.

What is it?

The 130-foot-tall (40-meter) propellant tank is one of the five major elements that comprise the 212-foot-tall (65-meter) SLS core stage. The stage, along with its four RS-25 rocket engines, and side-mounted solid rocket boosters, will be used to launch the Artemis 3 Orion spacecraft and its crew to walk on the moon.

Teams recently recently completed application of the thermal protection system and will now continue outfitting the liquid hydrogen tank with the final systems it needs to fly on the Artemis 3 mission.

Where is it?

NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility is located in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana.

Before serving as a factory for Artemis SLS core stage components, Michoud was used to assemble Apollo-era Saturn V rocket stages and external tanks for the 30-year space shuttle program.

Why is it amazing?

This marks another step forward before humans again take a step on the moon.

The photo itself is amazing given how photographer Steven Seipel was able to capture the liquid hydrogen tank's reflection in a standing body of water as the hardware was moved to its next processing facility.

Want to know more?

You can read more about the Artemis 3 mission and the completion of other components for the SLS at Michoud.

Saturday was 4-26, also officially known as Alien Day. It's a blood-red spot on the calendar each year where acolytes of the "Alien" universe unite worldwide to indulge in their favorite sci-fi horror property and perhaps partake in a special viewing of one of the nine "Alien" movies (including crossovers) in the franchise.

In honor of the occasion, FX Networks has hatched a pair of new "Alien: Earth" teasers titled "Crate" and "Gestation Complete" that offer more unnerving clues regarding the series' plotline and chilling tone. Both are filled with existential horrors and sticky biological ickiness that's perfect for Alien Day.

Officially founded by 20th Century Fox in 2016, Alien Day takes its name from LV-426, the hostile planetoid where the ill-fated Nostromo crew discover an ancient derelict spaceship which carries a cargo of unpleasant extraterrestrial ovomorphs in 1979's original "Alien" movie directed by Ridley Scott.

"This ship… collected five different lifeforms, from the darkest corners of the universe," states the sinister-sounding narrator, "Each one a unique deadly species. Monsters!"

We also got a fun Earth Day teaser earlier this week featuring acclaimed stargazer and cosmologist Neil deGrasse Tyson!

Few things in life are as reassuring as the deep baritone voice of the celebrity astrophysicist, and when paired with this new Earth Day teaser for FX's upcoming "Alien: Earth" TV series from creator Noah Hawley ("Fargo"), it makes for an interesting combination.

Leading in with a montage of inspiring shots of Mother Earth and her vast range of flora and fauna like a serene trailer for a new nature documentary, things quickly descend into impending dread as the protective spheroid of the Earth transitions into an incubating egg housing a pulsating xenomorph embryo.

"Alien: Earth" arrives sometime this summer for FX/Hulu and stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, David Rysdahl, Adrian Edmondson, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Diem Camille, and Moe Bar-El.

Dark Eagle is the colloquial name for the U.S. Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), a surface-to-surface missile that carries a hypersonic glide body, a vehicle capable of carrying warheads and maneuvering as it travels at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound through Earth's atmosphere. Because of their speed and maneuverability, these types of weapons are much more difficult to defend against than traditional missiles.

The U.S. Army did not disclose any details about the test, the existence of which was learned largely through airspace closure notices issued by the Federal Aviation Administration for Friday, April 25. It's unknown if this launch was the "Dark Eagle," although the Army launched the same missile from the Cape late last year.

However, some Space Coast photographers were able to snap a few pictures of what appears to be the launch. Photographer Jerry Pike posted four photos to X that appear to show the Dark Eagle/LRHW launching from Cape Canaveral out toward the Eastern Range, the airspace that supports launches from the U.S. East Coast.

"Shortly after liftoff, the vehicle split into two distinct sections, with one appearing to tumble away, and the other continuing to propel itself forward until it disappeared into the sky," Pike wrote in the post. It's unclear what the fallen piece could have been, but the LRHW is a two-stage rocket; it's possible Pike caught the first stage falling away.

The U.S. Army just announced the name "Dark Eagle" for the LRHW on April 25. According to an Army statement, the word "dark" reflects the missile's ability to render obsolete adversary capabilities, including anti-aircraft systems, long-range weapons and communication infrastructure.

"Eagle," meanwhile, owes its name to the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States. The bald eagle, the Army writes, is "a master hunter known for its speed, stealth and agility" and reflects the LRHW's "combination of velocity, accuracy, maneuverability, survivability and versatility."

The U.S. Army last tested the LRHW in December 2024 in another flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That test "achieved hypersonic speed at target distances and demonstrates that we can put this capability in the hands of the warfighter," said Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth in an Army statement.

Gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of spacetime, are caused by cataclysmic events like merging black holes. Scientists detect these waves using giant L-shaped instruments called "interferometers," which measure incredibly tiny changes in spacetime as a wave passes by Earth. While current gravitational wave detectors — such as Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and its sister site Virgo — have proven very successful, a new study argues there exists an "unimaginably large" realm of experimental designs yet to be explored by human researchers.

This unexplored territory presents a major opportunity for AI to rapidly discover innovative detector designs more efficiently than humans can — opening new avenues for "listening" to the universe, the researchers say.

One such AI-powered algorithm, named Urania, recently identified 50 novel detector designs that outperformed the best experimental blueprints created by human scientists, the new study reports. Scientists say these designs could expand the observable volume of the universe by a factor of 50 — a leap comparable to going from hearing whispers in the next room to conversations across the entire city.

"We are in an era where machines can discover new super-human solutions in science, and the task of humans is to understand what the machine has done," study lead author Mario Krenn, a quantum physicist who leads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Germany, said in a statement. "This will certainly become a very prominent part of the future of science."

Urania's proposed gravitational wave detectors span a broad frequency range — from 10 to 5000 Hz — capturing signals from a wide array of cosmic events, according to the new study. This range encompasses signals from black hole mergers, including those from the universe's first stars; understanding such events is key to potentially unlocking mysteries of so-called "dark sirens" in the cosmos and refining measurements of the Hubble constant, which describes the universe's expansion rate.

One AI-designed detector increases sensitivity to gravitational waves from supernovas by a factor of 1.6 compared to LIGO's upcoming Voyager upgrade — potentially quadrupling the number of detectable events by allowing the detection of fainter and more distant signals, the new study reports.

Another such detector shows promise in identifying the early stages of binary neutron star mergers, providing advance warning for telescopes to observe the accompanying electromagnetic emissions and capture richer scientific data. These detectors could also capture gravitational waves emitted after the neutron stars collide, known as post-merger signals, which are thought to contain vital information about the ultra-dense matter inside neutron stars. Scientists say this could reveal exotic states of matter and deepen our understanding of the fundamental physics governing these extreme environments.

"Our approach could inspire AI-driven innovations in other scientific fields, helping us design the next generation of precision instruments to explore the universe in ways we have yet to imagine," Krenn and his colleagues write in the new study.

The researchers have published a "gravitational wave detector zoo, or collection of the 50 top detector designs developed with Urania. The goal is to inspire new approaches for next-generation instruments. According to the study, a few of these designs could be implemented as upgrades to existing facilities following successful testing.

This research is described in a paper published April 11 in the journal Physical Review X.

Darryl Z. Seligman is a National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow/Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University.

Scientists owe it to the general public to convey their results accurately and honestly.

Over the last week, I — along with most of my astronomer and planetary scientist colleagues — received emails, texts, and phone calls from family, friends, and the media. Everyone was asking the same question: "Did we really find evidence of life on a planet outside of our own solar system?" This outpouring of communication was prompted by a recent article published by The New York Times entitled "Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet."

The Astrophysical Journal Letters recently published an article entitled "New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI." The peer-reviewed article reported a detection — albeit at low statistical significance — of the presence of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS). DMS and DMDS can be produced both by living organisms (such as phytoplankton) or from run-of-the-mill chemical reactions that are not associated with life at all. However, the authors issued a press release only focused on aliens.

If this news article was a wildfire spreading out of control, then every astronomer was a firefighter, desperately trying to minimize the damage spurred by the press release accompanying the paper. Why? Because the news article was exaggerated.

Related: Did we actually find signs of alien life on K2-18b? 'We should expect some false alarms, and this may be one'

This tale is not new to astronomers. In fact, it has played out over and over again: fossilized microbes were found on Mars (nope), an interstellar interloper was an alien spaceship (nope), and bacterial life exists in the clouds of Venus (to be tested), to name a few of our own wolves.

As a collective, we can't resist anthropomorphizing the natural world. Many cultures thought there was a man in the moon, until we learned that his face was a series of craters. In 1976, the Viking 1 orbiter took a photo of a face on Mars, which turned out to be an optical illusion of shadows on a hill. These claims highlight the delicate balance between philosophy and science. In philosophy, we can conceptually explore our existence and place in the universe. In science, we need hard evidence.

Since its foundation, NASA has been a constant source of support for the development and the launch of observatories designed to figure out if we are alone in the universe. We want to understand if terrestrial planets orbiting other distant stars could harbor life. In December 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is dedicating hundreds of hours to observing these planets to determine whether or not they have atmospheres.

We want to understand if Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean with more water than all of Earth's oceans combined hidden below its icy surface. In October 2024, NASA launched Europa Clipper, which will determine the thickness of this outer icy layer and characterize the Galilean moon's overall geology.

We want to understand if Saturn's moon Titan has the proper composition to support prebiotic chemistry. In April 2024, NASA approved the Dragonfly mission, a car-sized nuclear-powered drone, to fly over and land on Titan with an estimated 2028 launch. Dragonfly will measure the composition of Titan up close and search for chemical signatures that could indicate the presence of life.

All of these great observatories will help us to understand fundamental truths about celestial bodies. But if we want to answer one of humanity's oldest questions — are we alone? — then we have to be able to communicate our results. Our ability to trust real scientific discoveries is crumbling under the weight of those who want to be "the first," undermining the efforts of thousands of scientists and engineers pursuing truths with due diligence and following the rules of the scientific method we learned in elementary school. When people believe that we have found life on other planets when we have not, we've lost more than public trust — we've lost our own direction.

Flying to Europa or Titan, and looking at the atmospheres of distant exoplanets, are no longer the subject of fantastical science fiction stories. These aren't dreams. This is all of our present-day reality, and even some of our day jobs. When we sit at our desks and analyze data from these observatories, we are inching toward the answer we want so badly. But over-sensationalizing at best — and even outright lying at worst — about the results of these observatories erodes public trust and ultimately harms the very institutions working in the pursuit of scientific discovery.

This comes at a critical time, when the White House has proposed to slash NASA's science budget by nearly 50% and the National Science Foundation's (NSF) budget by up to 50%. Cutting these programs isn't just shortsighted — it's self-destructive. NASA and NSF fund science across all disciplines. Both agencies have long led and participated in global efforts to pursue scientific breakthroughs, like JWST.

Related: The search for alien life

With these proposed budget cuts, we risk losing the scientists and engineers whose research is the foundation for future mission development.

We risk losing the ability to support and train the next generation of scientists.

We risk missing the very voices that could guide us through our most profound discoveries.

We risk losing touch with our fundamental nature to ask and answer questions about our place in the universe.

