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Astronomy

Saturday’s partial solar eclipse: where can I see it and what time will it happen? | Astronomy

What is a partial solar eclipse?A partial solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, partially blocking out the sun’s light. By contrast, in a total solar eclipse the moon completely blocks the sun’s light.“These eclipses, whether they be partial or total, it is effectively watching the clockwork of the solar system in action,” said the Royal Observatory astronomer Jake Foster.Where will I be able to see it?The partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of the UK between 10am and noon on Saturday – with viewing chances best in the east where skies should be clearest – and in several other parts of the world, including western Europe, Greenland, north-west Africa and north-east North America.“It won’t be total anywhere but there are parts of Canada where it...

U.S. Space Force awards $13.7 billion in new national security launch contracts to Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX

U.S. Space Force awards $13.7 billion in new national security launch contracts to Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA – Spaceflight Now

Blue Origin’s New Glenn, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and ULA’s Vulcan rockets launch from their respective pads. Image: Blue Origin, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance A long-awaited launch contract for national security missions was announced by the U.S. Space Force after close of business Friday evening. The mission spreads nearly $14 billion worth of missions between Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA). The contract is known as Lane 2 of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3. These are firm fixed-price, indefinite-delivery contracts that will be issued in batches of missions to the launch providers over a five-year period beginning in FY25. “Today’s award culminates nearly three years of government and industry partnership to increase launch resiliency and capacity,” expl...

How optical clocks are redefining time and physics

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Science

How optical clocks are redefining time and physics

Atomic clocks record time using microwaves at a frequency matched to electron transitions in certain atoms. They are the basis upon which a second is defined. But there is a new kid on the block, the optical clock, which boasts even higher accuracy. Is it time to redefine the second? Optical clocks can reach accuracies at the level of 10-18 , “which is a number so accurate that if the clock started running at the big bang, by now it will have lost 1 second”, says Alexandra Tofful, an optical clock physicist at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, which oversees scientific measurement standards in the UK. Unlike atomic clocks, this new type of timekeeper probes electron transitions with light. “Because visible l...

Amazon targets April 9 for launch of 1st production satellites for its Project Kuiper internet mega-constellation – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX

Amazon targets April 9 for launch of 1st production satellites for its Project Kuiper internet mega-constellation – Spaceflight Now

United Launch Alliance (ULA) payload fairings encapsulate 27 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites ahead of their launch no earlier than April 9, 2025. Image: Amazon Amazon is less than a week away from the first launch to assemble its satellite internet constellation, called Project Kuiper. It plans to send 27 of its satellites into low Earth orbit on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket. Launch is scheduled for Wednesday, April 9, during a three-hour window that opens at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 UTC). “We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and every launch is an opportunity to add more capacity and coverage to our network,” said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of Project Kuiper, in a news release. “We’ve done extensive testing on the ground to pre...

In Madagascar, Learning From a Library of Human Experience – State of the Planet

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Science

In Madagascar, Learning From a Library of Human Experience – State of the Planet

Archaeologist Kristina Douglass studies how past human adaptation can inform solutions to today’s climate challenges. She and her team work in southwest Madagascar’s Velondriake Marine Protected Area, investigating how communities have adapted to environmental variability over thousands of years. They study archaeological sites, analyze remote sensing data and conduct oral histories to reveal the ways in which Indigenous communities have managed their landscapes and resources sustainably. “It’s like being in a library of human experience and looking for the perfect book to deal with a question that has just come up today,” says Douglass, who is a Columbia Climate School professor and a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “I really like to think of our wo...