Morning skies host new green comet
Driving the news: Comet SWAN25F is currently visible through binoculars low on the east-northeastern horizon just before sunrise.
The comet was discovered last month by amateur astronomers using publicly available images from the SWAN (Solar Wind Anisotropies) camera system aboard NASA's SOHO spacecraft, which monitors solar activity.
Zoom in: To find it, look near Alpheratz, the brightest star in the Great Square of Pegasus.
The comet is heading toward Andromeda and will pass near Alpheratz around April 13, according to EarthSky.
Context: It glows green thanks to sunlight reacting with carbon molecules in its coma, a common feature of comets making their way toward the sun, per Sky & Telescope.
By then, it could shift to sunset viewing, per EarthSky, making for a spectacular sight if skies cooperate.
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USA Today
40 minutes ago
- USA Today
What are sounding rockets? NASA launch from New Mexico studies sun's mysterious chromosphere
States like Florida, Texas and California are no strangers to rocket launches, but spaceflights in New Mexico may often be overlooked. Here's what's happening in the desert. States like Florida, Texas and California are no strangers to routine rocket launches − but New Mexico? Spacecraft also sometimes get off the ground from the state. Space news coverage may be headlined by crewed missions to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral or SpaceX's latest test of its enormous Starship spacecraft from the Lonestar State. But in the oft-overlooked state of New Mexico, smaller rockets often get off the ground from a NASA test site in the remote desert. The latest of the spacecraft, known as sounding rockets, most recently made a successful quick trip to space to study one of the most complex regions of the sun's atmosphere following a New Mexico launch. Here's everything to know about sounding rockets and the latest NASA mission from New Mexico near the Texas border. NASA launches sun-studying mission from White Sands, New Mexico The latest sounding rocket mission in New Mexico got off the ground around 3 p.m. local time Friday, July 18, at NASA's White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, located near the border of Texas about 60 miles north of El Paso. Residents in the local area around White Sands may have been able to spot the sounding rocket and its contrail when it launched, a NASA spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY. The mission was expected to last no more than about 15 minutes, NASA said in a press release. After launching, the sounding rocket took about 90 seconds to reach space and point toward the sun, another eight minutes to conduct the experiment on the chromosphere, and no more than five minutes to return to Earth's surface. Upon landing, the rocket was expected to drift between 70 to 80 miles from the launchpad so mission operators on the ground could ensure it would land safely in the large, empty desert, according to NASA. What are sounding rockets? NASA's sounding rocket program has for more than 40 years carried out missions to launch scientific instruments into space. Sounding rockets are much smaller than an average spacecraft that may launch on an orbital flight from major spaceports like the Kennedy Space Center in Florida or the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California. NASA's fleet of sounding rockets range anywhere in height from about 16 feet tall to about 70 feet tall. The Black Brant IX, the sounding rocket selected for the most recent launch from New Mexico, stands nearly 60 feet tall. For comparison, SpaceX's famous two-stage Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world's most active for both human and cargo missions alike – stands at 230 feet tall when fully stacked. And the commercial spaceflight company's Starship megarocket, which is still in development, stands at an imposing 400-feet tall when both the crew capsule and Super Heavy rocket booster are integrated. Because of their diminutive stature, NASA says soundings rockets are ideal for quick trips at lower speeds to regions of space that are too low for satellites and other spacecraft to conduct observations. And because sounding rockets don't require expensive boosters, missions costs also tend to be substantially less than other orbiter missions, according to the space agency. Where does NASA launch sounding rockets? Missions occur in Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico Of the approximately 20 sounding rocket missions scheduled in the U.S. in 2025, most get off the ground from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Occasionally, though, a sounding rocket will launch from a missile range at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Prior to July 18, the most recent mission at White Sands came Nov. 23, 2024, when NASA launched a Black Brant IX sounding rocket to test a spacecraft's performance in Earth's low-density magnetosphere. The next sounding rocket mission is scheduled for Aug. 12 from Wallops Island in Virginia, according to NASA. Spacecraft studied solar chromosphere For the latest mission from White Sands, a Black Brant IX sounding rocket carried new technology to study the sun's mysterious chromosphere, located between the sun's visible surface, known as the photosphere, and its outer layer, the corona. The corona, which became widely visible from Earth in April 2024 during a total solar eclipse, is a region where powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections can erupt to cause space weather that can disrupt Earthly technologies. NASA's SNIFS mission aimed to learn more about these events by observing how energy is converted and moves through the chromosphere to power such explosions. The mission was the first to carry technology combining a standard imager to capture photos and videos with a spectrograph, which dissects light into its various wavelengths, according to NASA. This reveals which elements are present in the imaged light source. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
When will the next total solar eclipse be visible in the UK?
