Excitement about the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics extends out into space.
The six NASA astronauts currently living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) held their own mini-Olympics to mark the start of the games, which are being held in Paris and other sites around France.
We get a glimpse at the spaceflyers’ lighthearted efforts in a two-minute video, which NASA released today (July 26).
NASA astronaut Suni Williams holds a mock torch aboard the International Space Station to celebrate the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics. (Image credit: NASA)
The action starts with the passing of an Olympic torch — a mock one, of course, as fires are a serious no-no on the ISS — from Jeanette Epps to Mike Barratt to Suni Williams to Tracy Caldwell Dyson, then finally to Butch Wilmore, who’s in the station’s Cupola, with Earth visible in the background.
The astronauts then gear up for their events. Epps and Williams shake out their arms, for example. Wilmore stretches his upper body, then hydrates — by sucking in a water globule floating near his head.
The six NASA astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts currently aboard the ISS pose for a picture after Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams entered the station on June 6, 2024 during the still-ongoing Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test. (Image credit: NASA TV)
And then the orbital games begin. Barratt hurls a makeshift discus and Wilmore shotputs a ball of duct tape. Williams and Matthew Dominick (the sixth NASA astronaut living off-Earth at the moment) do some gymnastics, and Epps sprints down an ISS corridor. Caldwell Dyson does some powerlifting, raising a bar that Wilmore and Barratt are clutching off the “ground.”
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It’s all very playful, of course. But the astronauts capped things off by sending a sincere message to the athletes of the 23rd Olympiad.
“Over the past few days on the International Space Station, we’ve had an absolute blast pretending to be Olympic athletes,” Dominick says at the end of the video, with the other five NASA astronauts flanking him.
“We, of course, have had the benefits of weightlessness,” he added. “We can’t imagine how hard this must be, to be such a world-class athlete doing your sports under actual gravity. So from all of us aboard the International Space Station to every single athlete in the Olympic Games, godspeed!”
The six NASA astronauts aren’t the only people living on the ISS at the moment; it also houses Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenken and Oleg Kononenko, who commands the orbiting lab’s current Expedition 71 mission.
All of these spaceflyers are serving the typical six-month ISS stint except Williams and Wilmore, who arrived aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule on June 6 for a planned weeklong stay. But Starliner’s time in orbit has been extended multiple times as engineers investigate thruster issues and helium leaks with the spacecraft. NASA and Boeing have not yet set a departure date for Starliner.
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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, “Out There,” was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
Illustration of a Polaris Dawn crewmember conducting the first-ever private spacewalk. (Image credit: SpaceX)
We’ll all have to wait a bit longer to see the first-ever private spacewalk.
SpaceX is now targeting mid- to late August for the launch of Polaris Dawn, a mission funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. The upcoming flight, which will employ SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, had been slated to lift off no earlier than July 31.
SpaceX announced the delay today (July 26), during a press conference focusing on the company’s upcoming Crew-9 astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Crew-9 will launch no earlier than Aug. 18, and Polaris Dawn will fly sometime after that, the company said.
“There’s a lot going on on ISS right now,” Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, said during today’s press conference. “We opted to fly the Crew-9 mission as our next [astronaut] mission and are ready to fly Polaris Dawn in late summer, as soon as we fulfill those obligations.”
Turns out we have a little bit of time before Polaris Dawn launches, so I will be attending in person. Thanks for the invite @teslaownersSV https://t.co/VHNSeHajM8July 25, 2024
Later in the press conference, Walker clarified that “late summer” means next month: “Right now, we’re still planning to launch Polaris Dawn in August.”
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program, all of which will be funded and commanded by Isaacman. He did the same for SpaceX’s pioneering Inspiration4 mission, which carried Isaacman and three crewmates to Earth orbit in September 2021.
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The Polaris Dawn crew consists of Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel; and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom are engineers at SpaceX.
Like Inspiration4, Polaris Dawn will be a free flyer, zipping around Earth solo rather than linking up with the ISS. But the coming mission will go higher than its predecessor and feature at least one spacewalk — the first-ever private extravehicular activity.
