Pulp Fiction

Friday, August 21, 2026

New Solar System Models Show Earth Is No Fluke

The Blue Marble Credit: Harrison Schmitt / Apollo 17

Astrobiologists use new starting points to produce ‘organic’ models of our solar system’s formation.

Thursday, August 20, 2026

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Images Falcon 9 Crater on Moon, With Some Help From a Korean Spacecraft

These images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the Falcon upper-stage's crash site on the Moon. The left image is before the crash, the right image is after, showing the impact crater. Image Credit: NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines

A SpaceX Falcon upper stage crashed into the Moon on August 5th. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images of the crash site from different viewing angles and with different sunlight angles. The images showed that the crater is about 18 meters wide and about 3 meters deep. SpaceX says the crash was an accident.

Mars's Funky Moon Deimos was Shaped by an Impact

This illustration shows Mars' moon Deimos and its distinctive south pole depression. Thought the moon's surface appears smoother than its sibling Phobos, it's still been battered by impacts. One major impact created the south pole crater, and also spread a layer of regolith on the moon's surface. Image Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System.

Mars' moon Deimos has a large crater on its southern pole. It's also covered by a layer of regolith so deep it buries many other, smaller craters. New research shows that an impact is responsible for both, and that the moon is rather fragile and porous, like a rubble pile asteroid.

What Can We Actually Find on an Exoplanet? Part 4: Looking For Us

Earth at night, its city lights tracing the footprint of human civilization. Industry leaves atmospheric technosignatures an alien astronomer might detect. Credit: NASA (public domain).

Some signs of an alien civilization are easier to spot than signs of life itself. On technosignatures, from CFCs and industrial gases to the pandemic dip in pollution, and why Earth's most detectable moment might be right now.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Webb Captures the Treasure Chest at the Heart of the Carina Nebula

Hubble image of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which lies just 7500 light-years away in the constellation Carina (the Keel). Credit: NASA/ESA/UC Berkeley/STScI/NOAO/AURA/NSF

This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month takes us to a fantastical realm within our home galaxy, where piercing starlight and billowing winds sculpt dust clouds into inventive shapes. This scene is from the Carina Nebula, which lies just 7500 light-years away in the constellation Carina (the Keel).

Pluto Planetary Science is the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Pluto as seen by New Horizons during its 2015 flyby. Sputnik Planitia is a heart-shaped region that appears to be resurfaced by upwelling liquid nitrogen from below. That action creates what look like convection cells outlined by darker lines that could be flow channels. Credit: NASA/JHU/APL/New Horizons mission

Something's wetting the surface of dwarf planet Pluto along the northern edge of Sputnik Planitia, and planetary scientists have found a good explanation for it. A recent study of new Horizons images taken during the 2015 flyby revealed evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising up through cracks in Sputnik Planitia. That's the giant heart-shaped glacial basin we see in all the Pluto images taken by the spacecraft.

The Fastest Star in the Milky Way Will Test Relativity

Astronomers have discovered another S star, the population of stars that orbits the Milky Way's SMBH. This one is the fastest of them all, and also comes closest to the SMBH. It will let astronomers test relativity, especially the Lense-Thirring effect.