The search for life beyond Earth has been an ongoing endeavor since the first philosopher questioned if we are alone in the universe. It relies on our ability to connect astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and even philosophy, which initially paved the way for scientific thinking. From all of these angles, we will continue to pursue an answer to this age-old question.

Yet, in our endeavor, we must remember that our mission is greater than the research of the individual. We must not stoop to using over-sensationalized results to support our own personal agendas. And, we must not forget our collective direction: the pursuit of truths and our responsibility to share these truths — and only these truths — with humanity.

Earth's moon is currently emerging from its April 27 new moon phase, during which it passed between the sun and Earth, causing its shadow-drenched disk to be temporarily lost from sight in the sun's glare. In the coming days the moon will form a waxing crescent, which will grow steadily larger in the run-up to its first quarter phase, which will happen on Sunday, May 4.

On the night of April 29, Earth's celestial companion will appear as a slender crescent in the western sky after sunset, with only its most extreme lower right edge directly illuminated by our star's light from the perspective of viewers in the Northern Hemisphere. At this time, Jupiter can be seen as a bright magnitude -1.83 point of light shining in the constellation Taurus to the upper left of the crescent moon, while Mars will be visible higher in the south western sky.

It may be possible at this time to see the shadowed regions of the lunar surface softly lit by sunlight bouncing off Earth's surface onto the (relatively) nearby moon. This phenomenon, known as Earthshine, is capable of revealing the presence of dark features on the lunar surface known as mare, which formed billions of years ago when oceans of lava flows on the still cooling moon solidified to form vast basins of basaltic rock.

The crescent moon is sure to make for a lovely, if fleeting, sight on the night of April 29, when it will be visible for just a few hours in the post sunset sky before slipping below the horizon at around 10:30 pm EDT for skywatchers in New York.

The pair will be easier to spot on April 30, when the moon jumps to the upper right of Jupiter in the western sky. The moon is set to make its closest approach to Jupiter at 12:54 EDT (1654 GMT), at which point there will be just a little over 5 degrees separating the two bodies in the sky, according to the stargazing site in-the-sky.org.

While this will occur while the sun is still very much in the sky for viewers in America, the duo will still make for a magnificent view in the post sunset sky. The bright magnitude 1.61 star Elnath - which forms one of the two horns in the constellation Taurus - will serve as a perfect bonus viewing target for the night of April 30, when it will be separated by less than a degree from the moon's shadowed surface.

The moon will set progressively later in the runup to its first quarter phase, while Jupiter will set around three minutes earlier each night throughout May.

Interested in exploring the solar system for yourself? Our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight.

From the late 1960s almost until the end of the 1990s, a bloody war between communist groups and democracy defenders raged, with a few short breaks, in the jungles and on the rice fields of Cambodia. The conflict left behind a hidden legacy that keeps increasing the war's death toll to this day.

Over 10 million anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines and other explosives may have been scattered across Cambodia's land during the decades of fighting. Over half of them may still lurk in the ground, waiting for unlucky people or vehicles to set them off. Since the war's end in 1998, over 20,000 people have been killed and 45,000 injured in mine accidents in Cambodia. The toll is still rising.

"There were over 50 accidents last year," Tobias Hewitt, the country director for Cambodia at the HALO Trust, a de-mining non-governmental organization (NGO), told Space.com. "The number is steadily decreasing, but it's still a huge problem."

Related: SpaceX launches secret US spy satellite on 19th anniversary of company's 1st-ever liftoff (video, photos)

The HALO Trust has been working in Cambodia since the 1990s, helping to scour hundreds of square miles of contaminated land. The work is tedious, and progress is slow. It requires teams of technicians with mine detectors to comb the land square foot by square foot. The problem is, they don't always know where to look.

"During the Cambodian conflict, a lot of the information was never recorded," Hewitt said. "Mines were put there, people left and have forgotten about it."

The HALO Trust team has been relying on satellite images for years to look for suspect areas. But the landscape has changed since the war's end. Jungle has grown, villages have been abandoned and roads have stopped being used. Last year, the de-miners decided to search for clues in images captured by U.S. military satellites in the 1970s and 1980s.

The images were captured by the HEXAGON fleet of satellites operated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The satellites used old-fashioned film to take their snaps. The film spools would be sent in sturdy return capsules to Earth, where the images would be developed. The data was kept secret for decades. But in 2011, nearly 30,000 images were declassified and made available to the public through the Department of State.

The HALO Trust team found thousands of images of regions in the west of Cambodia, where most of the suspected mine fields are located. It's been a game-changer.

"We were able to overlay those old images on regular Google Earth images and find old roads, for example," said Hewitt. "That's a huge help, because that's where most mines would be put in the ground. We would not be able to know about them otherwise."

Cambodian society has changed since the war. Many people have moved into cities. Those who lived through the conflict are dying. New farmers begin to work the land, oblivious to the hidden danger.

"If they don't know that there used to be a road, they just assume it's farmland and plough it," said Hewitt. "Unfortunately, accidents happen."

In recent years, as Cambodia's economy began to grow, farmers have started abandoning traditional manual farming methods and began purchasing tractors and other machinery. That, Hewitt said, opened up a new can of worms.

"There are two types of land mines in Cambodia," said Hewitt. "Anti-personnel mines, which only need a very small amount of pressure to explode, and anti-vehicle mines. The anti-vehicle mines may have been buried in the ground for decades. You can walk over them and nothing happens. But now, with the mechanization of agriculture, you are setting off those mines that have been dormant for decades."

The old military satellite images are helping to speed up the clearance. However, Hewitt, said that the process is still time-consuming and laborious.

"We have to manually sync those images with our existing maps and then go over them inch by inch looking for old roads," Hewitt said. "Then, once we have an area where we think there used to be a road, a team will go there and try to confirm that information through ground survey work."

In the few months since the project started, the HALO Trust team has analyzed all the suspected areas in western Cambodia and identified several high-priority areas where mines are likely present. With the vast amount of land remaining to be cleared, zooming in quickly on the most dangerous zones could save lives.

"You don't have the luxury to clear everything," said Hewitt. "You need to focus on the highest priority. With these additional assets and different information points, we can better prioritize what we are doing and do it in the most efficient way possible."

Since the 1990s, Cambodia has cleared about 1,200 square miles (3,100 square kilometers) of mine-contaminated land. According to estimates, some 180 square miles (470 square km) remains to be cleared. The country hopes to be rid of land mines completely by 2030.

SpaceX sent another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit tonight (April 28), its second liftoff of the day.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink broadband satellites — including 13 with direct-to-cell capability — lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida tonight at 10:34 p.m. EDT (0234 GMT on April 29).

It was the second Starlink group to fly today; a Falcon 9 lofted 27 of the internet craft from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base earlier today.

Tonight's launch marked the first-ever liftoff for this particular Falcon 9's first stage. That's a rarity for SpaceX, which is known for its rocket reuse; one of the company's Falcon 9 boosters has 27 flights under its belt.

The Falcon 9 should fly again; it aced its landing tonight, coming down on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship" in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.

The rocket's upper stage continued carrying the 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), where they're scheduled to be deployed 65 minutes after launch.

Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

Tonight's launch was the 50th Falcon 9 liftoff of the year already. Thirty-three of those missions have been devoted to building out the Starlink network, the largest satellite constellation ever assembled.

The megaconstellation currently harbors more than 7,200 operational spacecraft, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, and it's growing all the time.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to state that SpaceX's first Starlink launch of the day occurred from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. The original version incorrectly said it launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The assembly of Amazon's big new satellite-internet constellation is underway.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (April 28) at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 GMT), carrying 27 of Amazon's "Project Kuiper" broadband spacecraft toward low Earth orbit (LEO).

It was the first of more than 80 planned launches to build out the Project Kuiper megaconstellation, which will eventually harbor more than 3,200 spacecraft.

That's a big number, but it won't set a record; SpaceX's Starlink broadband network, which already beams service down to customers around the world, currently consists of more than 7,200 operational spacecraft.

And Starlink — perhaps Project Kuiper's biggest competitor — is growing all the time: SpaceX has launched 31 Starlink missions so far this year, with many more on the docket. In fact, there was a Starlink launch less than three hours before today's Atlas V launch, with another planned for less than four hours after.

Related: Starlink satellites: Facts, tracking and impact on astronomy

If all goes according to plan today, the Atlas V will deploy the 27 Project Kuiper satellites 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth. The spacecraft will then make their own way to their operational altitude of 392 miles (630 km).

"While the satellites complete the orbit-raising process, we will look ahead to our ultimate mission objective: providing end-to-end network connectivity," Amazon representatives wrote in a prelaunch statement.

"This involves sending data from the internet, through our ground infrastructure, up to the satellites, and down to customer terminal antennas, and then repeating the journey in the other direction," they added.

Project Kuiper is expected to begin providing coverage to customers later this year, according to Amazon.

Today's launch was the second overall for the Project Kuiper program. An Atlas V sent two prototype satellites to orbit in October 2023, on a test mission designed to prove out the company's technology and inform the design of the constellation's operational craft.

And there are considerable differences between those pioneering satellites and the ones that went up today.

"We have improved the performance of every system and subsystem on board, including phased array antennas, processors, solar arrays, propulsion systems and optical inter-satellite links," Amazon representatives said in the same statement.

"In addition, the satellites are coated in a dielectric mirror film unique to Kuiper that scatters reflected sunlight to help make them less visible to ground-based astronomers," they added.

Most of the remaining 80-plus launches will be performed by the Atlas V and its successor, ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rocket. Amazon has also signed launch deals with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, SpaceX and France-based Arianespace.

Today's launch was originally scheduled for April 9, but bad weather scuttled that try. ULA and Amazon then had to wait for a launch slot to open up on the Eastern Range, the Florida spaceport and testing site operated by the U.S. Space Force.

A European forest-monitoring satellite headed toward orbit from South America early Tuesday morning (April 29).

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Biomass spacecraft lifted off atop a Vega-C rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday at 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT; 6:15 a.m. local time in Korea). Arianespace's stream began at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT), and the launch can now be watched on demand.

It was the fourth launch overall for the four-stage, 115-foot-tall (35-meter-tall) Vega-C, and the second since an anomaly in the rocket's second stage led to a mission failure in December 2022.

The Vega-C bounced back on its third-ever launch, successfully sending the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-1C Earth-observation satellite to orbit this past December.

Related: Europe's Vega-C rocket launches Earth-observation satellite on 1st liftoff since 2022 failure (video)

If all goes according to plan on Tuesday, the Vega-C will deploy Biomass into a sun-synchronous orbit 414 miles (666 kilometers) above Earth about 57 minutes after liftoff.

The 2,490-pound (1,130-kilogram) satellite will then undergo a checkout period, which will prepare it for an Earth-observation mission designed to last at least five years.

During that mission, Biomass — part of ESA's "Earth Explorers" satellite series — will use synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to study our planet's varied ecosystems, paying special attention to its forests.

Biomass' SAR instrument "allows it to collect information on the height and structure of different forest types and measure the amount of carbon stored in the world’s forests and how it changes over time," Arianespace representatives wrote in the mission's press kit, which you can find here.