This isn’t the first delay for Polaris Dawn; originally slated to fly in late 2022, the complex and ambitious mission has been pushed back multiple times.
Today’s press conference came just 15 days after a rare Falcon 9 mishap. The rocket’s upper stage failed to complete a planned orbit-raising burn during a July 11 launch, resulting in the loss of the payloads — 20 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites.
The proximate cause was a leak of liquid oxygen. SpaceX traced that issue to a crack in a line for a pressure sensor in the upper stage’s liquid-oxygen system, and has taken measures to ensure the problem won’t recur. In fact, the Falcon 9 is slated to bounce back early Saturday morning (July 27), with another Starlink launch.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, “Out There,” was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
An illustration shows the moon Ariel orbiting the ice giant Uranus. (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)/NASA)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers discovered that Ariel, a moon of Uranus, could be hiding in a buried liquid water ocean.
The discovery could supply an answer to a mystery surrounding this Uranian moon that has perplexed scientists: the fact Ariel’s surface is covered with a significant amount of carbon dioxide ice. This is puzzling because at the distance Uranus and its moons exist from the sun, 20 times further out from the sun than Earth, carbon dioxide turns to gas and is lost to space. This means some process must refresh the carbon dioxide at the surface of Ariel.
Previous theories have suggested this happens as a result of interactions between Ariel’s surface and charged particles trapped in Uranus’ magnetosphere that provide ionizing radiation, breaking down molecules and leaving carbon dioxide, a process called “radiolysis.”
However, new evidence from the JWST suggests the source of this carbon dioxide could come not from outside Ariel but from its interior, possibly from a buried subsurface ocean.
Uranus and its rings as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2023. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)
Because chemical elements and molecules absorb and emit light at characteristic wavelengths, they leave individual “fingerprints” on spectra. The team behind this discovery used the JWST to gather spectra of light from Ariel, which helped them paint a picture of the chemical makeup of the Uranian moon.
Comparing this to simulated spectra from a chemical mix in the lab here on Earth revealed to the team that Ariel has some of the most carbon dioxide-rich deposits in the solar system. Not only did this add an extra 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) of thickness to the ice on the side of the tidally locked Ariel that permanently faces away from Uranus, but it also revealed clear deposits of carbon monoxide for the first time.
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“It just shouldn’t be there. You’ve got to get down to 30 kelvins [minus 405 degrees Fahrenheit] before carbon monoxide’s stable,” team leader Richard Cartwright from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) said in a statement. “The carbon monoxide would have to be actively replenished, no question.”
That’s because Ariel’s surface temperature is, on average, around 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) warmer than this key temperature.
Cartwright acknowledges that radiolysis could account for some of this replenishment. However, observations from Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby of Uranus and its moons and other recent findings have suggested that the interactions behind radiolysis could be limited because Uranus’ magnetic field axis and the orbital plane of its moons are offset from each other by about 58 degrees.
That means that the majority of the carbon/oxygen compounds seen on Ariel’s surface could be created by chemical processes in a liquid water ocean trapped under ice on Ariel.
Cool customer Ariel may have a volcanic temper
Once created in the seep water ocean of Ariel, these carbon oxides could then escape through cracks in the icy shell of the Uranian moon or could even be explosively ejected by powerful eruptive plumes.
The most detailed Voyager 2 picture of Ariel, a moon of Uranus, taken in 1986. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Scientists have suspected for some time that the cracked and scarred surface of Ariel may indicate the presence of active cryovolcanoes, volcanoes that erupt plumes of icy slush rather than lava. These plumes could be so powerful that they launch material into Uranus’s magnetic field.
The majority of the cracks and grooves seen on the surface of Ariel are located on the side of the moon that faces away from Uranus. If carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are leaking from these features to the surface of the Uranian moon, this could explain why these compounds are found in greater abundance on this trailing side of the icy body.
The JWST also picked up more chemical evidence of a subsurface liquid water ocean. Spectral analysis hinted at the presence of carbonite minerals, salts created when rock meets and interacts with liquid water.
“If our interpretation of that carbonate feature is correct, then that is a pretty big result because it means it had to form in the interior,” Cartwright explained. “That’s something we absolutely need to confirm, either through future observations, modeling, or some combination of techniques.”
