@sundogplanets Is this what Starlink re-entries normally look like, or is this particularly unusual?

Only went and bloody won British Science Journalist of the Year last night at the #ABSWawards! Still absolutely thrilled. So chuffed!

Beyond thrilled to share my latest feature for Scientific American, my little magnum opus on the Habitable Worlds Observatory – NASA's bold new telescope to hunt for alien life.

Are we alone? The journey to find out has just begun.

Enjoy!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-the-search-for-life-beyond-earth-nasa-dreams-big-for-a-future-space-telescope/

My latest feature for New Scientist is on axions – "wonder particles" that could explain dark matter, dark energy, and more.

Bonus, it'll be the cover of the magazine next week, my fourth New Scientist cover of the year. So, give it a read!

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26034670-700-the-wonder-particle-how-axions-could-solve-more-than-just-dark-matter/

The Cow
The Koala
The Finch
The Tasmanian Devil

These are mysterious space explosions we can't explain. Now astronomers have seen one of them doing something bizarre - flashing more than a dozen times. What's going on?

Story by me in Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03569-3

New AI robot Mars chemist just dropped

Words by me in Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03522-4

Last year NASA detected a monster quake on Mars, as big as all other known marsquakes combined.

Now scientists have ruled out a meteorite impact as the cause, pointing to unknown tectonic activity beneath the Martian surface.

Story by me in Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/monster-quake-hints-at-mysterious-source-within-mars/

In April's Starship test flight, the rocket failed to explode properly.

Its flight termination system didn't have enough oomph.

While no harm was done, the incident raised big concerns. Has SpaceX solved the issue?

Termination Shock, by me, in Aerospace America.

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/termination-shock/

Two ice giant planets appear to have smashed into each other in a nearby solar system 1,800 years ago - forming a giant superheated donut seven times larger than our sun.

Just another day in space. Words by me in New Scientist.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2397089-two-giant-planets-collided-and-vaporised-in-a-distant-star-system/

NASA is set to launch Psyche tomorrow, a mission to a heavy-metal asteroid of the same name.

Is it the remnant core of a failed planet, with sheets of metal on its surface?

We're about to find out. Story by me in Supercluster.

https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/nasa-set-to-launch-mission-to-heavy-metal-asteroid

Here's Dish's share price dropping by nearly 13% after the FCC issued its $150,000 fine on Monday.

The FCC just issued its first ever space junk fine to a US firm - wiping $400 million off the company's valuation.

Here's why the fine is such a big deal and what it means for cleaning up Earth's orbit.

Story by me in MIT Tech Review

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/05/1080999/first-space-junk-fine/

@markmccaughrean 👋

@markmccaughrean Hello!

NASA has reversed course on scrapping key science being done by the New Horizons Pluto spacecraft.

It will now continue studying the Kuiper Belt and looking for another flyby target through 2028 after an outcry from astronomers.

Story by me in Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beyond-pluto-new-horizons-gets-a-reprieve-from-nasa/

JWST just took the best ever image of the Orion Nebula. And it revealed something baffling:

42 free-floating planets seemingly drifting in pairs. Where the hell did they come from?

Story by me for The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/science/orion-nebula-webb-planets.html

My second New Scientist cover! Absolutely adore this artwork. Give it a read, I dare you.

New feature from me in New Scientist today - and it's also the cover for the magazine this week!

Earlier this year astronomers said they'd found evidence for "dark stars", stars powered by dark matter, first proposed in 2008, using JWST.

But have they, and what are they exactly?

Enjoy! @newscientist

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25934570-800-how-dark-matter-powered-stars-could-solve-a-huge-cosmological-puzzle/

@astro_jcm Thanks!

Hey peeps, is there an easy way for me to find space people/astronomers/astrophysicists to follow on here?