"Observations from this new mission will also lead to better insight into the rates of habitat loss and, as a result, the effect this may have on biodiversity in the forest environment," they added.

On April 22, 2025, a fire began in a wildlife management area near the town of Waretown in New Jersey. Within two days, the blaze had spread into one of the largest fires the state has seen in decades. Images captured by NASA's Landsat 9 satellite have help reveal the scope of the devastation left behind.

What is it?

The Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) instrument on the Landsat 9 satellite sent back these images of the Jones Road fire on April 23, 2025. In this natural-color scene, thick smoke obscures the fire’s mark on the land below.

The burned area is revealed when viewed in shortwave infrared, near infrared and visible light. In the false-color image of the same area, unburned vegetated areas (green) and the recently burned landscape (brown) are more easily identified.

Where is it?

The Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands, is located in southeastern New Jersey. It's a sprawling ecosystem covering about 1.1 million to 1.4 million acres (445,000 to 567,000 hectares).

The fire has led to evacuations of people from Lacey and Ocean townships and sent smoke wafting toward New York City. Conditions have resulted in the closure of the Garden State Parkway at times.

Why is it amazing?

NASA is generally associated with looking outward into space, but by pointing its satellites back at our planet, the agency has been able to help reveal warning signs for large wildfires like this one in New Jersey.

Earlier observations from NASA's GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and GRACE-FO (GRACE Follow On) satellites showed anomalously dry conditions in the area, pointing to the Pine Barrens being particularly susceptible to a fire in the spring of 2025.

At the time of the fire, the U.S. Drought Monitor had classified drought in the region as "severe."

Want to know more?

You can read more about Landsat 9, NASA's most powerful Landsat satellite ever, and see more of its imagery. You can also read more about the role of satellites monitoring wildfires.

Rockets are launching from both coasts today (April 28) in the United States, with SpaceX lining up back-to-back Starlink missions.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched SpaceX's Starlink 11-9 mission this evening. Liftoff occurred at 4:42 p.m. EDT (2042 GMT; 1:42 p.m. local time) from Space Launch Complex-4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This was the 25th flight for B1063 — the Falcon 9 first-stage booster launching the mission, which carried a stack of 27 of SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation internet satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO).

The nine Merlin engines on B1063 cut off about 2.5 minutes into flight, with the first stage separating from the rocket's upper stage to carry the satellites the rest of the way to orbit.

Approximately six minutes later, the booster landed safely on SpaceX's Of Course I Still Love You droneship, stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

The rocket's upper stage continued into LEO with the 27 Starlink satellites; it's expected to release them from the rocket's payload adapter about one hour into flight. They will spend the next few days maneuvering into more specific orbits to join SpaceX's growing megaconstellation.

SpaceX's Starlink network consists of more than 7,000 satellites and counting. As a whole, they operate in a grid that blankets nearly all of the planet, save for the poles. Starlink offers users a high-speed internet connection from anywhere (other than the poles) they are able to point their Starlink receiver toward the sky.

Thursday's launch was SpaceX's 49th Falcon 9 mission of 2025. SpaceX has another launch coming up later tonight. The Starlink 12-10 mission will liftoff out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and is scheduled for 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 GMT, April 29).

NASA's oldest active astronaut felt as sick as he looked shortly after returning to Earth this month.

Don Pettit and two cosmonaut colleagues came home aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on April 19, touching down in Kazakhstan to bring their seven-month International Space Station (ISS) mission to a successful close. (In Kazakhstan, it was actually April 20 — Pettit's 70th birthday.)

Footage captured just after landing shows Pettit looking pretty peaked — and that's because he was quite sick, temporarily at least, according to the astronaut.

"I didn't look too good because I didn't feel too good," Pettit told reporters during a press conference from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday afternoon (April 28). "I was right in the middle of emptying the contents of my stomach onto the steppes of Kazakhstan."

The camera didn't show any of this, a fact that sparked some worry among folks watching NASA's landing webcast: Was Pettit all right? Had he been whisked away to a hospital or something?

But there was no cover-up, Pettit said; rather, the folks with the cameras were just giving him some privacy while he was fertilizing the steppe with the remains of his most recent meal.

"They're polite, and they don't have a camera shoved in your face when you're in the middle of doing that," Pettit said today. "They cut away to give you a little bit of privacy when you're not feeling too good. Because, after all, nobody wants to be on camera when you're doing that."

And Pettit was familiar with this reaction; the four-time spaceflyer said that his body tends to respond poorly when reintroduced to the full force of Earth's gravity.

"Some people can roll off a [space] shuttle flight, and they're ready to go out and have pizza and dance," Pettit said. "Someone like me, coming back to Earth has always been a significant challenge. And even with a 16-day shuttle mission, that felt about like being gone for six months on space station. And that's just my physiology."

Pettit said he's feeling fine now and is continuing with his post-landing rehab, which will last another month or so. And the astronaut — who is known for his amazing off-Earth photography — is keen to leave our planet again, if NASA gives him the opportunity.

"Being an explorer of space is what seems to be my lot in life, and I'm ready to do it," Pettit said. "I know John Glenn flew at age 76, something like that, and I'm only 70, so I've got a few more good years left. I could see getting another flight or two in before I'm ready to hang up my rocket nozzles."

China's outgoing Shenzhou 19 crew have handed over the reins of the Tiangong space station to a new set of astronauts.

The Shenzhou 20 mission launched on a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China on April 24. The spacecraft arrived at the Tiangong space station 6.5 hours later, completing its rendezvous and docking at 11:49 a.m. EDT (1549 GMT, 11:49 p.m. Beijing time).

The Shenzhou 19 crew — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, who have been living aboard Tiangong since October — greeted the three Shenzhou 20 astronauts inside Tiangong around 90 minutes later, once the hatch between the spacecraft and space station was opened.

After spending a few days together, all six astronauts then participated in a handover ceremony on Sunday (April 27), seeing the Shenzhou 20 crew take command of Tiangong.

"This key symbolizes not only the handover between our two crew groups, but also a heavy mission and responsibility. Now, I'm handing the key into your hands, and you will be responsible for managing, caring for and maintaining the space station," said Cai, commander of Shenzhou 19.

"Thank you, Shenzhou 19 crew, for taking such good care of our space home," Chen Dong, Shenzhou 20 commander, said after receiving the key. “We assure you and our country and the people that we will, just like you, carefully and meticulously complete every task and do our part well," said Chen.

Chen's crewmates are Chen Zhongrui, a former pilot in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, and Wang Jie, an aerospace engineer, both of whom were selected as astronauts in 2020 and are making their first visits to space. The trio will spend around six months aboard Tiangong.

Their mission will include extravehicular activities, or spacewalks, and outreach events, as well as conducting a range of science experiments and installing and retrieving science payloads outside Tiangong.

The Shenzhou 19 astronauts, meanwhile, are now preparing to return home. They will soon depart in their Shenzhou spacecraft and are due to land in the Dongfeng landing area, near Jiuquan spaceport, on April 29. Their mission involved record-breaking spacewalks, experiments and cooperating with an AI robot.

The Quest 3, which we reviewed back in October 2023, is undoubtedly a more premium experience, but the Quest 3S isn't too far behind. It sports a slightly different look, and on paper, its specs aren't quite as good. But in practice, it's hard to tell the difference too much, particularly if you're new to the format.

The cheapest version of the Meta Quest 3S comes in at $200 less than the Meta Quest 3 — almost half the price. That's a seriously significant saving, and considering how much punch this headset packs, you've got to ask yourself: Is it worth paying the extra at all?

Read on to find out why we think the Meta Quest 3S is one of the best VR headsets you can buy, and whether or not it's a better prospect than the Meta Quest 3. Spoilers: It might just be.

Meta Quest 3S review: Design

• Adjustable lenses for comfort
• More but smaller sensors
• Same controllers as the Quest 3

In terms of its looks, the Meta Quest 3S sits somewhere between the Quest 2 and the Quest 3. It's roughly 20% smaller than the Quest 2, although a little larger and more protruding than the Quest 3. Rather than the Quest 3's three large sensors on the front, the Quest 3S has two arrays of three smaller sensors, giving it a slightly different (and slightly quirkier) appearance.

It's very comfortable to wear, and it's easy to get the headset in the ideal position on your face thanks to easily adjustable straps. If you wear glasses, there's an included glasses spacer that can be fitted onto the headset, although I don't need to use it: the headset fits fine over my glasses without. It's nice that it's included in the box, though: in the past, it's something that had to be bought separately. It's worth noting that the Quest 3 doesn't require a spacer, as its lenses can be moved back and forth to adjust for comfort.

The controllers are wonderful and very ergonomic, fitting perfectly in your hands. They're intuitive to use even if you’ve never picked them up before, and being the same as the Quest 3 — and similar to the Quest 2 — you'll be right at home if you've used a Meta headset before.

Meta Quest 3S review: Setup and performance

• Setup is easy and done via an app
• Hand recognition feels super futuristic
• Same processor and game library as the Quest 3, but lower resolution

Setting up the Quest 3S couldn't be easier. Download the Meta Horizon app on your smartphone, choose to add a new headset, and you can pretty much manage the whole set-up process via your phone — all five minutes of it. Out of the box, your headset will have enough charge to allow you to get through the onboarding process, which generally involves downloading an update. Once it's connected to your internet, you're more or less good to go, and once the downloads have completed, you'll be introduced to the Quest 3S with a basic onboarding tutorial.

It's well worth going through the tutorial, even if you were an avid user of the Quest 2. There are new features here, or at least features that work much better, such as hand gesture recognition: Controlling menus with your fingers while your controllers are tucked away in the box feels seriously futuristic.

Once you've been familiarized with the software and user interface, you're good to go, and if you're brand new to the Meta ecosystem, you'll be recommended some apps to try out. I was led towards a short AR experience called First Encounters, which had me shooting fuzzy aliens that crash-landed in the middle of my living room. You'll be done with it in a matter of minutes, but it's seriously entertaining — and it's free.

In terms of performance, it's important to remember that the Quest 3S has exactly the same processor as the Quest 3, despite its much lower price tag. That means your apps and games are going to perform the same across both devices, and both are capable of playing all Quest 3 games — including the likes of Batman: Arkham Shadow that won't run on a 2S.

Where the Quest 3S lacks is mostly in screen resolution. The Quest 3 has 2064 x 2208 pixels per eye, which equates to a higher-than-4K view. The Quest 3S is about 30% lower, just 1832 x 1920 pixels per eye, which is the same as the last-generation Quest 2.

If that alone sounds like a deal-breaker, don't be put off. Undoubtedly, the Quest 3 is sharper, but it's the only real, noticeable difference between the headsets in terms of performance. And if you've never tried a Quest 3? You'll wonder how an app could possibly look any better because the screen of the Quest 3S is beautifully sharp and clear in its own right.

Meta Quest 3S review: Games and apps

• Access to the Quest store and Steam VR (if you have a PC)
• Access to more games and experiences than most headsets
• Games and experiences can be expensive

As far as VR storefronts go, Meta has one of the best. Compared to the likes of HTC, the lesser-known Pico or the even lesser-known Pimax standalone headsets, the Meta Quest ecosystem has the most comprehensive library of software outside of PC VR. And since the Quest 3S can be tethered to your PC to make use of your Steam VR library, the games available to you are essentially endless.