Uranus and its moons haven’t been visited by a spacecraft since Voyager 2 almost four decades ago, and this wasn’t even the spacecraft’s primary mission. In 2023, the Planetary Science and Astrobiology decadal survey emphasized the need to prioritize a dedicated mission to the Uranian system.
Cartwright believes such a mission would present an opportunity to collect valuable information about Uranus and Neptune, the solar system’s other ice giant. Such a mission could also deliver vital data about the other potentially ocean-bearing moons of these systems. This information could then be applied to extrasolar planets, or “exoplanets,” beyond the solar system.
“All these new insights underscore how compelling the Uranian system is,” team member and NASA Applied Physics Laboratory scientist Ian Cohen said. “Whether it’s to unlock the keys to how the solar system formed, better understand the planet’s complex magnetosphere, or determine whether these moons are potential ocean worlds, many of us in the planetary science community are really looking forward to a future mission to explore Uranus.”
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Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.
On Tuesday (July 23), Europe’s Solar Orbiter (SolO) spacecraft witnessed an extremely powerful X14 class solar flare erupt from the far side of the sun.
Although it was not the most powerful flare ever recorded, which was estimated at roughly a X45 back in 2003, solar flares of this magnitude can result in longer-lived radiation storms and even world-wide blackouts if they are directed at Earth. The X-class are the leaders on the classification scale, and blast out energy 10 times more powerful than M class flares, which is second on the list.
“From the estimated GOES class, it was the largest flare so far,” Samuel Krucker, the principal investigator for the Spectrometer and Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) on SolO, shared told SpaceWeather.com. “Other large flares we’ve detected are from May 20, 2024 (X12) and July 17, 2023 (X10). All of these have come from the back side of the sun.”
A solar flare erupts from the far side of the sun on July 23, 2024. (Image credit: Helioviewer.org)
As far as on the sun’s Earthside, the biggest flare that was recorded so far for this current cycle occurred on May 14, 2024, an X8.9, associated with the beastly sunspot that created the historic geomagnetic storm that led to worldwide auroras.
Accompanying the flare was an extremely large coronal mass ejection (CME), detected by NASA‘s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). CMEs are bursts of plasma and magnetic field that erupt outward from the sun’s atmosphere. The magnetically charged plasma blast that accompanied the X-class flare on July 23 was not sent in our direction, but if it was, it could have been quite the solar storm.
Had this CME taken a path that would bring impacts to Earth, it could have brought quite the impacts to our planet. The viewing of the auroras could have been quite impressive, but on the concerning side, with such a dynamic blast of energetic particles whipped up and hurled our way, it could have threatened us with major technological problems or electrical blackouts similar to the event in 1989 that severely impacted the power grid in Quebec, according to SpaceWeather.com.
Just remember: the sun is always rotating, so this region will remain one to watch as it comes back into view within the next week and a half.
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Meredith is a regional Murrow award-winning Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and science/space correspondent. She most recently was a Freelance Meteorologist for NY 1 in New York City & the 19 First Alert Weather Team in Cleveland. A self-described “Rocket Girl,” Meredith’s personal and professional work has drawn recognition over the last decade, including the inaugural Valparaiso University Alumni Association First Decade Achievement Award, two special reports in News 12’s Climate Special “Saving Our Shores” that won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, multiple Fair Media Council Folio & Press Club of Long Island awards for meteorology & reporting, and a Long Island Business News & NYC TV Week “40 Under 40” Award.
Emily Calandrelli will fly on an upcoming suborbital mission with Blue Origin. (Image credit: Greg Doherty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
The Space Gal is headed to the final frontier, as part of Space for Humanity’s Citizen Astronaut Program.
Emily Calandrelli, known for her Emmy-nominated Netflix science series “Emily’s Wonder Lab,” was selected to launch to suborbital space as a citizen astronaut ambassador with Blue Origin, though the launch date has not yet been set.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to fly with Blue Origin,” Calandrelli, a West Virginia native, said in a statement from Space for Humanity. “I look forward to representing my home state in this way and [to] show the world what kids from Appalachia can do, what women can do and what mothers can do. Country roads … take me to space!”
