Space

This photo provided by Dan Bartlett shows comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on Dec. 19, 2022. It last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA. It is expected to come within 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) of Earth on Feb. 1, 2023, before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years. (Dan Bartlett via AP)

Green comet zooming our way, last visited 50,000 years ago

Dirty snowball last visited during Neanderthal times

This photo provided by Dan Bartlett shows comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on Dec. 19, 2022. It last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA. It is expected to come within 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) of Earth on Feb. 1, 2023, before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years. (Dan Bartlett via AP)
Victoria star photographer Lucky Budd captured the C/2020 E3 (ZTF) comet on camera during a brief break in cloudy skies on Jan. 21. (Photo by Lucky Budd)

Look up: Rare comet visible to the naked eye – if the clouds part

Astronomers expect C/2020 E3 (ZTF) to be brightest at month’s end

Victoria star photographer Lucky Budd captured the C/2020 E3 (ZTF) comet on camera during a brief break in cloudy skies on Jan. 21. (Photo by Lucky Budd)
Former astronaut and MP Marc Garneau, right, looks on as Astronaut David Saint-Jacques speaks during a government of Canada announcement supporting commercial space launches, at the Canadian Space Agency in Longueuil, Que., Friday, January 20, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Canada hopes to position itself as future leader in commercial space launches

Feds announce regulatory requirements, safety standards and licensing conditions are coming

Former astronaut and MP Marc Garneau, right, looks on as Astronaut David Saint-Jacques speaks during a government of Canada announcement supporting commercial space launches, at the Canadian Space Agency in Longueuil, Que., Friday, January 20, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
FILE - A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Boeing Starliner crew capsule lifts off on a second test flight to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, May 19, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Raoux

‘Opportunities to invest’: Experts say space business needs boost in Canada

Decreasing cost of space technology, launch opens opportunity for citizen investment

FILE - A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Boeing Starliner crew capsule lifts off on a second test flight to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, May 19, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Raoux
FILE - The moon is shown during a full lunar eclipse, Sunday, May 15, 2022, near Moscow, Idaho, with the reddish color caused by it passing into the shadow of the Earth. A Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout North America in the predawn hours _ the farther west, the better _ and across Asia, Australia and the rest of the Pacific after sunset. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Last total lunar eclipse for 3 years arrives Tuesday

It’ll be most visible in North America in the hours before dawn

FILE - The moon is shown during a full lunar eclipse, Sunday, May 15, 2022, near Moscow, Idaho, with the reddish color caused by it passing into the shadow of the Earth. A Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout North America in the predawn hours _ the farther west, the better _ and across Asia, Australia and the rest of the Pacific after sunset. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
A fireball caught on camera Oct. 12 in Marysville, Wash. (Benjamin Souther video)

Fireball seen over B.C., Washington, Oregon sparks social media storm

Did you see the meteor? Email your videos to vnc.editorial@blackpress.ca

A fireball caught on camera Oct. 12 in Marysville, Wash. (Benjamin Souther video)
This photo provided by NASA shows a rock collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars. NASA is launching two more mini helicopters to Mars in its effort to recover Martian rocks and soil samples and bring them to Earth. (NASA via AP)

‘No smoking gun’: Calgary scientists studying Mars soil for signs it supported life

Researchers exploring rock record to understand if there was a time Mars was habitable

This photo provided by NASA shows a rock collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars. NASA is launching two more mini helicopters to Mars in its effort to recover Martian rocks and soil samples and bring them to Earth. (NASA via AP)
The first Artemis mission will travel 64,000 kilometres past the moon in preparation for future record-breaking human-crewed space missions. (Photo: NASA).

UBC researcher’s algae and yeast boarding NASA spacecraft to test deep space conditions

Corey Nislow wants to explore how organisms can survive radiation, other factors

  • Aug 29, 2022
The first Artemis mission will travel 64,000 kilometres past the moon in preparation for future record-breaking human-crewed space missions. (Photo: NASA).
The Artemis 1 rocket stands ready for launch on Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The last time humans went to the moon, it was a destination. But when NASA’s Artemis 1 mission launches Monday, the moon will be more of a way station. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Raoux

Artemis space mission to moon ‘a stepping-stone’ to Mars and beyond

First of 3 Artemis missions set to launch Monday (Aug. 29)

The Artemis 1 rocket stands ready for launch on Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The last time humans went to the moon, it was a destination. But when NASA’s Artemis 1 mission launches Monday, the moon will be more of a way station. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Raoux
Two Northwest Territories youth joined NASA researchers aboard a Gulfstream III jet earlier this month as they soared above Great Slave Lake and parts of of Nunavut and Alberta. Jacki Moore-Tsetta stands with NASA’s Greg Nelson (left) and Shawn Kern (right) in front of the NASA aircraft in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Jacki Moore-Tsetta

‘From leaf to space’: N.W.T. youth join NASA flight surveying climate change effects