The Meta Quest store is easy to use: you can browse based on categories or curated selections or search for a specific title. I'd recommend using the app on your smartphone to browse, though, so you're not running down your headset's battery by simply looking at the store. But that's up to you. You can set things to download from the app, which I particularly like.

It's worth noting that some VR apps and games can be a little expensive, and sales don't seem to happen as often as I'd like. You will find a selection of the best VR space games here, including Rez Infinite, Thumper and a lot more. There are some fantastic educational tools, too, like Mission: ISS, which lets you explore a recreation of the International Space Station.

Meta Quest 3S vs Quest 3 Comparison

Meta Quest 3S review: Price

There are two different models of the Meta Quest 3S available. The cheapest comes with 128GB of storage and costs $299.99. The other comes with 256GB of storage and costs $399.99.

In comparison, the Quest 3 comes with 512GB of storage and costs $499.99. If lots of storage is important to you, then the Quest 3 makes sense. But considering most VR games are 1-2GB at most (there are exceptions, of course), you can download a lot of games even on a 128GB model before you need to worry about deleting stuff from the hard drive.

With the cheapest model costing just $299.99, the Meta Quest 3S is the most cost-effective way to enter the VR ecosystem. At that price, you're able to experience everything you can on a standard Quest 3 for 40% less. It feels like a no-brainer to me.

Meta Quest 3S review: Should you buy?

If you're considering trying VR for the first time, I think the Meta Quest 3S is the best place to start, without a doubt. You're getting fantastic specifications and excellent performance at a very reasonable price. You simply can't lose.

If you're moving from a Meta Quest 2, however, the Meta Quest 3S might not seem like such a great upgrade. After all, it has the same resolution, so you're not getting much in the way of extra sharpness. But its processor is twice as powerful, so your games will be able to utilize all the available pixels better without needing to upscale, and they'll perform better, too. The addition of color passthrough is a huge bonus, as it allows you to see what's happening in the outside world properly with the headset still strapped to your face.

It's only worth choosing the Quest 3 if you want the best resolution or need the maximum amount of storage. Both are fantastic headsets — after all, we called the Meta Quest 3 the overall best VR headset on the market — but given how much cheaper the Meta Quest 3S is, I think the trade-offs are definitely worth it.

If the Meta Quest 3S isn't for you…

If you want the best that the Meta platform has to offer, then it has to be the Meta Quest 3. With the Meta Quest Pro now discontinued, it's the absolute best on the market — although, as I've said in my review, the Quest 3S really isn't far behind at all.

If you've got a PlayStation 5, you might also consider the PSVR 2. You'll need to be tethered to your console to use it, but with the power of the PS5 behind it, it's much more powerful than a Quest and allows for some seriously impressive game experiences.

If you're more of a PC user, there are several different headsets to choose from, but one of our favorites is the HTC Vive Pro 2. It's on the pricey side, but its performance is fantastic.

The Outer Worlds was released in 2019 and remains an effective dark (but comedic) satire of a potential 'corporate space age' that could happen sooner than we expect. If you've played other games from Obsidian Entertainment in the past, you know they all excel at telling compelling stories loaded with thoughtful explorations of humanity and serious themes. Avowed has just reminded us that the now-Microsoft-owned company still has the juice when it comes to crafting absorbing RPGs, and we can't wait to see how devs have improved on Outer Worlds' flexible formula and off-beat tone.

Of course, it'll also be interesting how Xbox Game Studios' backing has affected the scope and production values of this sequel, as the first Outer Worlds was notoriously released feeling a bit half-baked despite all its strengths. This also means The Outer Worlds 2 will be joining our list of space games on Xbox Game Pass on launch day.

Looking for different upcoming space adventures among the stars? Directive 8020 is looking like an excellent Halloween-season release, and Metroid Prime 4 will make a splash this year on Nintendo's portable hardware if nothing changes. When it comes to other big RPGs, we genuinely can't wait for Exodus either.

The Outer Worlds 2 release date

The Outer Worlds 2 doesn't have a release date yet. However, it's been teased time and again as having a 2025 release window, so we're just waiting for a concrete date now. Given how meaty the trailer released in December 2024 was, we're reasonably sure it won't be delayed into 2026.

What platforms will The Outer Worlds 2 be available on?

The Outer Worlds 2 will launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC (Xbox app & Steam), and PS5 at the same time. It'll also be available on Game Pass day one.

While the IP is now owned and published by Xbox Game Studios, it's among the huge franchises that will continue to launch new games simultaneously on Sony's consoles. This will also apply to Doom: The Dark Ages this year, among others.

The Outer Worlds 2 trailers

Two major trailers for The Outer Worlds 2 have been released so far. Thankfully, one of them is loaded with in-game gameplay footage, so that's nice. We're fully expecting far meatier previews to drop in the coming months, and we'll be keeping this article updated.

The Outer Worlds 2 was unveiled on June 13, 2021, with a CG trailer that chose to poke fun at the average AAA debut video game trailer while... doing exactly that same thing. Honestly? We dig this sort of humor. You can watch it below:

Three and a half years later, on December 13, 2024, the first official gameplay trailer reminded us that the project was very much alive and looking solid. It came with a proper look at the shiny new graphics, hard-hitting action, and a number of vast alien-looking locales. Check it out here:

What is the plot of The Outer Worlds 2?

Spoilers for The Outer Worlds ahead.

The first game, which was unsurprisingly filled with deep narrative choices and diverging story paths, followed 'The Stranger' (a custom character) in the distant year of 2355, after they're defrosted inside the colony ship Hope by a wanted scientist named Phineas Welles.

Long story short? The ship was travelling through space for more years than it should have after its skip drive malfunctioned. During that time, rampant capitalism and incompetent corporations have run the distant Halcyon star system into the ground. The mission? To help Phineas save the other colonists aboard the ship, as they could 'fix' the system because they're simply more intelligent than the people currently running things across the Halcyon system.

To the surprise of no one, things spiral out of control quickly, and without getting into deeper spoilers, a number of moral dilemmas are put in front of the player, who might either doom or save the colonies in the end. Regardless of the choices you make in the end, we don't know for sure whether they ultimately changed things for the better/worse, or whether everything remained the same (aka on the verge of collapse).

We've yet to learn how (or if) the decisions made in the first game are going to directly affect the sequel's overall narrative. In any case, it's sounding like Obsidian has chosen to let the sequel be its own wacky thing with a "new star system" and a "new crew," according to the official posts so far. Fallout co-creator Tim Cain, who co-directed the first game, has remained aboard the sequel's development as a consultant.

While the December 2024 trailer wasn't exactly filled with story exposition, the accompanying Xbox blog post shared some juicy story/lore details: Players will play as an 'Earth Directorate agent' who's tasked with "uncovering the source of devastating rifts threatening the entire galaxy." That sounds quite familiar to Avowed, actually, but we're sure paths diverge only a few hours into the game. There's also a "factional war" happening between the Protectorate, a religious order, and a corporate mega power, so expect plenty of headaches and decision-making as the Arcadia star system descends into chaos.

What type of game is The Outer Worlds 2?

The Outer Worlds 2 will continue to be a first-person action-RPG, though we're not completely ruling out the possibility of the game also getting a third-person view mode after Avowed's dev team chose to accommodate more potential players with the option.

The easiest comparison that can be made is to Bethesda's modern take on the Fallout series. In fact, Obsidian developed Fallout: New Vegas, so it made sense that so much of that DNA was injected into a sci-fi adventure. It covers similar topics, is built around a first-person view, and features a lot of familiar exploration and RPG systems. While the game worlds we visited in The Outer Worlds weren't as huge, alive, or interactable as those in the Fallout series or Starfield, the surface-level similarities were there.

The Outer Worlds 2 is expanding on this formula, allowing players to freely explore many colorful places, chat with NPCs, recruit and command a team of space explorers and warriors, and use plenty of weapons and skills as they take on both main and secondary quests. We haven't learned the specifics of all-new gameplay elements or major changes yet, so we'll be updating this piece with new information as it comes.

The surprise discovery of a huge cloud of molecular gas — the stuff that forms stars — just 300 light-years away is opening up new ways to study the conditions that enable star birth.

Stars form from collapsing clouds of molecular gas. We see this in the likes of the Orion Nebula, which gets energized by hot ultraviolet radiation of the young stars born within. However, finding molecular clouds before they begin producing stars is more difficult.

Such clouds are predominantly made from molecular hydrogen gas, which, when it isn't being energized by starlight, is very faint — almost invisible. (Atomic hydrogen, on the other hand, is easily detectable by radio telescopes). Astronomers usually use radio telescopes to detect carbon monoxide, which is available in much lower quantities in molecular clouds, as a proxy.

But what about the clouds without much carbon monoxide?

Astronomers led by Blakesley Burkhart of Rutgers University–New Brunswick in New Jersey and Thavisha Dharmawardena of New York University, have pioneered an entirely new way of seeing the invisible. Using far-ultraviolet data from the Korean STSAT-1 satellite, they directly detected molecules of hydrogen fluorescing.

"This is the first-ever molecular cloud discovered by looking for far-ultraviolet emission of molecular hydrogen directly," Burkhart said in a statement. "This cloud is literally glowing in the dark."

The cloud is roughly crescent-shaped and sits on the edge of the Local Bubble, which is a volume of space where the interstellar medium is more rarefied than its surroundings, perhaps having been emptied by the shockwaves of hundreds of ancient supernovas. The sun and our solar system are passing through the Local Bubble, and have been doing so for the past five million years or so.

The cloud, named Eos after the goddess of Greek mythology who signified the dawn, contains approximately 3,400 solar masses worth of gas. It's also depleted in carbon monoxide, which is why it had gone undetected by conventional means.

Eos is predicted to disperse, or photodissociate, as a result of background photons impacting the cloud's molecules, in about 5.7 million years' time. This is too soon for it to begin forming stars, unless there is some other trigger that advances things, such as the gravitational disturbance of another passing cloud. Intriguingly, the average star-formation rate in our sun's neighborhood has been calculated at 200 solar masses per million years. Eos is losing mass to the wider interstellar medium at a rate of 600 solar masses per million years, three times the rate at which molecular gas is converted into stars. Therefore, this dispersion of molecular clouds as a result of photodissociation from light emitted by nearby stars seems to act as a feedback mechanism to regulate the rate of star formation, Burkhart's team believes. This is useful information for telling us more about the conditions needed to enable star formation in other, more distant clouds.

"When we look through our telescopes, we catch whole solar systems in the act of forming, but we don't know in detail how that happens," said Burkhart. "Our discovery of Eos is exciting because we can now directly measure how molecular clouds are forming and dissociating, and how a galaxy begins to transform interstellar gas and dust into stars and planets."

And the discovery of other, similar clouds could be just on the horizon.

"The use of the far-ultraviolet fluorescence emission technique could rewrite our understanding of the interstellar medium, uncovering hidden clouds across the galaxy and even out to the furthest detectable limits of cosmic dawn," said Dharmawardena.

