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These interstellar spaceship designs are wildly impractical

Space

These interstellar spaceship designs are wildly impractical

Scientists’ ideas for travelling to the stars range from the the wholly improbable to the hugely expensive and very difficult, says Ed Regis

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Caption This image from NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope shows a portion of the Leo P dwarf galaxy (stars at lower right represented in blue). Leo P is a star-forming galaxy located about 5 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. A team of scientists collected data from about 15,000 stars in Leo P to deduce its star formation history. They determined that it went through three phases: an initial burst of star formation, a ?pause? that lasted several billion years, and then a new round of star formation that is still continuing. The image from Webb?s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) combines infrared light at wavelengths of 0.9 microns (represented in blue), 1.5 microns (green), and 2.77 microns (red). The stars in Leo P appear blue in comparison to the background galaxies for several reasons. Young, massive stars that are common in star-forming galaxies are predominantly blue. Leo P also is extremely lacking in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and the resulting ?metal-poor? stars tend to be bluer than Sun-like stars. A bubble-like structure at bottom center is a region of ionized hydrogen surrounding a hot, massive O-type star. Credits Image NASA, ESA, CSA, Kristen McQuinn (STScI) Image Processing Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Space

James Webb captures a beautiful smattering of blue stars

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The physicist trying to build humanity's lunar future with moon dirt

Space

The physicist trying to build humanity's lunar future with moon dirt

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Incredible images show the moment SpaceX's Starship exploded

Space

Incredible images show the moment SpaceX's Starship exploded

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Atlas C2024-G3 Jan 11, 2025

Space

See comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) as viewed from Earth's orbit

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The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Space

The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

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n 2025 BepiColombo image1 Top three images from BepiColombo's sixth Mercury flyby 09/01/2025 619 views 4 likes ESA / Science & Exploration / Space Science / BepiColombo On 8 January 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission flew past Mercury for the sixth time, successfully completing the final ?gravity assist manoeuvre? needed to steer it into orbit around the planet in late 2026. The spacecraft flew just a few hundred kilometres above the planet's north pole. Close-up images expose possibly icy craters whose floors are in permanent shadow, and the vast sunlit northern plains. At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo flew just 295 km above Mercury's surface on the planet's cold, dark night side. Around seven minutes later, it passed directly over the Mercury's north pole before getting clear views of the planet's sunlit north. European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher revealed the first image during his Annual Press Briefing on 9 January. As during BepiColombo's previous flybys, the spacecraft's monitoring cameras (M-CAMs) did not disappoint. This flyby also marks the last time that the mission's M-CAMs get up-close views of Mercury, as the spacecraft module they are attached to will separate from the mission's two orbiters ? ESA?s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA?s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter ? before they enter orbit around Mercury in late 2026. Celebrating the M-CAMs' final hurrah, let's explore the best three images from BepiColombo's sixth close encounter with the little planet, and what they reveal about mysterious Mercury.

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BepiColombo snaps Mercury's dark craters and volcanic plains

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Mathematics

How a typo spoiled my proof of Fermat’s last theorem

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On 22 August 2024, summit staff reinstalled Rubin Observatory's commissioning camera (ComCam) on the telescope. ComCam has previously been on the telescope, but was removed before the installation of the secondary mirror in late July. ComCam ??? a smaller (144 megapixel), simpler version of the full 3200-megapixel LSST Camera ??? is being used for testing activities prior to installing the LSST Camera, anticipated to happen late 2024. In the coming weeks the summit team will install the primary/tertiary mirror, enabling ComCam to produce the first astronomical data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope.

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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory gets started next year. I can't wait

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The Penguin and the compact elliptical galaxy the Egg

Space

The best space images from 2024

This year has delivered some awe-inspiring imagery of space, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning shots of faraway stars and galaxies to images of the skies taken from here on planet Earth

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2024 review: Stunning JWST images that reveal the beauty of space

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Why Kelly and Zach Weinersmith are sceptical about a future on Mars

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Space

How a space elevator could make trips to the moon affordable for all

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Physics

These are the most mind-melting physics discoveries of 2024

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