Space

SpaceX’s Starship megarocket will fly again less than two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX announced on Monday (Sept. 29) that it’s targeting Oct. 13 for Starship Flight 11, which will be the final launch of the vehicle’s current “Version 2” iteration. Liftoff will occur from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas. The window on Oct. 13 will…

The mystery behind Venus’ giant, crown-shaped geological features, known as coronae, may finally have an explanation: A “glass ceiling” in Venus’ mantle is trapping heat and driving slow, shifting currents that might lead to the formation of the crown-like surface features, scientists propose in a new study. “On Venus, there is a pattern that is telling us…

Heads up stargazers! The moon will shine close to the bright star Antares at sunset on Sept. 27, while some lucky viewers — and plenty of penguins — will witness the lunar disk pass directly in front of the red supergiant, hiding it from view. Look 15 degrees above the southwestern horizon at sunset on Sept. 27 to find the waxing crescent moon. Antares will glow less than 3 degrees to its…

A vast river of neutral hydrogen bridges two galaxies that are beginning to enter the monstrous Virgo Cluster, and this structure is helping astronomers better understand our Milky Way’s relationship with the nearby Magellanic Clouds. The two galaxies, named NGC 4532 and DDO 137, are in fact falling into the Virgo Cluster at 547 miles (880 kilometers) per second, and in doing so are plowing…