Known as The Space Gal, Calandrelli is a renowned science communicator and engineer, with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from West Virginia University and a master’s from MIT in aeronautics and astronautics, as well as technology and policy.
Calandrelli is also the author of children’s books centered around STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) topics, including the picture book “Reach for the Stars,” the science experiment book “Stay Curious and Keep Exploring,” and the science chapter book series “The Ada Lace Adventures.”
“Space for Humanity is thrilled for Emily! We’re also excited knowing that such a dedicated and gifted science communicator with a strong background in STEM is going to space,” Antonio Peronace, executive director for Space for Humanity, said in the statement.
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“Emily Calandrelli has spent years opening up a world of possibilities in STEM for young people globally,” Peronace added. “That’s why we know that this mission isn’t just about her traveling to space; it’s about the countless others she will be bringing along with her. We’re so proud to cheer her on.”
I’m so excited to share that I’ll be flying to space with @blueorigin 💙🪶I’ll become one of the first ~100 women in space and the first female astronaut from West Virginia. pic.twitter.com/WZUdQmiL1aJuly 16, 2024
Space for Humanity is a social impact nonprofit that sponsors individuals on their journey to space, including pre-flight training, the spaceflight ticket, travel, accommodations and any other related expenses, funded via donations to the organization. Individuals must apply to be considered for the Citizen Astronaut Program, which has sent people from various backgrounds into the final frontier as part of its mission to democratize access to space and foster a sense of global interconnectedness.
The program offers everyday citizens the chance to experience what is known as the Overview Effect, which is a cognitive shift brought on by viewing Earth from space. The hope is that, when citizen astronauts return to Earth, they can serve as leaders and global ambassadors, committed to inspiring a better, brighter future.
“Together, Space for Humanity and its supporters are changing perspectives on humanity’s interconnectivity, the fragility of our planet and our place in the cosmos,” the organization said in the statement.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
Samantha Mathewson joined Space.com as an intern in the summer of 2016. She received a B.A. in Journalism and Environmental Science at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut. Previously, her work has been published in Nature World News. When not writing or reading about science, Samantha enjoys traveling to new places and taking photos! You can follow her on Twitter @Sam_Ashley13.
San Diego Comic-Con 2024 is in full swing, with panels all weekend highlighting some of the biggest upcoming fantasy and sci-fi shows and movies. Most exciting of all is Marvel’s return to Hall H on Saturday, where we expect to learn more about the back half of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. Will Avengers 5 get a new, Kang-less title? Will we get a release date for the first MCU X-Men movie? Whatever the case, it’s sure to excite fans of Marvel Studios.
But Marvel’s just the tip of the iceberg at SDCC 2024. Tons of new trailers are hitting the internet this weekend, and we’re going to do our best to round them all up here. We’ll continue to update this post throughout the weekend as more trailers go live.
SDCC 2024: Trailers for new shows and movies
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel series is returning. The Rings of Power season 2 “plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity.”
The Rings of Power season 2 premieres on Prime Video on August 29.
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In the fifth season of Hulu’s animated show, “now that alien mission partners Terry and Korvo are married, the whole Solar Opposites team are focused on family values.”
Death Valley National Park is known for being… well, dead. The sandy dunes of the valley are still one of the most well-known attractions in California, and lately, Death Valley’s heat levels have been reaching some extraordinary peaks. In fact, it was so hot there recently that one tourist actually suffered third-degree burns on his feet just from walking around.
Mind you, there’s a bit more to the story than the tourist just waltzing through the valley fully dressed. At the time, the air temperature was estimated to be around 123 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Park Service. The ground, then, would have been much, much hotter.
What made the burns so bad, though, was the fact that Death Valley’s heat levels were so high. He also somehow lost his flip-flops while walking across the sand dunes in the valley. The ground temperature in Death Valley has been known to rise upwards of 170 to 180 degrees—and it can even get as high as 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Image source: David Toussaint / Getty
Park rangers say that the man’s skin had literally melted off his foot, presenting him with painful third-degree burns. The man’s family was luckily around and able to call for help—which came in the form of paramedics in a nearby parking lot. The man suffered what officials called “full-thickness” burns on his feet.