Jet flight part of project ABoVE, examining the Arctic and boreal forests

Two Northwest Territories youth joined NASA researchers aboard a Gulfstream III jet earlier this month as they soared above Great Slave Lake and parts of of Nunavut and Alberta. Jacki Moore-Tsetta stands with NASA’s Greg Nelson (left) and Shawn Kern (right) in front of the NASA aircraft in this handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Jacki Moore-Tsetta
(Black Press Media Creative)

NASA Ready for Practice Mission to Redirect Potentially Deadly Asteroids

This mission is to redirect potentially deadly asteroids. The space agency’s experimental…

(Black Press Media Creative)
NASA employees and scientists await information from the New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto, Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in Laurel, Md (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Pluto’s Demotion Day a chance to salute the disinherited dwarf planet

Aug. 24, science nerds celebrate the last day of the planet that was

NASA employees and scientists await information from the New Horizons spacecraft as it passes Pluto, Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in Laurel, Md (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
FILE - ESA French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, left, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, center, and U.S. astronaut Peggy Annette Whitson pose for a photo before their final preflight practical examination in a mock-up of a Soyuz space craft at Russian Space Training Center in Star City, outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Russia will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said Tuesday, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

Russia to drop out of International Space Station after 2024

Country will focus on building its own orbiting station

FILE - ESA French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, left, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, center, and U.S. astronaut Peggy Annette Whitson pose for a photo before their final preflight practical examination in a mock-up of a Soyuz space craft at Russian Space Training Center in Star City, outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. Russia will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said Tuesday, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)
In this May 4, 2018 photo provided by NASA, the mobile service tower is rolled back to reveal the United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. NASA’s three-legged, one-armed geologist known as InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

Death by objects falling from space could be more likely than people realize

Researchers say governments should mandate rocket ‘junk’ be guided back

In this May 4, 2018 photo provided by NASA, the mobile service tower is rolled back to reveal the United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. NASA’s three-legged, one-armed geologist known as InSight makes its grand entrance through the rose-tinted Martian skies on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
This image released by NASA on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, shows the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth, according to NASA. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via AP)

VIDEO: NASA’s new telescope shows star death, dancing galaxies

First image from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope was released Monday

This image released by NASA on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, shows the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth, according to NASA. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via AP)
In this photo released by Rocket Lab, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket sits on the launch pad on the Mahia peninsula in New Zealand on May 17, 2022. NASA plans to send up a satellite to track a new orbit around the moon which it hopes to use in the coming years to once again land astronauts on the lunar surface. (Rocket Lab via AP)

NASA hopes New Zealand launch will pave way for moon landing

Capstone CubeSat satellite only about the size of a microwave oven

In this photo released by Rocket Lab, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket sits on the launch pad on the Mahia peninsula in New Zealand on May 17, 2022. NASA plans to send up a satellite to track a new orbit around the moon which it hopes to use in the coming years to once again land astronauts on the lunar surface. (Rocket Lab via AP)
Data collected via LEO satellites is being used for earth surface GHG surveillance by a B.C. firm. (pixabay photo)

B.C. space-tech exposing greenhouse gas emissions to better combat climate change

Vancouver’s Metaspectral gets $150,000 from the The Canadian Space Agency to analyze satellite data

Data collected via LEO satellites is being used for earth surface GHG surveillance by a B.C. firm. (pixabay photo)
One of InSight’s 7-foot-wide solar panels imaged by the lander’s camera. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Mars robot worked on by B.C. scientist powers down as dust settles over solar panels

The NASA InSight lander launched in 2018 to study the inside of Mars

One of InSight’s 7-foot-wide solar panels imaged by the lander’s camera. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The dome of the Plaskett telescope at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, located on top of Observatory Hill off West Saanich Road can be seen for miles around the area. The observatory will host its first public star party since the pandemic began as part of a full slate of International Astronomy Day celebrations on May 7 in Greater Victoria. (Black Press Media file photo)

Astronomy day events in Greater Victoria to launch a summer of star parties

Royal B.C. Museum hosting day events May, evening viewing shifts to Observatory Hill

The dome of the Plaskett telescope at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, located on top of Observatory Hill off West Saanich Road can be seen for miles around the area. The observatory will host its first public star party since the pandemic began as part of a full slate of International Astronomy Day celebrations on May 7 in Greater Victoria. (Black Press Media file photo)
An asteroid that circles our sun on a wide orbit between the planets of Mars and Jupiter is now named after Skookum Jim Mason, the Tagish adventurer and prospector who helped kick off the Klondike Gold Rush. (Pixabay Image)

Distant asteroid now bears Tagish adventurer Skookum Jim’s name

The renaming of the asteroid comes from a suggestion by the Yukon Astronomical Society.

An asteroid that circles our sun on a wide orbit between the planets of Mars and Jupiter is now named after Skookum Jim Mason, the Tagish adventurer and prospector who helped kick off the Klondike Gold Rush. (Pixabay Image)