Eos may not see the dawn of new stars, but its existence is testament to a greater dawn, going all the way back to near the beginning of the universe, in which stars have brought daylight to a dark cosmos.

The findings were published on April 28 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

His upcoming science fiction novel, "Hole in the Sky," lands on Oct. 7, 2025, from his longtime publisher, Doubleday. It depicts a most unusual alien first contact event on a Cherokee Indian reservation in Oklahoma, and has already been snapped up by Netflix and Aggregate Films for a feature film. Wilson will also act as an executive producer and adapt the screenplay from his own book.

Hollywood has a real appetite for Wilson’s brand of storytelling, and the Portland-based writer has at least a half-dozen Tinseltown projects in various stages of development.

"I had a book come out right when COVID started, so I switched over and started writing screenplays and television for a few years," Wilson tells Space.com. "Then we had a big strike, and so there was a great time to put on my novelist hat and go back and write a book. This really digs into two of my favorite things: where I’m from in Oklahoma, and robots and science fiction. I was really inspired to have a native take on first contact. You see so many alien invasion movies, and they’re really a dark reflection of what colonizers have already done to indigenous people. The aliens show up, and it’s like fear projection. They enslave people, they extract our resources, they destroy our monuments and our culture. It’s kind of the same story."

Wilson's thought process while composing this extraterrestrial arrival tale was focused on what the native perspective would be on the unknown, particularly the Cherokee perspective since he was raised in what's now the Cherokee reservation in North Tulsa.

"I'm a Cherokee citizen and I spent the summers with my grandparents on our original land allotment,” he explains. "It was about a mile or so away from this place called Spiro Mounds, which is the westernmost outpost of the Mound Builder civilization that disappeared thousands of years ago. But they've left these mounds all over the United States, and it's this ancient and mysterious place. Those tribes were the precursor tribes to all the tribes we know now.”

"Hole in the Sky" starts out with NASA's first observation of an interstellar object with its rapid approach and an impact on Earth that results in first contact.

"It's told through the lens of a by-the-books CIA weapons expert, the sort of person you'd expect to deal with this stuff, an anti-social NASA astrophysicist, and a really determined Cherokee father who lives in the place where this happens," Wilson adds. "All of these characters have a different perspective on the unknown. Typically, scientists want to understand it. Usually, they want to exploit it. Soldiers are afraid of the unknown, they want to destroy it. My native characters are comfortable with it. This guy lives with the unknown in his backyard. That was fun to tell that story and get to subvert that genre and put my own spin on first contact."

Mound Builders had a massive civilization on the scale of the Mayans, mainly in the Eastern portion of the United States. These earthworks were created anywhere it was useful to have a city, a place that had commerce and was easily defensible. As a result of these ancient people’s engineering, many mounds were eventually bulldozed over and major cities built atop them.

"We're talking about ten or fifteen thousand years ago, which plays into the story," says Wilson. "There's a lot of looking back to look forward. I ended up thinking a lot about what is indigenous technology. Right now, in Oregon, Washington, and California, they’re looking back at the way indigenous people dealt with their forests to prevent forest fires. They're trying to find that old knowledge to apply it now."

Netflix and Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films were offered a draft of Wilson's book while the author and his agent pitched both the novel and the screenplay, which prompted constructive feedback that altered some elements of the story.

"I found the process really fun because film is so visual and you're thinking about how to make it super visual, and some of that can go into the book," he notes. "But in the book, you can go straight into people's heads and get into what they’re thinking. That’s something that’s harder to do in a film and get all the exposition out. We spoke to a lot of top-notch production companies, really amazing minds, and each had a territory to go out to, different studios they work with. Aggregate hit it out of the park, and we found a great creative partner.

"I'm excited because we’re shooting for an "Arrival"-level film. Obviously, "Contact" was an influence, but really this is much more along the lines of "Stalker," which is based on the book, "Roadside Picnic." Like movies that are smaller in scope but very deep and heartfelt. "Hole in the Sky" takes place in Oklahoma, and it's just as big of a character as anything in this film. It's literally going back to where I grew up, which is very fun."

"Hole in the Sky" will be published by Doubleday on Oct. 7, 2025.

The upper stage of the Soyuz booster launching that Venus probe cut off prematurely, leaving the payload marooned in Earth orbit. But there is new news for this old probe: "In about two weeks from now, on or near May 9-10, an unusual uncontrolled reentry will happen." That's the report from satellite watcher Marco Langbroek of the Netherlands. He has been taking telescopic looks at the errant, Earth-circling Cosmos 482 remains for numbers of years.

What’s ahead is the reentry of the Cosmos 482 descent craft – the landing module of the errant Soviet Venera mission that failed over 53 years ago.

Hot topic

And one hot topic to ponder is whether that landing module intended for Venus, custom-made to withstand reentry through the thick Venus atmosphere, might survive reentry through Earth's atmosphere intact.

The former Soviet Union's Cosmos 482 was a sister probe to Venera 8. That spacecraft in July 1972 became the second craft to land successfully on the surface of Venus. It relayed data from Venus' hellish surface for 50 minutes and 11 seconds before succumbing to that planet’s harsh planetary conditions.

Meanwhile, adrift around Earth and headed for its apparent Earth reentry is the lost-to-space Cosmos 482 wreckage.

The Soviet-style contraption was built to withstand the heat of diving into Venus' cloud-veiled planet’s thick atmosphere. The Venus lander mass was pegged at 1,091 lbs. (495 kilograms) and carries significant thermal protection.

Hard landing

Exactly when and where the wayward hardware could plummet back to Earth is uncertain. With an orbital inclination of 51.7 degrees, the reentry can occur anywhere between latitude 52 N and 52 S, Langbroek explains.

Over the past months, together with colleague Dominic Dirkx, Langbroek shaped a reentry model for Cosmos 482 in TUDAT, the TU Delft Astrodynamics Toolbox. TUDAT is an open source, multi-platform Astrodynamics software developed and maintained at the Aerospace faculty of Delft Technical University where Langbroek works.

As Langbroek reports, the Venus probe had a parachute for the upper Venusian atmosphere dive, "but I wouldn't bet on that working now, and would assume that, if it survives re-entry, it would come down hard."

Langbroek actually modeled the reentry, expecting an end velocity in the order of some 145 miles per hour-plus (65-70 meters/second) on the ground or ocean impact.

So could this piece of space junk survive a hot-footing descent back to its home planet from whence it was launched?

"The risks involved are not particularly high, but not zero," Langbroek points out. "With a mass of just under 500 kg and 1-meter size, risks are similar to that of a meteorite impact."

Stay tuned … and heads up!

Neutron stars are the leftover cores of exploded stars and the densest known material in the universe. A typical neutron star has a mass a few times the mass of the sun, compressed into a region only a dozen kilometers across. In the outermost layers of neutron stars, the density is billions of times greater than the density of a diamond. In the cores of neutron stars, the crushing pressures can squeeze apart atomic nuclei, and maybe even protons and neutrons themselves.

Neutron stars' surface gravities are so intense that the largest "mountains" are only a few millimeters tall. And those surfaces are already alien, consisting of a crust of heavy atomic nuclei squeezed into a crystalline lattice with electrons free to swim among them.

Deeper down, the enormous gravity allows for exotic, rare isotopes to exist in abundance. Usually, you can only cram so many neutrons into a nucleus before it just falls apart, due to the repulsive effects of the strong nuclear force resisting cohesion. But the gravity of the neutron star keeps everything bound together. Down to a depth of roughly a kilometer, atomic nuclei can hold hundreds of neutrons at a time.

But even that has a limit. At a little over half a mile (1 km) in depth, even those impossibly sized nuclei break down. This is the "drip line," where neutrons begin to leak out of nuclei. Normally, any free neutrons decay in roughly 15 minutes. But the intense confines of the neutron star's interior keep the neutrons stable and free-flowing.

After only about a mile (2 kilometers) deep into the neutron star, matter takes on perhaps its strangest form yet: the "nuclear pasta." In this region, where the crust transitions to the core, titanic forces — gravity, the strong nuclear force and electric repulsion — compete for dominance. This leads to odd, lumpy nuclei with exaggerated shapes, known as gnocchi.

Below that, the individual lumps squeeze together into long (relatively speaking; everything here is still microscopic) tubes, known as spaghetti. Then, the spaghetti fuse together to form lasagne, which then merge into a single uniform mass. But that mass has defects and holes in it — the "antispaghetti" and "antignocchi."

All told, the nuclear pasta region is only about 330 feet (100 meters) thick, but it weighs more than 3,000 Earths. That's a lot of pasta.

Below that, at a depth of about a mile, the nuclei simply break down, as they're unable to maintain their structures in the crushing environment. Here, neutrons, protons and some electrons roam freely. And what truly happens in the core region of a neutron star is a matter of much debate, because the physics here is so far beyond our current understanding.

We strongly suspect that the outer region of the core is a superfluid, where the neutrons are free to move with zero viscosity and zero friction. The remaining protons at this depth are now also a superconductor, with no electrical resistivity. At these depths, the density is comparable to an atomic nucleus, with the protons and neutrons squeezed together as tightly as they can be. This region of a neutron star is, for all intents and purposes, a single macroscopic atomic nucleus, bound together not by the strong nuclear force but by sheer gravitational might.

The neutrons in this region do a large part of the work in supporting the star against further gravitational collapse. One way is through "degeneracy pressure" — they are squeezed so tightly together that they buzz with incredible, near-light-speed velocities, which creates pressure. Alongside that, the strong nuclear force is repulsive between neutrons, which keeps them from squeezing together even more.

In the deepest regions of the core, however, we simply have no idea. The densities in the innermost core are higher than in an atomic nucleus. We have no hope of replicating or recreating those conditions in the laboratory, so we only have hazy mathematical models to guide us. In some models, the neutrons maintain their superfluid state.

In other models, different forms of matter — like hyperons, deltas and boson condensates — may arise. This is possible because neutrons and protons are made of even smaller particles, called quarks. In these conditions, the quarks may arrange and combine themselves differently in situations that would be instantly unstable in any other environment. But here, they may be perfectly fine.

In other models, all protons and neutrons — and even their more exotic cousins — break down completely, forming a soup of quarks and gluons, the carriers of the strong nuclear force.

But all of this is pure speculation. The nearest neutron star is hundreds of light-years away, and even if we could crack it open, the special conditions that create these kinds of exotic conditions would break down. So, for now, the only way to peer inside neutron stars is with math and a heavy dose of guesswork.

Astronomers have discovered a dense stellar nursery packed with infant stars in a vast "cosmic ink blot."

The team made the discovery using one of the most powerful digital cameras in the world: the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

The dark shadow overlaid on a starry background is known as the Circinus West molecular cloud. Circinus West is a cold, dense cloud of gas and dust that stretches out for 180 light-years, around 60 times the size of our solar system. Nebulas like this are so dense that light cannot pass through them, resulting in their dark, ink-like appearance and the fitting nickname "dark nebulas."

With a mass around 250,000 times that of the sun, the Circinus West molecular cloud, located 2500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Circinus, is jam-packed with the raw material for star formation.

Despite being a "dark nebula," the Circinus West molecular cloud isn't so dark that it can completely hide its young stellar population, however. The team zoomed in on this region with the powerful DECam instrument to see these stellar infants and their associated phenomena in greater detail.

