Astronomy news

• On this day in space! Oct. 17, 2016: Private Antares rocket returns to flight after catastrophic launch explosion

  17-10-2026 16:49 via space.com
  
  On Oct. 17, 2016, Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Space Systems) returned to flight, successfully launching a cargo shipment to the International Space Station (ISS) after its previous cargo mission failed to launch. The private spaceflight company was contracted by NASA to fly cargo to the ISS, and stakes were high for this launch. Orbital ATK's last attempt nearly two years earlier ended in a catastrophic explosion a few seconds after liftoff. Despite some delays, the newly upgraded Antares
  
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• This Week In Space podcast: Episode 232 — The Lunar Dump

  17-10-2026 16:17 via space.com
  
  On Episode 232 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik are joined by Chelsea Gohd, former writer for NASA/JPL and now with Space.com, to talk about the recent large data dump from the Artemis II mission.What was included? Why is this new data important? What observations were made, and what discoveries might result from them? What kind of annotations and notes did the astronauts include that make these observations uniquely valuable? And finally, we talk about Artemis III - what is the m
  
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• 6 scientifically accurate star projectors to turn any room into a home planetarium

  17-10-2026 16:00 via space.com
  
  Want to educate young children about the wonders of the cosmos? Depending on the time of year, your location and the weather, your hopes to see the night sky in real life might not be as easy as heading into the backyard and peering up. That's why one of the best star projectors might be the solution.That's why we've picked out six star projectors that actually deliver scientifically accurate images, from projections of the northern hemisphere to breathtaking pictures from the Hubble Space Teles
  
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• 'Lanterns' shocking finale left us with a lot of unanswered questions for a potential season 2

  17-10-2026 14:00 via space.com
  
  HBO and HBO Max's "Lanterns" served up its big cliffhanger finale on Oct. 4, 2026, and we’ve been slowly digesting thoughts on what the creative direction and ultimate legacy of this debut season were. While by no means a perfect experiment in trying to shake up the aging superhero genre, there are enough worthy elements to consider this sci-fi mystery show an evolutionary step towards the next generation of comic-based storytelling. After the emerald-tinted dust has settled, there are man
  
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• The Orionid meteor shower peaks next week! Here's what to expect

  17-10-2026 12:00 via space.com
  
  The Orionid meteor shower peaks overnight on Oct. 21-22, triggering a spectacular display of shooting stars as Earth plunges through the densest part of the debris trail shed by Halley's Comet. Here's what you need to know.When is the best time to see Orionid shooting stars?Orionid meteors are best spotted between the hours of midnight and dawn on Oct. 22, when 10-20 shooting stars may be seen brightening the night sky each hour under ideal dark-sky.The glare cast by the 74%-lit waxing gibbous m
  
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• 'It really does change you': SpaceX Crew-12 commander wishes we could all see our fragile Earth from space

  17-10-2026 00:00 via space.com
  
  The astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station wish that we could all see Earth as they just did.An orbital view reveals the immense beauty of our blue planet, the only world we know of that hosts life. But it also highlights how fragile that life is, tethered to our lonely Earth in the vast void of space, according to Crew-12 commander Jessica Meir of NASA."You see this very thin, tenuous band of an atmosphere, and you know that that is all that is supporting life
  
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