Notices by Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social), page 2

Esther Kisk Goddard documented & organized her husband's work, filed key patents, and continued to promote spaceflight long after his death in 1945.

https://www.clarku.edu/news/2026/03/12/esther-goddards-fierce-devotion-to-her-husband-kept-his-memory-alive-and-built-a-legend/ #space #science #history

Robert Goddard on his rocket's first flight:

“It looked almost magical as it rose, without any appreciably greater noise or flame, as if it said, ‘I’ve been here long enough; I think I’ll be going somewhere else, if you don’t mind.'"

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/from-cabbages-to-craters-nasa-marks-one-century-of-modern-rocketry/ #history #science #tech

100 years ago today, Robert Goddard launched his first liquid-fueled rocket (nicknamed "Nell") from a snowy field outside Worcester, Massachusetts, and changed the history of exploration.

The remains of the original rocket are mostly lost, but its legacy is everywhere.

https://www.collectspace.com/news/news-031626a-robert-goddard-liquid-fuel-rocket-centennial-where-nell.html #space #science #technology

During thunderstorms, electric discharges in the air cause trees to glow with an ultraviolet aura. You can't see it with your eyes, but researchers have finally managed to measure it & recreate it in the lab.

https://news.agu.org/press-release/thunderstorms-conjure-ghostly-coronae-in-treetops-observed-outdoors-for-the-first-time/ #science #nature

First a hydrogen leak. Now a separate *helium* leak is causing a delay in NASA's Artemis 2 mission around the Moon.

The giant rocket is rolling off the launch pad, with the flight delayed to April 1 at the earliest.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/02/21/nasas-artemis-2-rocket-hit-by-new-problem-expected-to-bump-moonshot-into-early-april/ #space #science #tech

If you want to see some rousing volcanic activity, just check out the current live feed from Kīlauea. You might want to sit down first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0tfYDxrUA #science #nature #volcano

Radio is beyond red

Gamma rays, beyond blue

There are 80 octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum

But only one we can view

#science #valentinesday

Ten years ago today, physicists reported the first direct detection of gravitational waves, produced by colliding black holes 1.3 billion light years away.

That was when we, as a species, developed space-time eyes. My Invisible Universe column:

https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/the-day-we-evolved-space-time-eyes #space #science #nature #technology

It's frustrating to see huge accounts spreading AI slop space images when real, amazing images are easily accessible.

Left: fake.
Right: real image from the Akatsuki probe, showing Venus's clouds backlit by infrared from its overheated lower atmosphere.

https://akatsuki.isas.jaxa.jp/en/gallery/data/ #space #science #art

News from the edge of the visible universe:

JWST has confirmed this galaxy, MoM-z14, as the most distant one yet studied. We're seeing it as it was 13.5 billion years ago, 98% of the way back to the beginning of time.

(MoM stands for "miracle or mirage," to give you a sense of where the researchers' heads are at.)

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-pushes-boundaries-of-observable-universe-closer-to-big-bang/ #space #science #nature

After three decades of searching, astronomers have found more than 6000 planets, but nothing quite like our own.

The new Terra Hunting Experiment in the Canary Islands is designed to find what we're really looking for: an Earth-size planet in an Earth-like orbit around a Sun-like star.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earth-analog-terra-hunting-experiment #space #science #nature #tech

40 years ago today, Voyager 2 became the first (and, so far, only) spacecraft to visit to Uranus, sending back astonishing images of the planet, its thin rings, and its peculiar set of moons.

https://www.nasa.gov/history/35-years-ago-voyager-2-explores-uranus/ #space #science #nature #history

Venezuela is one of the world's top methane emitters, releasing more methane relative to production than any other country. It's a major economic problem as well as an environmental one.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-01-09/venezuela-has-the-most-methane-intensive-oil-in-the-world #science #tech #energy

NASA's SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first multispectral map of the infrared sky.

It sees the sky in 102 infrared "colors," which lets it do things like this: One image highlights mature stars; the other focuses on carbon soot & gas clouds where new stars form.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia26600-spherexs-first-all-sky-map/ #science #nature #art

So cool. If you zoom in on the upper right, you see a little crescent. That's the Martian moon Phobos.

Zoom in again and you'll see a star next to Phobos. That's Earth! That's home.

Seen from Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover.

https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/curiosity-views-earth-setting-phobos-rising/ #science #space #astronomy

It's happening! ESA & JAXA are teaming up to visit Apophis, the 400-meter (1300-foot) asteroid that will skim close by Earth in April, 2029.

The RAMSES mission will study this potentially hazardous object & watch how Earth's gravity reshapes it as it passes.

https://cosmos.isas.jaxa.jp/look-up-esa-and-jaxa-to-launch-the-ramses-mission-to-observe-apophis/ #space #science #nature

The visible universe contains about a trillion galaxies, in a dizzying variety of styles.

The blue scatter at bottom is Leo P, a nearby dwarf galaxy that is just one-millionth the mass of our Milky Way. It's almost pure hydrogen & helium--much like the galaxies of long ago.

https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-401 #space #science #nature

Three ways of looking at the iconic Christmas Tree Cluster, 2700 light years from Earth.

What the universe looks like depends on how we look at it. These views highlight infrared (left), x-rays (middle), and red emission from hydrogen gas. Beautiful in three different ways. #space #science #art

People tend to take the Moon for granted, but it can be a source of constant wonder. I recently gave a lecture about the marvelous weirdness of our satellite.

The helped validate Einstein's general relativity. It left scars beneath your feet. It still flashes with constant meteor strikes. My latest Invisible Universe column:

https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/its-strange-its-glorious-its-overhead #space #Science #nature

Bring some lunar joy into your life in the new year. Here's a sweet NASA preview of every lunar phase & every move the Moon will make in 2026.

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5587/ #space #science #nature