One dead giveaway of newborn stars is occasional pockets of light punctuating the inky tendrils of the molecular cloud.

These are created during star formation when so-called "protostars" — stars that haven't yet gathered enough material to trigger the fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores —  launch jets of material into space, carving cavities in the dense molecular gas and dust.

Astronomers find these high-energy outflows are easier to see than the protostars that launch them. That is because protostars are still wrapped in natal blankets of gas and dust from which they continue to gather mass on their journey to becoming main-sequence stars like the sun.

This makes these outflows and cavities a great indicator of the location of protostars.

Multiple outflows can be seen in the central black tendril of the Circinus West molecular cloud, named the Cir-MMS region.

At the heart of the Cir-MMS region is a large cavity that is being cleared by radiation blasting out for an infant star. Another stellar newborn is clearing a similar cavity at the bottom left of the Cir-MMS region.

The abundance of "Herbig-Haro" (HH) objects in Circinus West is another indication of active star formation.

HH objects are glowing red patches of nebulous gas and dust commonly found near newborn stars. They are created when fast-moving gas ejected by stars slams into slower-moving surrounding gas. Circinus West is packed with such objects, punctuating the dark lanes of gas and dust.

It isn't just newborn stars that populate Circinus West. This molecular cloud is also home to many stars at the other end of the stellar cycle of life and death.

Planetary nebulas, seen by the DECam in Circinus West as red blotches, are the remains of red giant stars, stellar bodies that have reached the end of their hydrogen supplies and their main sequence lifetimes.

At this point, they shed their outer layers, with this material dispersing and cooling, creating a planetary nebula (which somewhat confusingly actually have nothing to do with planets).

The team behind this research hopes that by studying the infant and aging stars of Circinus West and their outflows can reveal more about how they shape their immediate environments

Ultimately, this could reveal the processes that govern the evolution of galaxies like the Milky Way.

Aimed at 10+ builders and collectors, the Lego Marvel Rocket & Baby Groot set (76282) set looks great as a display item and for general play too, thanks to Rocket's moveable limbs.

Save 20% on the Lego Marvel Rocket & Baby Groot set — was $59.99, now $47.99 at Amazon.

The 566-piece model stands at over 8.5 inches tall and is a fantastic recreation of one of the most loved Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy characters, voiced by Bradley Cooper in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and appearing in six MCU movies.

The Lego Marvel Rocket & Baby Groot set sits at a price point that's somewhere between being a pocket-money build and a more expensive adult set. Right now, it's just $47.99, which we think offers great value, particularly for a set that's so enjoyable to build.

It's aimed at older kids (10+) and with just 566 pieces, experienced Lego fans won't find it an overly complex build either, with the instructions being relatively easy to follow. That said, it does have some fiddly sections, thanks to Rocket's posable limbs, so for some, Rocket will pose a challenge. So we wouldn't recommend this set for complete novice Lego builders.

There's only one minifigure included here — a Baby Groot, and it has sit a dedicated space on Rocket's shoulder. We'd have liked to see a Rocket minifigure for display purposes too, but it's certainly not a dealbreaker.

Key Specs: 8.5 Inches (Height). Total number of Lego pieces — 566. The model comes with incredible details and 2 Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket, holding a spring shooter and a blaster, and a Baby Groot minifigure that attaches to Rocket’s shoulder.

Product launched: January 2022.

Price history: As one of the most popular and more budget-friendly Lego Marvel sets available, the price of the Marvel Rocket & Baby Groot set has held steady at Lego since its release at $59.99. So Amazon's $47.99 price is one of the lowest we've seen and makes it a great buy. Retail rival Walmart is also selling it at the same discounted $47.99 price.

Price comparison: Walmart: $47.99 | Lego: $59.99

Review consensus: We really rated this set and gave it a 4 out of 5-star review. Amazon reviewers have been overwhelmingly positive too, and the Lego Marvel Rocket and Baby Groot get an aggregate score of 4.9 out of 5 from almost 450 ratings, with a huge 93% of reviewers giving this Lego set top marks.

Buy if: You're a Lego collector, a fan of the Marvel franchise, especially the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Don't buy if: You're not a fan of Marvel, prefer Lego Star Wars and are considering a more adult-oriented purchase – we'd recommend the UCS Millennium Falcon set as probably one of the best Lego sets ever made.

For more buying advice on Lego Marvel sets see our best Lego Marvel sets page, and our Lego deals page for all the latest deals on Star Wars, space, Marvel & DC Lego sets.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its March 2025 climate assessment in early April, highlighting more weather extremes as a result of our changing climate.

The month began with record-setting warmth in Alaska: On March 2, Anchorage reached 46 degrees Fahrenheit (7.8 degrees Celsius), topping the previous high for the month, which was set in 1958. The warmer weather coincided with a decrease in Bering Sea ice; its seasonal maximum extent, reached on March 26, tied with the fourth-lowest amount since satellite records began 47 years ago, according to the report.

The contiguous U.S. also updated the record books: It was the sixth-warmest March of the last 131 years, with an average temperature of 46.9 degrees Fahrenheit (8.3 degrees C). While much of the Lower 48 saw a monthly temperature average above the normal, states such as Kansas, Nebraska and Texas set records, with this March among the five warmest in recorded history.

Most of the significant weather and climate events happened in the second half of March across the U.S. In Oregon, periods of heavy rain mid-month triggered significant flooding from both rising rivers and quickly melting snow, forcing evacuations and causing damage along the southern part of the state from the coast inland.

Related: Climate change: Causes and effects

Three different severe weather outbreaks contributed to the monthly total of more than 200 tornadoes nationwide, more than double the average for the month. As a result, cities and towns from the South up through the Midwest were left cleaning up significant damage from the deadly storms.

Severe flooding, fire and ice hit different regions of the Eastern U.S. Flash flooding was triggered by heavy rain across the Lower Rio Grande Valley, with some areas enduring more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain in just 48 hours. This event resulted in a death toll of at least four and the rescue of more than 300 people from the rising waters.

Meanwhile, heavy snow and freezing rain blasted in northern Michigan, leading to widespread power outages. To end the month, southern Appalachia was hit hard by fast-moving wildfires, with more than 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) burned in areas impacted last year by Hurricane Helene. This forced several states to declare a state of emergency, with mandatory evacuations continuously issued for those in the path of the powerful wind-driven event.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite captured radar images of the country just one day before a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck on March 28. The Sentinel-1C satellite revisited the site a few days later, capturing the aftermath of the seismic event.

"Using satellite radar images, scientists can map the extent of ruptures and identify areas of increased seismic risk," ESA officials said in a statement.

ESA's Sentinel-1 mission includes two satellites positioned 180 degrees apart in orbit above Earth, enabling them to collectively scan the entire globe every six days. Sentinel-1's advanced radar imaging capabilities, including Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans and burst overlap interferometry, allow for precise measurement of ground motion in both east-west and north-south directions.

By comparing the satellite data collected before and after the Myanmar earthquake (a method called synthetic aperture radar interferometry), scientists were able to create a detailed map illustrating ground movement, also known as an interferogram, along the Sagaing Fault — one of the most active strike-slip faults in Southeast Asia, running north to south through the center of Myanmar.

The earthquake rupture, which is the sudden break and movement along a fault, extended approximately 342 miles (550 kilometers) along the Sagaing Fault — one of the longest documented surface ruptures ever recorded for a strike-slip fault.

The interferogram revealed 63 inches (160 centimeters) of ground displacement along the fault line, indicating significant movement on either side of the fault. This data provides critical insight on the earthquake, which can aid in disaster response efforts.

"These data are a game-changer," Dirk Geudtner, ESA's Sentinel-1 System Manager, said in the statement. "They enable faster, more accurate assessments after disasters, and help us to improve earthquake models globally."

The first bits of data have come back from the trio of small satellites that make up NASA's EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission, which aims to solve some mysteries surrounding the "auroral electrojet" phenomena in our atmosphere.

The "first light" observations are promising, and NASA says the EZIE satellites are "poised to reveal crucial details about Earth's auroral electrojets."

After launching March 14 from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on SpaceX's Transporter 13 rideshare mission, EZIE's three suitcase-sized cubesats now orbit a few hundred miles above Earth in a string-of-pearls configuration.

"The EZIE team is very excited about these first-light results," Sam Yee of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the mission's principal investigator, said in a statement. "The observations demonstrate that both the spacecraft and the MEM instrument onboard are working as expected."

MEM, short for Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram, measures a phenomenon called Zeeman splitting. This method will give NASA researchers insight into the structure and evolution of the electrojets system, which has never been available to scientists before.

Auroral electrojets are intense currents created by the massive energy transferred by the solar wind when it hits Earth's upper atmosphere. The electrojets push about 1 million amps of electrical charge around Earth's magnetic poles every second.

Related: SpaceX launches 74-satellite Transporter 13 mission, lands Falcon 9 rocket for the 400th time (video)

While they flow some 65 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground, auroral electrojets are responsible for some of Earth's largest magnetic disturbances. They can also impact the safety of astronauts and cause satellite interference.

Understanding these electrojets has been a priority at NASA for a while, and the EZIE mission marks the first time scientists will have the chance to map them up close. The mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington and is managed out of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Next, the team will run final checkouts and calibrations for the three EZIE cubesats. If everything goes well, NASA says the mission will start formal science investigations in a month.

It's surprising any light from distant galaxy JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA reached Earth at all. Photons coming from the realm that recently landed on the James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors existed when the universe was just 330 million years old — and, at that point in its adolescence, the universe was foggy and dim. A dense haze of gas suffused the space between stars, and even between galaxies, absorbing starlight and muffling the whole universe in darkness.

Astronomers call this period the Cosmic Dark Ages, and JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA is the earliest light we've seen (so far) piercing that cosmic fog.

Shedding light on a big moment for the universe

More than 13.5 billion years ago, JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA blazed brightly in ultraviolet light — but as that light crossed billions of light-years between its home galaxy and the Milky Way (which were moving farther apart the whole time, thanks to the fact that the universe is still expanding in the wake of the Big Bang, so everything is still getting farther apart from everything else), its waves stretched out.

As a result, the distant galaxy's ultraviolet light had become infrared light by the time it reached the Milky Way.

Infrared is invisible to humans, but it's indeed visible to the sensitive instruments aboard the JWST, like the Near-Infrared Camera, Near-Infrared Spectrometer, and Mid-Infrared Instrument.

University of Copenhagen astrophysicist Joris Witstok and his colleagues used data from those instruments to shed light on a mysterious period in our universe's distant past: the Epoch of Reionization. Also known as Cosmic Dawn, this was the moment when the light of the first galaxies began to clear away the dense fog that had filled the universe — and absorbed ultraviolet light — around 400,000 years after the Big Bang.

JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA is right on the cusp of that crucial moment in our universe's history. It's among the pioneers of reionization and one of the oldest galaxies we can actually see. And that means it can teach physicists about how that process happened and how the earliest galaxies evolved.

"I think one of the most intriguing questions about reionization is whether we can pinpoint the very first moment it started across the Universe," Witstok told Space.com, "which should coincide with the formation of the first generation of stars."

