compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

Leeds 2023: Mobile observatory bus begins city-wide tour A mobile observatory promising to take visitors “to the stars and back” is going on tour around Leeds. Moon Palace, a former school bus, is on the move until late November as part of Leeds 2023 – a year-long celebration of the city and its culture…more

Killer Asteroid-Spotting Software Could Help Save the World The ability of technology to solve global problems is often overhyped. But when it comes to saving the world from asteroid strikes, lines of code may prove to be our savior. Telescopes surveying the skies for errant space rocks are overseen by astronomers…more

NASA Reaches Voyager 2 With a Last-Ditch ‘Shout’ Across the Void It took an interstellar “shout” across the solar system. But NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Friday that it re-established full communications with Voyager 2, an aging probe exploring the outer edges of the solar system. “After two weeks of not hearing anything…more

James Webb telescope captures end stages of dying star’s life Mesmerising images of the end stages of a distant star’s life have been captured by the James Webb space telescope (JWST).They show an unprecedented level of detail of a doughnut-like structure of glowing gas known as the Ring Nebula…more

Euclid: ‘Dark explorer’ opens its eyes on the cosmos Europe’s new space telescope, Euclid, has returned its first images. Engineers switched on the cameras of the €1.4bn (£1.2bn) observatory to begin a phase of testing and captured a wide vista of stars and galaxies. Once properly set up, Euclid will start building a 3D map of the cosmos in an effort to tie down the nature of so-called dark matter and dark energy…more

Titanium Clouds Engulf This Ultrahot Neptune-like Planet Astronomers have come across the shiniest planet ever found, a mere 265 light years from our solar system. But that’s hardly its only standout trait. Shrouded by thick metallic clouds, this world’s temperature reaches a blistering 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and it quite likely rains scorching-hot drops of titanium…more

NASA Seeks a Nuclear-Powered Rocket to Get to Mars in Half the Time In less than four years, NASA could be testing a nuclear rocket in space. The space agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced on Wednesday that Lockheed Martin had been selected to design, build and test a propulsion system that could one day speed astronauts on a trip to Mars…more

Scientist’s Deep Dive for Alien Life Leaves His Peers Dubious On Jan. 8, 2014, a fireball from space blazed through Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into the sea, north of Manus Island off the northeastern coast of Papua New Guinea. Its location, velocity and brightness were recorded by U.S. government sensors and quietly tucked away in a database of similar events…more

Break Out the S’mores: This Star Is Cooler Than a Campfire When you sit at a campfire and look up at the stars, even the tiniest pinpricks of light that you see are massive furnaces, producing intense heat. But hidden among these infernal embers are celestial bodies so dim that they’re invisible to the naked eye…more