Category: 7. Science

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• A spacecraft called the Nyx capsule recently crashed in the Pacific Ocean after the landing parachutes failed to deploy.

• The capsule carried cargo including cannabis and human remains, all of which were lost in the crash.

• After apologizing to the families who lost their loved one’s remains, the company responsible for the spacecraft said this “partial success” should serve as an important learning opportunity for future reusable space flight missions.

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As part of a rideshare mission with SpaceX, the Nyx capsule launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base on June 23rd. The next day, after successfully re-entering the atmosphere on June 24th, the capsule crashed into the Pacific Ocean and lost some unexpected cargo: cannabis and human remains.

The Nyx capsule and its launch was part of the program “Mission Possible” led by a German start-up called The Exploration Company (TEC). The launch marks TEC’s second spacecraft to reach orbit in under four years.

Now, the cannabis plant matter and seeds weren’t for recreational use—they’re part of an open-source citizen science project called Martian Grow. The project seeks to understand the effect of microgravity on germination and resilience, potentially shedding light on how life could survive in non-terrestrial environments.

The human remains, however, were on the capsule for a much more… wholesome reason: to memorialize loved ones. Celestis—a Texas-based tribute company—provided ashes from over 160 deceased individuals to make the trip into space (sadly, this is not the first time Celestis lost a payload, the first being in 2023 when a rocket carrying a late NASA astronaut’s ashes exploded over New Mexico).

“We apologize to all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads,” TEC wrote in a statement. “We thank our teams for their hard work and their dedication to success. We have been pushing boundaries in record time and cost. This partial success reflects both ambition and the inherent risks of innovation. Leveraging the technical milestones achieved yesterday and the lessons we will extract from our ongoing investigation, we will then prepare to re-fly as soon as possible.”

The founder and CEO of TEC, Hélène Huby, also apologized for the lost cargo, suggesting the mission is something the space tech world can grow from.

“We all hoped for full success; partial success is often part of the road for those who take risks and push boundaries to change the world positively.” she said in a press release. “I take full responsibility and present my apologies to our customers for not achieving full success.”

TEC explained in the press release that the spacecraft crashed because the landing parachutes failed to deploy. In the same release, the company stated the parachute system wasn’t drop-tested—a risk that “lower costs, shorten development time, and yield a deeper understanding of the vehicle with each flight,” according to TEC. The parachute model had previously been used on SpaceX’s Dragon.

According to TEC, the recent setback won’t stop their mission—in fact, it’s only helped progress it.

“We are continuing our journey, eager to implement these learnings in our next vehicle,” Huby said in the press release. “We will learn from Mission Possible and improve, together as a team. I express my profound gratitude to The Exploration Company’s team members who are demonstrating outstanding solidarity, resilience, and commitment to the success of our mission.”

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From bright planets to a mythological bird soaring among the stars, July 2025 has an exciting show lined up in the night sky. 

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has shared its skywatching highlights – revealing what to watch for this month from sunset to sunrise.

Planets in motion

Venus reigns in the morning sky all month, shining brightly in the east during the hours before sunrise. Look for it near the Pleiades star cluster and two brilliant stars – Aldebaran and Capella.

Mars is visible in the western sky shortly after sunset, glowing about 20 degrees above the horizon before it sets a couple of hours later. On July 28, it forms a striking pair with the crescent Moon.

Jupiter begins to climb into the morning sky after mid-month. Initially low on the eastern horizon, it rises higher each day, heading toward a dramatic August conjunction with Venus.

Mercury is visible only briefly – watch for it in the west during the first week of July, beginning about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. It stays close to the horizon and sets quickly, so timing and a clear view are key.

Saturn makes its entrance around midnight and climbs high in the southern sky by dawn, offering a glimpse of the planet for early risers.

The first successful Mars mission

July 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of NASA’s Mariner 4 mission, which performed the first successful Mars flyby in 1965.

The spacecraft sent back the first close-up images of the Martian surface and revealed that the planet’s atmosphere was thin, cold, and not as Earth-like as once imagined. 