From cosmic dark ages to cosmic dawn

By around 300 million years after the Big Bang, the first stars had coalesced from the universe's primordial cloud of matter. Nuclear fusion deep inside these stars was churning out the very first starlight of the cosmos. At the same time, a dense fog of hydrogen gas with a little helium mixed in filled the universe and absorbed the starlight.

The Cosmic Dark Ages were in full swing.

The all-pervading fog formed as the universe slowly cooled down from the tremendous heat and pressure of the Big Bang. At first, all the matter that had burst into existence with the Big Bang was bouncing around in the form of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons (well, the protons had probably started as quarks, which eventually stuck together to make protons).

Those particles eventually slowed down enough to catch hold of each other and form atoms. Together, those atoms made up a thick haze of hydrogen and helium, exhibiting no electrical charge. That dense, neutral fog absorbed ultraviolet light and acted like a cosmic blackout curtain hung between the galaxies. But ultraviolet radiation changed the cloud itself in the process, knocking electrons off atoms and giving the gas an electric charge (or ionizing it, as physicists would say).

Ionized gas, also called plasma, absorbs energy differently than neutral gas does, so galaxies' light at that time had begun to pierce the veil.

Light from JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA would have created a bubble of reionized plasma around itself. And, by the time the light passed beyond the bounds of that bubble — about 650,000 light-years, according to Witstok — its wavelengths would have stretched enough that at least some of it would have been able to pass through the intergalactic cloud.

University of Melbourne astrophysicist Michele Trenti, who was not involved in the study, tells Space.com she's curious about how those bubbles of plasma grew and overlapped over time during the Epoch of Reionization, until the whole universe was eventually reionized — and transparent.

Massive stars or a supermassive black hole?

Witstok and his colleagues noticed that the light from JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA looked bluer than they expected (meaning that more of it came from the shorter-wavelength end of the electromagnetic spectrum). The galaxy is also giving off a surprising amount of a type of light called Lyman-α radiation. This Lyman-α radiation happens when neutral hydrogen gets a blast of ultraviolet radiation, which excites its electron. As the electron settles back down, it lets off that energy as Lyman-α radiation.

The presence of so much Lyman-α in the galaxy's spectrum suggests it's bombarding the surrounding hydrogen with a lot of ultraviolet radiation.

"These two facts combined make the galaxy unique (and therefore surprising)," says Trenti, "and [they're] inconsistent with expectations from typical galaxies we see at the end of reionization [around 0.8 billion to 1 billion years after the Big Bang]."

Explaining the galaxy's surprisingly energetic glow requires something else surprising: Either JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA is bustling with unusually massive, hot blue stars, or it has an unusually huge supermassive black hole at its center that's actively gobbling up gas.

If we're seeing the light from the galaxy's billions of stars, those stars would have to be huge and hot: about 15 times hotter than the sun, and more than a hundred times more massive.

On the other hand, if we're seeing the light from a voraciously feeding supermassive black hole, it would have to be even more massive than the one at the heart of our Milky Way, which boasts the mass of about 4 million suns. For most of the models of how galaxies (and the supermassive black holes at their centers) formed and grew, that's a shocking idea: so early in our universe's history, no supermassive black hole should have had time to grow to such a gargantuan size.

"There are certain theoretical models where this would be expected though, so if this were the case it could have very important implications for such theories for early black hole formation," says Witstok.

For Trenti, this is one of the most interesting questions about the Epoch of Reionization: "What are the sources of radiation that contribute to reionization? Is the process driven by normal stars, exotic stars, or accreting black holes?"

The answer could tell us something about how early galaxies formed and evolved into ones like our Milky Way and its thoroughly modern neighbors.

A cosmic mystery remains — for now

But Witstok and his colleagues still don't have enough information to solve that particular mystery.

"This discovery starts shining some light on when reionization started, but it is just a preview that stirs curiosity, it is hard to do science with a sample of only one object," said Trenti.

Witstok agrees, but he's optimistic about finding more galaxies from the cusp of the Epoch of Reionization – and so far, JWST has been pushing the boundaries of how far back in time astronomers can see.

"I'm sure over the next years we will find examples of even more distant galaxies with similar characteristics,” Witstok said. "The next steps include investigating this galaxy in more detail, with new observations already having been obtained and more scheduled to be taken in the near future, but also finding more examples of galaxies with very bright Lyman-α radiation very early on."

If astronomers can get more detailed measurements of the spectrum of light coming from the galaxy, they may be able to measure how much helium, oxygen and carbon are involved in producing the light. That will let them compare JWST’s measurements to computer models of the physics involved and see which explanation best matches the data.

The study was published on March 26 in the journal Nature.

SpaceX launched a milestone mission on Sunday night (April 27).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the company's Starlink broadband satellites — including 13 with direct-to-cell capability — lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday at 10:09 p.m. EDT (0209 GMT on Monday, April 28).

It was the 250th time SpaceX had sent a batch of Starlink craft skyward, the company noted via X shortly after launch.

About eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for a vertical touchdown as planned. It landed on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

It was the 20th liftoff and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Thirteen of those flights have been Starlink missions.

The rocket's upper stage did its job, too. It deployed the 23 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) about an hour after launch, SpaceX announced in an update on X.

Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky

Sunday night's launch was the 48th Falcon 9 flight of 2025, and the 31st dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation. That network currently consists of more than 7,200 operational satellites and is growing all the time.

The first dedicated Starlink launch occurred in May 2019 (though SpaceX launched two prototype broadband craft more than a year earlier, in February 2018). Over the past six years, SpaceX has lofted nearly 8,400 Starlink satellites on those 250 launches, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

This rare event lasted about an hour on April 7 and was only visible from western North America. The last time a bright stellar occultation of Uranus occurred was 1996, so NASA came prepared. An international team of more than 30 astronomers, led by planetary scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, used 18 observatories to gather data.

"This was the first time we have collaborated on this scale for an occultation," William Saunders, a planetary scientist at Langley, said in a statement.

"I am extremely grateful to each member of the team and each observatory for taking part in this extraordinary event," Saunders added. "By observing the occultation from many large telescopes, we are able to measure the light curve and determine Uranus' atmospheric properties at many altitude layers."

Related: Uranus: Everything you need to know about the coldest planet in the solar system

For example, the scientists measured the temperatures and composition of Uranus' stratosphere, the middle layer of its atmosphere. They were able to see how the stratosphere has changed since 1996, when NASA got a snapshot of Uranus' atmosphere during the last significant stellar occultation.

The data NASA just collected "could help enable future Uranus exploration efforts," agency officials said in the statement.

Uranus, which is currently about 2 billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth, does not have a solid surface. Instead, the planet has a soft surface that's a mixture of water, ammonia and methane. Researchers call Uranus an ice giant because its interior consists largely of these fluids, all of which have low freezing points. The planet's atmosphere is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium.

"The atmospheres of the gas and ice giant planets [Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune] are exceptional atmospheric laboratories because they don't have solid surfaces," Emma Dahl, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology who assisted in gathering observations from NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, said in the same statement.

"This allows us to study cloud formation, storms and wind patterns without the extra variables and effects a surface produces, which can complicate simulations very quickly," she added.

NASA says Uranus will occult several dimmer stars over the next six years. The next significant Uranus occultation, which will involve a star even brighter than the one blocked out this month, will come in 2031.

Two full decades* later, it's hard to argue against LucasArts' tactical FPS being one of the most unique and best Star Wars games ever made. From the immersive action to its darker, boots-on-the-ground tone, it's the rare sort of Star Wars story that brought fans of George Lucas' galaxy far, far away closer to the nameless grunts dying on the frontlines. They may have only been pawns in the centuries-long chess match between the light and dark sides of the Force, but away from the Jedi and the Sith, every gunfight can be the last, and even the Republic's finest clone troopers were just humans at the end of the day.

After their explosive introduction in Attack of the Clones as personality-less replicas of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett, the 2D Clone Wars animated series didn't make a case about why clone troopers mattered more than droids. Sure, that one squad with ARC troopers was rad, but why should we care about them beyond their cool armor? Dave Filoni and George Lucas' 3D show, far more ambitious in its scope and depth, would 'fix' that issue years later, but we often forget that Republic Commando was the first piece of Star Wars media that treated the clones with respect.

Begun, the Clone War has

The game kicks off during the Battle of Geonosis, but not before we witness a montage that details Delta Squad's creation, early life, and training on Kamino. We could've just been thrown right into the heat of battle, yet director Tim Longo (who would shepherd Halo 5 a decade later), the team of writers, and the powers that be at LucasArts decided to hit the ground walking instead of running.

It's a short but impactful sequence that juxtaposes nicely against the rest of the game, which is noisy and utterly relentless; a few moments of quiet before a galaxy-wide war that these soldiers weren't meant to survive to help set the tone.

For all its 2000s era video game trappings, the debut of the clone commandos was gritty and sobering. Without the Jedi saving the day at the last minute or John Williams' rousing musical themes adding classical wonder to the action, the clashes between the Republic and the CIS — especially those happening away from the frontlines — suddenly felt heavier and more dangerous.

Composer Jesse Harlin was fully aware Republic Commando needed to sound different: "The entire goal was to present a very dark and military take on the Star Wars universe," he explained to MusicOnFilm back in 2006. "These weren't guys who knew anything about galactic politics or the Force. These were just soldiers with a very dangerous, very thankless job to do." Needless to say, both the devs and Harlin succeeded in giving the game an identity of its own, with the track 'Vode An' being embraced by Star Wars fans and later official works as an essential part of the on-screen Mandalorian culture.

The lost sequel

Even without getting into the 'meat and potatoes' of the competently-made first-person shooter that successfully merged Star Wars with Rainbow Six elements, fans soon were obsessed with the lore surrounding the clone commandos and their role in the larger war that culminated with the birth of the Galactic Empire. The fact that its ending was left wide open also encouraged further chatter. Later in 2005, an Order 66-centric sequel of sorts was released for mobile phones, but… well, it bears very little resemblance to the console and PC shooter that preceded it.

With plans for a follow-up titled Imperial Commando binned at LucasArts even before the first game had released, the only continuation of the story left for fans was Karen Traviss' five notable novels: Hard Contact, Triple Zero, True Colors, Order 66, and Imperial Commando: 501st. It's safe to say there was an audience for more stories starring these clones, yet LucasArts was refocusing its strategy around (and after) the time of Republic Commando's release. Regular soldiers were pushed aside (this also included Battlefront 3's cancellation), while 'power fantasy' characters like Starkiller were brought to the forefront again.

With George Lucas' six-episode movie saga wrapped up in 2005 and the animated show that was announced soon after, following the Jedi and all-new clone characters, fans had to accept that Delta Squad's on-screen adventures were 'one and done' unless something big changed. Well, as we all know, Disney took over Lucas' empire in late 2012, and one of the first creative swings the 'new Lucasfilm' took under its umbrella was to explicitly declare the vast majority of the novels, comics, shows, and video games non-canon, giving them a clean slate outside the six original movies. But as a great man once said, "No one's ever really gone."