The sky goes dark, birds fall silent, and a chill comes to the air - there's no question total solar eclipses are the most spectacular event in the celestial calendar. On 2 August, 2027, parts of southern Europe will see a total solar eclipse. It won;t be quite as spectacular in the UK. Londoners will experience a 42% eclipse - with the sun appearing as a crescent. People in the Scilly Isles will see a partial eclipse of 48%, while those in the Shetlands will see a 13% eclipse. In a partial eclipse, the sky will not go dark, but shadows might look different, and the sun is visibly 'blocked' by the moon - while a total eclipse offers a few minutes of darkness which often provokes audible gasps. The total eclipse will see areas such as the Straits of Gibraltar, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with up to six minutes, 23 seconds of 'totality'. Luxor in Egypt and Mecca in Saudi Arabia are among the areas on the path of totality, according to Sky at Night magazine. Despite online reports this week, which possibly mixed up the events in 2027, there is most definitely no eclipse in August 2025 - the only eclipse this year came earlier, when the UK saw a partial eclipse with up to 30% eclipse on 29 March 2025. When will the next total solar eclipse be in the UK? Next year will see a partial eclipse on 12 August, 2026, with the eclipse peaking at 96% in the Scilly Isles. Most areas in the UK will see an 89% eclipsed sun. But if you're waiting for a proper total solar eclipse in the UK, you're in for rather a long wait (and it will also help to be young at this point) as the next one will not be until 23 September, 2090, when it will be visible from southern England and southern Ireland. What happens during a total solar eclipse? Total solar eclipses happen when the moon completely covers the sun, and is only visible from a certain area (known as 'the path of totality'). Areas nearby witness a partial eclipse instead. The reason it happens is that the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, and also 400 times closer to us than the Sun (by complete coincidence), so that they appear 'the same size' at the time of an eclipse. In the darkest part of the shadow, the Sun's light is almost completely blocked out. NASA says, 'People viewing the eclipse from locations where the Moon's shadow completely covers the Sun – known as the path of totality – will experience a total solar eclipse. The sky will become dark, as if it were dawn or dusk. 'Weather permitting, people along the path of totality will see the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, which is usually obscured by the bright face of the Sun.' Some observers report feeling a chill, and birds stopping singing because they think it's night time. The last total solar eclipse in the UK was in 1999, although it was only visible from Cornwall and the Scilly isles, according to the Royal Observatory. Patchy weather meant that only some eclipse-watchers got a good sight of the eclipse (and some were soaked with rain instead). The Guardian describes how 'gasps of amazement' rang out in Penzance as totality descended for two minutes and six seconds.
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
Map Reveals 'Accelerating' Water Loss Affecting 40 Million Americans
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Colorado River Basin has seen an extensive loss of groundwater loss over two decades, with more than half of the loss being in Arizona, according to a new map drawn from NASA satellite data. Analysis by Arizona State University (ASU) researchers has revealed "rapid and accelerating" groundwater loss in the basin's underground aquifers between 2002 and 2024. Some 40 million Americans rely on water from these aquifers, including in parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The team has warned that "climate change is causing more frequent and intense droughts around the world, including in the Colorado River Basin—which supplies water to seven U.S. states and Mexico—and is facing severe water shortages." The basin lost 27.8 million acre-feet of groundwater over the past two decades, which is roughly equal to the storage capacity of Lake Mead, according to paper author and ASU geoscientist Karem Abdelmohsen. Around 68 percent of the losses occurred in the lower part of the basin, which lies mostly in Arizona. Drag slider compare photos "Lots of attention has gone to low water levels in reservoirs over the years, but the depletion of groundwater far outpaces the surface water losses. This is a big warning flag," said Abdelmohsen in a statement. During the first decade of the study period between 2002 and 2014, parts of the basin in western Arizona (in the La Paz and Mohave counties) and in the southeast of the state (Cochise County) lost groundwater at a rate of around 0.2 inches per year. However, this rate more than doubled, to 0.5 inches per year, in the following decade. Scientists say the acceleration of the groundwater loss is likely down to two factors, including the arrival of a "triple-dip" La Niña between 2020 and 2023. (La Niña is an oceanic phenomenon that sees cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. La Niña typically leads to reduced rainfall over the Southwest and slows the replenishment of aquifers, NASA explained. A "triple dip" is when we get three consecutive years of La Niña conditions.) A second factor at play may be an increase in the amount of groundwater used for agriculture. Arizona saw a rise in agricultural activity in 2014, when large alfalfa farms arrived in La Paz and other southern parts of the state. Dairies and orchards as well as other popular "thirsty" crops grown in the state, such as cotton, corn, and pecans, likely impacted groundwater supplies, Famiglietti said. According to data from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, 72 percent of the state's available water supply is used for irrigated agriculture. Many farms use "vast" amounts of groundwater, Famiglietti said, partly because they use flood irrigation, where water is released into trenches that run through crop fields. The long-standing practice, commonly used for alfalfa and cotton, tends to be the cheapest option but can lead to more water loss and evaporation than other irrigation techniques, such as overhead sprinklers or dripping water from plastic tubing. The latest study also found evidence that managing groundwater can help keep Arizona aquifers healthier. For example, the active management areas and irrigation non-expansion areas formed as part of the Arizona Groundwater Management Act of 1980 cut down water losses in some areas. The designation of a new active management area in the Willcox Groundwater Basin is also likely to further slow groundwater losses. "Still, the bottom line is that the losses to groundwater were huge," Abdelmohsen said. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about water shortages? Let us know via science@ Reference Abdelmohsen, K., Famiglietti, J.S., Ao, Y. Z., Mohajer, B., Chandanpurkar, H.A., (2025). Declining Freshwater Availability in the Colorado River Basin Threatens Sustainability of Its Critical Groundwater Supplies. Geophysical Research Letters.