Before Mariner 4, many scientists and the public still held out hope that Mars might resemble a second Earth – perhaps even supporting vegetation or signs of life. 

However, the grainy black-and-white images, showing a cratered, barren landscape, were a sobering reality check that reshaped our understanding of the Red Planet.

Despite dashing earlier hopes, Mariner 4 paved the way for decades of Mars exploration. It was the first time humans had seen another planet up close. The mission proved that long-distance robotic exploration was not only possible, but essential. 

Spotting Aquila in the July sky

July is also the ideal time to view Aquila, the Eagle constellation, in the eastern sky during the first half of the night. Its brightest star, Altair, is easy to spot and forms part of the Summer Triangle, along with Vega and Deneb.

Aquila represents the eagle of Zeus in Greek mythology – a powerful messenger and symbol of divine strength.

Altair marks the eagle’s heart, with its wings stretching wide across the night sky. To find it, look for the triangle-shaped pattern and note that Altair sits at the southern point.

While Aquila’s other stars aren’t as bright, they’re easier to trace under dark skies. The second half of July is especially good for observing this constellation, as the Moon rises later and leaves the early night sky darker.

For those in the Northern Hemisphere, Aquila is a summer favorite. Once you’ve located Altair, try to follow the eagle’s full wingspan across the sky. It appears to fly northward with its wings outstretched.

Key dates for July skywatching 

• July 1–7: Mercury is bright and easy to spot in the west after sunset – if you catch it in time. It vanishes within an hour of sundown.
• July 21–22: Look east before sunrise to see Venus and Jupiter joined by a crescent Moon, along with several bright stars.
• July 28: In the evening sky, the Moon passes close to Mars, offering a beautiful pairing.

Whether you’re watching Mars fade into the west or spotting Venus and Jupiter at dawn, July will be a rewarding month to keep an eye on the sky. 

NASA’s monthly “What’s Up” guide helps us stay connected to the ever-changing night sky. To explore more about NASA’s space missions and skywatching tools, visit science.nasa.gov.

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The moon will ride close to the bright star Spica above the southwestern horizon tonight (July 3) — and some well-placed viewers will see the lunar disk pass directly in front of the bright stellar body, occulting its light.

Stargazers in the U.S. will find the waxing gibbous moon above the southwestern horizon as the sun sets on July 3, with Spica — the brightest star in the constellation Virgo — visible less than 2 degrees to the upper right of the lunar disk.

Astronomers are rolling out a welcome mat for a newly identified visitor from beyond our solar system.

The object — thought to be a comet — is only the third-ever confirmed interstellar visitor to pass through our cosmic neighborhood.

Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the comet poses no danger to Earth and will remain roughly 150 million miles away as it speeds by, according to NASA.

The interstellar comet was first spotted on Tuesday by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Rio Hurtado, Chile. The NASA-funded survey telescope — which is actually made up of two telescopes in Hawaii, one in Chile and a fourth in South Africa — is designed to scan the entire sky several times each night, searching for asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

Researchers combed through archival data from three different ATLAS telescopes and the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California, and found corresponding observations that helped confirm the discovery. Other telescopes around the world also joined the effort, according to NASA.

“ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world,” the European Space Agency said Wednesday in a post on X.

The comet is currently about 420 million miles away, moving quickly from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, NASA said in a blog post about the discovery. Sagittarius is a prominent constellation in the Southern Hemisphere that points toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The agency said 3I/ATLAS will swing closest to the sun around Oct. 30, passing at a distance of approximately 130 million miles, or just inside the orbit of Mars.

NASA said the comet should be visible to ground-based observatories through September, allowing time for scientists to glean additional details about the cosmic interloper, including its size. After September, 3I/ATLAS will be too close to the sun to observe with telescopes, but the object is expected to be visible again in early December, when it emerges on the other side of the sun.

The months ahead offer a rare opportunity to study a celestial tourist from beyond our solar system. The first confirmed interstellar object seen passing through the solar system was discovered in 2017 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope. The rocky object, named Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first”), has a reddish hue and is elongated like a cigar, according to NASA.

