Tag - astronomy

 
 

ASTRONOMY

A large screen shows news footage of China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe collecting a sample from the far side of the moon, in Beijing in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 16, 2024
China tests building moon base with lunar soil bricks
A cargo rocket carrying brick samples blasted off late Friday for the Tiangong space station, part of Beijing's mission to put humans on the moon by 2030.
Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet is seen from Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, early Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2024
University of Tokyo captures images of Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet
The comet can be seen only this time as it does not approach periodically, unlike Halley's comet.
The Milky Way, known as "ama no gawa" in Japanese, is seen above Mount Fuji.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 18, 2024
Comets and constellations: The language of stargazing
Whether it's telling someone to look at a shooting star or describing the difference between stars and planets, the vocabulary of space is vast and interesting.
Cows graze in a field near the Green Bank Telescope, a 100-meter fully steerable radio telescope, at the Green Bank Observatory in the U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone in Green Bank, West Virginia, on May 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 2, 2024
Inside the 'golden age' of alien hunting at the Green Bank Telescope
If intelligent life exists out there, there's a good chance the teams at the world's largest fully steerable radio astronomy facility will be the first to know.
A reddish rock nicknamed Cheyava Falls is seen in Mars' Jezero Crater on July 18 in an image captured by NASA's Perseverance rover.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 27, 2024
NASA did not say it found life on Mars. But it’s very excited about this rock.
The rock has been closely analyzed by scientists on Earth who say that nonmicrobial processes could also explain its features.
A mystery-solving event with clues embedded in constellations projected on a dome is held at a planetarium in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on June 7.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2024
Japan's planetarium operators shoot for the stars with new events
The number of planetarium visitors in fiscal 2022 totaled 7.9 million, recovering to about 90% of the level before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials recover the landing module of the Chang'e-6 lunar probe after it landed in Inner Mongolia, in northern China, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 25, 2024
China probe first to return to Earth with samples from moon's far side
The Chang'e-6 lunar probe landed on Tuesday in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.
Astronaut Koichi Wakata poses for a photo after holding a news conference on March 29 to announce his retirement from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at the end of March.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 18, 2024
After three decades, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata moves to private sector
Wakata became chief technology officer for the Asia-Pacific region at U.S. startup space company Axiom Space in April.
The Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, glow on the horizon as seen from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, on May 10.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
May 18, 2024
'Danger behind the beauty': More solar storms could be heading our way
For those charged with protecting Earth from powerful solar storms such as the one that caused the recent auroras, a threat lurks beneath the stunning colors.
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024
Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth
Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
A meteor is seen in an aurora borealis above Lausanne and the Jura from the Tour de Gourze in Riex, Switzerland, on Saturday.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 11, 2024
First 'extreme' solar storm in 20 years brings spectacular auroras
The "extreme" geomagnetic storm is the first since the so-called Halloween Storms of October 2003.
Takuya Usami, the curator at Mantenboshi, a stargazing observatory in Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, said that a survey by the Environment Ministry had ranked the Noto region as among the best places in Japan for stargazing.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 29, 2024
Stargazing observatory in quake-hit Noto looks forward to reopening
“I want to show everyone little by little the beauty of the starry sky, one of Noto’s attractions," a curator at the observatory said.
Fans and deltas formed by water and sediment are seen in the Jezero Crater on Mars in this false color image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and published in May 2019.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 27, 2024
Rover data confirms ancient lake sediments on Mars
The findings substantiate previous orbital imagery and other data leading scientists to theorize that portions of Mars may have harbored microbial life.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 21, 2024
Northern lights likely to be seen in Hokkaido again in 2024
Solar activity is forecast to increase toward 2025, likely leading to opportunities to see the ethereal curtains of lights.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 20, 2024
Japan makes history as spacecraft lands on the moon
The successful landing makes Japan just the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, but questions remain over whether the mission can achieve all its goals.
NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba speaks at an event during which the crew of the Artemis II space mission to the moon is announced in Houston last April.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 10, 2024
Bad day in space: Moon mission fails and NASA program delayed
The twin developments represent blows to U.S. ambitions to stimulate a commercial space economy.
JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft is expected to land on the lunar surface in early 2024.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 21, 2023
One small step for a JAXA spacecraft, one giant leap for exploration
In 2024, we can look forward to the arrival on the moon of JAXA's SLIM spacecraft. Its groundbreaking accuracy could further propel space exploration.
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2023
Japan to create ¥1 trillion fund to develop outer space industry
The ¥1 trillion fund will be allocated over a 10-year period for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), as a new global space race heats up.
Artemis II moon mission crew members Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch pose for photographs after taking part in a news conference with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 18.
WORLD / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
Oct 8, 2023
Geopolitics in space: Why great powers are scrambling for the moon
A new space race — pitting the U.S. and its partners against China and Russia — is expected to have significant implications.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2023
Touchdown: Highly anticipated asteroid sample arrives on Earth
It is only the third asteroid sample, and by far the biggest, ever returned to Earth for analysis, following two missions by Japan's space agency.

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition