Lifeboat Foundation

This Tuesday, the crew of the second ever all-private mission to the International Space Station will be returning to Earth. Here’s how to watch the departure.

The sunspots in the images are dark and cooler regions on the sun’s surface, known as the photosphere, where strong magnetic fields are found, according to the National Solar Observatory.

And while sunspots can be a variety of sizes, the NSO says many are the size of Earth or larger. Groups of sunspots can be the source of explosive events, like solar flares and coronal mass ejections that generate solar storms significantly impacting Earth, including disruptions to critical infrastructure or leading to vibrant northern lights displays.

India’s space agency, ISRO, successfully launched a satellite crucial to the country’s satellite navigation system using the GSLV rocket.

Congratulations, @isro, on the successful launch of GSLV-F12/NVS-01 Mission 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/cr2195goNk

Although the sun is becoming increasingly active as the July 2025 solar maximum — the peak of the sun’s 11-year cycle — draws closer, the photos showcase the quieter aspects of the solar surface.

When Thomas Hertog was first summoned to Stephen Hawking’s office in the late 1990s, there was an instant connection between the young Belgian researcher and the legendary British theoretical physicist.

“Something clicked between us,” Hertog said.

That connection would continue even as Hawking’s debilitating disease ALS robbed him of his last ways to communicate, allowing the pair to complete a new theory that aims to turn how science looks at the universe on its head.

A planetary physicist at The University of Texas at Arlington is the lead author of a study that catalogs all known planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems—those having three or more stars with planets.

Manfred Cuntz, professor of physics, led the project, titled “An Early Catalog of Planet-hosting Multiple-star Systems of Order Three and Higher.” This study provides a thorough bibliographic assessment of planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems.

It was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements Series. Co-authors include UTA alumni G.E. Luke, Matthew Millard and Lindsey Boyle, as well as Shaan D. Patel, a doctoral-bound graduate student.

Platooning technology is allowing lower-cost entry to the autonomous space, where its reach includes the existing truck market rather than solely on “customers who can afford to buy new trucks,” according to Kratos.

“Couple that with the increasing driver shortage and the potential multiplies,” Steve Fendley, president of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, said in a statement.

Continue reading “Kratos to deploy more autonomous platooning trucks in Midwest” »

Supersonic airplanes are old news. But supersonic airplanes that can fly nine times the speed of sound? That’s something else.

Texas-based company Venus Aerospace is designing a passenger plane called Stargazer that’s capable of flying at Mach 9, or approximately 6,900 miles per hour — which means you’d be able to fly from New York to Sydney in less than 90 minutes. By comparison, the Concorde, which was the only supersonic passenger plane ever to fly commercially, flew at about Mach 2, or more than 1,500 miles per hour.

AI has now spread into every field of astronomy and is helping astronomers learn more about the universe at an astonishing rate.