The only other known interstellar object to pay a visit is 21/Borisov, a comet that was discovered in 2019 by an amateur astronomer named Gennady Borisov.

When it comes to star formation, not all galaxies are the same. Some are quenched, meaning they’ve depleted their star forming gas and form very few new stars. Some, like the Milky Way, are typical and form stars at an average rate. But some are extremely active, and form stars so readily they’re called starburst galaxies.

Starburst galaxies experience episodes of pronounced star formation, where stellar superclusters containing 100,000 stars or more are born in the hundreds. These galaxies can form hundreds or even thousands of solar masses in stars each year. As a result, they’re extremely luminous, and can be brighter than the Sun by trillions of times in the infrared.

The Cigar Galaxy (M82) is one of these starburst galaxies, and while its extreme luminosity is not apparent in optical light due to dust, the JWST can easily observe the galaxy’s abundant star formation in infrared.

The JWST captured this image of M82 in shorter wavelengths with its NIRCam instrument. Some of the bright point sources are super star clusters that can contain 100,000 stars, and the Hubble identified about 200 of them in the galaxy. Astronomers use data in images like this to determine the galaxy’s star formation rate. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Bolatto (UMD)

Superclusters in M82 are responsible for much of the galaxy’s heightened luminosity. With around 100,000 stars, some of them have more stars than some globular clusters do.

This image from a 2024 paper shows some of the superclusters in M82. Image Credit: Levy et al. 2024. ApJ. DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/ad7af3

Galaxies need abundant gas to become starburst galaxies, and M82 likely got an injection of gas by interacting gravitationally with its neighbor M81. The pair are orbiting one another about once every 100 million years. Those interactions have deformed M82 into its elongated cigar shape, and also sent gas from M82’s outer regions into its core, fueling its abundant star formation.

M81 (left) and M82 (right) interact gravitationally and orbit one another once every 100 million years or so. The interactions have stretched the smaller M82 into a cigar shape, giving it the nickname the Cigar Galaxy. The interactions are also triggering starburst episodes, evidenced by the filaments of red hydrogen gas. Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/

Astronomers are interested in M82 and its neighbor because they’re like a laboratory for watching galaxy interactions. A 2024 paper used polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions to reveal an intricate web of filaments and bubbles of gas created by supernovae. They also revealed M82’s galactic outflow. These outflows are another prominent feature of starburst galaxies.

The leading JWST image also traces PAHs and they show the galactic outflows. They’re visible as elongated bright streaks emanating from the galactic center. PAHs are important in astronomy because they have strong emission features in the mid-infrared. They’re strongly correlated with cold molecular gas and help trace the movement of the gas.

The leading JWST image clearly shows the galactic outflow winds from the galaxy’s center. They’re driven by the abundant formation of massive stars, and by supernova explosions. Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Bolatto. License: CC BY 4.0 INT

The outflows are created by the galaxy’s abundant star formation. The starburst activity produces thousands of stars much hotter and more massive than our Sun. These stars generate powerful stellar winds that drive gas away. Many of these stars will explode as supernovae, which also drives gas away. For these reasons, starburst galaxies don’t experience extreme star formation for much longer than about 100 million years before their gas supply is dissipated.

However, M82 might be different. Due to repeated gravitational interactions with M81 in the future, M82 may go through cycles of abundant star formation and quenching. Astronomers think this has happened in the past. About 600 million years ago, it underwent a starburst phase, and the current phase was likely triggered between about 30 and 60 million years ago.

M82 is only about 12 million light-years away, close for a galaxy. As a result, astronomers have focused a lot of attention on the starburst galaxy. It has been imaged repeatedly by the Hubble and other telescopes.

Hubble captured this brilliant image of M82 that highlights the filaments of wind-borne gas in red. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI) and P. Puxley (National Science Foundation)

M82 will undergo many more starburst cycles in its future. But eventually, M82 and M81 will merge into one galaxy. That merger, in the far distant future, will likely trigger one massive, chaotic starburst event. Eventually that, too, will die down, and the resulting massive galaxy will settle into a quiet state.