Reshaping the canon

Delta Squad seemed done for after the canon reset, but the focus on clones had returned. It was The Clone Wars that kept much of its soul alive with several clone troopers, such as Rex, Fives, 99, and Echo (among many others) getting just as much screen time as the Jedi generals who led them into battle.

Even during the uneven first season, the focus was often put on the wins and losses these soldiers created, often sacrificing their lives for the good of the Republic in the process. Throughout its run, the show covered serious subjects around the clones' loyalty, freedom, and even their humanity, adding a surprising amount of maturity to a series that everyone, fans included, had first registered as a lighter affair.

The four iconic clone commandos from the game – Boss, Scorch, Fixer, and Sev – were recovered for the season 3 episode 'Witches of the Mist' (2011) with a brief appearance. This allowed them to join the movie/TV canon before the aforementioned reset, which only kept the six original movies and The Clone Wars in the fresh new Star Wars timeline. Later, other Legends characters were (and continue to be) incorporated into the current canon, but their 'early' presence in the show highlighted how much they meant for fans and creatives alike. 'Missing in Action' (season 5) would also introduce Captain Gregor, an ex-commando suffering from amnesia.

2017's Battlefront 2 (EA/DICE) would eventually receive a content update introducing clone commandos (though not Delta Squad) following fan requests, with Lucasfilm and the developers admitting they would be a good fit for the large-scale online shooter. More importantly, The Clone Wars' seventh and final season (2020) presented a squad of genetically enhanced clones nicknamed 'the Bad Batch', who would later get their own beloved show. They were certainly more colorful characters than Delta Squad, but the influences were clear for those who were around in 2005. Watch out for Scorch and other commandos' many appearances as the show advances, too.

In a way, The Bad Batch became the culmination of everything that had been built around the seemingly simple concept of the elite clone troopers. Away from the constraints of the Skywalker Saga, but progressing right next to it, LucasArts and Lucasfilm managed to make us truly care about the Republic's cannon fodder just as much as the fall of the Jedi and the reign of the Empire. Nowadays, non-gamer fans will attribute this entire narrative to Dave Filoni and Lucasfilm Animation's top creatives, but Republic Commando was the genesis of this fascinating branch of Star Wars storytelling in the same way Dark Forces is key to understanding much of the current post-Empire chronology.

Star Wars: Republic Commando and its Aspyr-developed remaster are currently available to purchase on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

On Friday (April 25), news outlets such as CNN and SpaceNews reported that GISS's lease on office space in a Columbia University building in Manhattan's Upper West Side is set to be canceled. According to SpaceNews, an April 24 email sent to Goddard employees and signed by Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland (the parent organization of GISS), stated that the lease will end on May 31. The news outlet says the lease, which costs the agency $3.03 million annually, was originally supposed to last through August 2031.

However, GISS Director Gavin Schmidt assured CNN that "the work continues, the data, the products, the science will continue because science is done by people, not by buildings." As of now, NASA says employees will be placed on "temporary remote work agreements while NASA seeks and evaluates options for a new space for the GISS team."

Lystrup reportedly says the termination is related to "ongoing reviews by the current administration of all government leases," SpaceNews said of the obtained email's contents, but it remains unclear whether the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) spearheaded the matter. It is worth considering what role DOGE had to play in the decision because the department, led by SpaceX billionaire founder Elon Musk, is behind several other changes happening at NASA.

For instance, DOGE staffers have recently been given significant access to agency systems and documents without clear disclosure of their workflow— to the dismay of some politicians because of possible threats to national security and conflicts of interest (due to SpaceX's role as a frequent provider of launch services for NASA).

News of GISS's lease cancellation also comes amid several other changes that DOGE, in conjunction with the Trump administration, has provoked, such as the cutting of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility programs as well as the sudden layoffs of thousands of federal workers in the name of saving what the department considers "wasted taxpayer money."

Reports have also been circulating about budget "passback documents" that suggest the White House plans to cut NASA's science budget by about 50%, which could lead to huge consequences like the closing of Goddard Space Flight Center and the gutting of in-development missions like the highly anticipated Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

It is also of note that GISS's lease in particular was canceled. Not only does it deal with Earth science projects that fall under the umbrella of NASA science programs that are possibly in danger, but it is also focused on climate change research, which the Trump administration seems to be specifically targeting.

Over 800 workers at the U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) were terminated abruptly in March, for instance, and the White House's general decision-making as of late appears to align with a policy blueprint laid out by a conservative think tank called The Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation describes NOAA as being part of the "climate change alarm industry" and calls for it to be dismantled and its weather forecasting operations fully commercialized.

Saturn and Venus will be below the horizon for viewers in the U.S. when they reach the point of conjunction in the hours before their appearance on the morning of the 28th. A planetary conjunction occurs when two worlds share the same right ascension  —  a value similar to longitude that is used by astronomers to chart the locations of objects in the night sky  —  when viewed from the night sky from Earth.

At this point the planetary duo will be separated by a little under 3.5 degrees in the sky, according to stargazing website in-the-sky.org (the width of your first at arm's length equals about 10 degrees).

To catch Saturn, Venus and Neptune at play, stargazers need only find a clear, unobstructed view of the horizon, and look eastward in the hour preceding sunrise on April 28.

Venus will be visible as a bright magnitude -4.42 morning star near the horizon, while Saturn will appear just a few degrees away to the bottom left, significantly dimmer than its planetary neighbor.

Neptune will be altogether invisible to the naked eye, but can be picked out with a decent pair of binoculars, or a telescope, appearing as a small blueish green point of light below and slightly to the left of Venus. However, as always the utmost care must be taken to never point a pair of binoculars or telescope at the sun, or to look directly at the stellar body with the naked eye.

Mercury will also be present close to the eastern horizon in the hour before dawn, but will be quickly hidden by light from our rising sun.

Looking to explore the solar system for yourself? well our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight.

Editor's note: If you want to share your planetary photographs with our readers at Space.com, please email them to [email protected].

"When you fell, you just had to surrender to it and wait until you stopped rolling around," Strange reveals. "It felt very safe, but it looked pretty dramatic."

Love and Strange are the main puppeteer actors inside the old-fashioned android costumes for "The Robot Revolution," which kicked off Ncuti Gatwa's sophomore season as The 15th Doctor on April 12. That debut story finds the Time Lord's new companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), abducted and whisked off to a planet called Miss Belinda Chandra. The alien race and its bulky enforcer robots believe her to be their ruler when its star was named after her as a romantic gift years ago.

Performing as Robot 1 & 2, Love and Strange form a brilliant tandem act nicknamed Team Strangelove. They first worked together back in 2022 as the Wrarth Warriors opposite David Tennant for the 60th Anniversary Special, "The Star Beast."

"It was such a blast to work together again for the Robots, this time with the fabulous Ncuti and Varada," Love tells Space.com. "The robots are such glorious, retro-futuristic designs from Millennium FX and were one of the most intense suits we've ever worn, but ingeniously engineered, and worth the ordeal for how fabulous they look on screen.

"Height and body size is really vital. For the very first 'Doctor Who' episode that we did, Rob had already been cast in it, and they needed another person identical to Rob. So I owe the start of my creature journey to this other man here because we are almost identical in height and size. When they were recasting for the robot gig, they knew it has to be Steve and Rob."

Millennium FX is the award-winning creature effects workshop that creates all of "Doctor Who's" monsters, beasts, ghosts, aliens, and androids, and here they conceived the intimidating robots wielding oversized ray guns as something straight out of a classic 1950s sci-fi B-movie.

Each ultra-cool robot suit was 3D-printed then outfitted with fiberglass in certain places on the torso, arms, and legs. The insides contained lightweight metal and bits of wood, but their makeup was primarily 3D printing and fiberglass, and very difficult to view out of when acting.

"No, we couldn't see a lot," explains Strange. "The robots have their little robot face, and I guess they designed little air vents like grills that we could sort of see out of. So when you moved, you had to get your bearings as you moved, but when you were close to something, you couldn't really see it at all. We did a lot of work with Paul Casey, who's a 'Doctor Who' veteran. Ten or twenty years ago, he played loads of creatures in previous seasons of 'Doctor Who', and he's back on as the creature movement choreographer and director.

"He worked with us to do all the movement, he trained us up, he gets us moving in synch, and gets us walking like robots. We’d have an earpiece and he’d just direct us and be our eyes and ears basically, because you didn’t hear much in the suits since they were so echoey. He’d guide us and be in constant communication, telling us to start moving or stop moving."

Regarding any behind-the-scenes pranks or funny anecdotes while they were inside the behemoth robot suits, Love and Strange recalled a couple of embarrassing instances.

"On one of the behind-the-scenes episodes, they did show one clip of me falling over," Love admits. "It was on one of the robot suit test days. At the time, the feet of the robot had been designed in a different way, which meant that there was a slightly loose section of the foot. When we were walking, that section was able to curl around underneath itself, and that happened and sent me tumbling. The robots were fixed and altered by Millennium. On the actual shoot, I was the one who fell over the least. I think we should get this really clear."

Fellow creature artists Charles Stamford and Lucas Edwards also had robot cameos as Robots 3 & 4. And as Love points out, he clearly wasn’t the only one who took an unfortunate spill during the long production days of "The Robot Revolution."

"I inevitably took some tumbles," Strange adds. "I didn’t even have the excuse of the toes that were designed differently. I just fell, and we took some quite spectacular tumbles. The way it was rigged is we were kind of strapped in with a harness within the suit. The robot was like a shell around us, so we were really protected. The Millennium team really looked after us."

"Doctor Who" Season 2 airs exclusively on Disney+ and BBC with new weekly episodes each Saturday. This latest episode, "The Well" just went live, and it's actually a sequel to a classic David Tennant Who episode.

Dragonfly, a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft designed to investigate Titan's potential to host life, passed its Critical Design Review, NASA announced on Thursday (April 24).

"Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly's mission design, fabrication, integration and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself," a NASA statement reads.

The $3.35 billion Dragonfly mission was first selected by NASA in 2019 and is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, with APL's Elizabeth Turtle as the principal investigator.

The mission has been hit by delays and cost overruns, but studying Titan is considered a high priority by scientists for its potential to harbor alien life.

The mission is set to launch no earlier than July 2028 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will then embark on an almost seven-year-long voyage through deep space to the Saturn system, with the goal of spending more than three years studying areas across Titan's frigid and diverse surface.

Equipped with cameras, sensors and samplers, Dragonfly will assess Titan's habitability, looking out for prebiotic chemistry as well as potential signs of life.

Related: NASA greenlights 2028 launch for epic Dragonfly mission to Saturn's huge moon Titan

Titan is Saturn's largest moon, and the second largest in the solar system behind Ganymede of Jupiter. Its thick, hazy atmosphere shrouds a surface featuring dunes of hydrocarbons and methane lakes. Beneath the moon's icy crust, scientists think there's a subsurface ocean of salty water, adding to the possibilities for Titan to harbor life.

In 2005, NASA's Cassini mission delivered the Huygens probe to Titan. The European Space Agency-built Huygens made a parachute-assisted landing, which provided profound insights into the giant moon. Dragonfly, if successful, could revolutionize our understanding of how life might arise elsewhere in the solar system.