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He was in significant pain by the time he was extracted from the area. Unfortunately, due to the heat in the area, a helicopter was unable to fly in and safely land within the area, so a ground ambulance had to rush the man to a slightly cooler location, where he was then flown to a Las Vegas hospital.
If you’re planning to visit Death Valley this year, be sure to keep the valley’s heat levels in mind. As climate change continues to ravage our planet, these extremely hot places only experience higher heat indexes, and those can cause serious damage to your body.
Netflix is back to its old self next week — at least in terms of the volume of new TV shows and movies that will hit the streamer through August 3. From new original series like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (starring Wednesday’s Emma Myers) to dozens of third-party movies, there’s plenty of new content to keep you busy. Other standouts include the return of Unstable, a comedy starring real-life father and son Rob Lowe and John Owen Lowe, with a particularly zany streak that I enjoyed when it debuted last year.
For a complete rundown of everything that’s hitting the streaming giant over the next seven days, our monthly Netflix guide is the perfect source to consult. It lists all of the original series and movies, documentaries, standup specials, and third-party films that will be added to the streamer each day throughout the month. On a related note, our regular Netflix coverage throughout the month also includes a weekly analysis of the streamer’s global Top 10 TV chart.
At the same time, mixed in with the influx of new content coming next week are also a few titles I’d probably steer clear of if I were you — a recommendation that, admittedly, I don’t often share. I’m doing so this time, though, because of one title’s controversial nature and because of quality issues that plague two others. They include:
The director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon (parts one and two), as well as Joe Rogan’s new standup special Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats.
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The latter, taped live at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, is Rogan’s first new standup special in six years. He’s obviously been just a little busy since then, cementing his status as one of the top podcasters today (I say “one of” the top, because he’s just been overtaken by Tucker Carlson, who’s now the top podcaster on Spotify).
Image source: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
That said, Rogan really needs no introduction. He reportedly agreed to a $100 million exclusive licensing deal with Spotify for The Joe Rogan Experience, guests of which sometimes include conspiracy theorists, far-right figures, and newsmakers who make questionable pronouncements. His podcast has also sparked controversy for everything from his use of offensive language to racial slurs.
The first season of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel series was a hit for Prime Video, but it certainly had its fair share of critics. One reason that so few viewers made it through The Rings of Power season 1 was that it took forever to advance the plot. The final episodes were thrilling, but viewers were forced to slog through tons of dry exposition and tedious world-building to get there. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like season 2 will make the same mistake.
At SDCC, Amazon shared the first trailer for The Rings of Power season 2 with the audience at its Hall H panel. Most of the surviving characters from the first season return, including Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramyo), Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), The Stranger (Daniel Weyman), Durin IV (Owain Arthur), and Sauron (Charlie Vickers).
“Sauron has returned,” reads Prime Video’s synopsis for The Rings of Power season 2. “Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will.”
Remember, The Rings of Power is set to run for five seasons on Prime Video, so the creators couldn’t blow through too much story in the first season. But now the groundwork has been laid. Think of the first season as the first hour or so of The Fellowship of the Ring. Now that we know who these characters are, we can see what they’re all capable of.
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As mixed as my reaction was to the first season, the trailer for season 2 piqued my interest. We got a glimpse of the other rings in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but now we’ll get the see them in action right after they’re forged. And for Tolkien diehards, we’re finally going to see beloved Tom Bombadil after he was axed from the movies.
The Rings of Power season 2 premieres on Prime Video on August 29, 2024.
While you weren’t paying attention, X (formerly Twitter) quietly began feeding all of your posts, replies, and more to Grok, its generative AI chatbot. The new setting appears to be enabled by default on everyone’s account, so even if you never actively chose to let Grok vacuum up your data, it’s doing so without your express permission.
With the setting enabled on your account, the social media platform “may utilize your X posts as well as your user interactions, inputs and results with Grok for training and fine-tuning purposes.” Furthermore, X explains that “your interactions, inputs, and results may also be shared with our service provider xAI for these purposes.”
The good news is that you can disable the feature with a single click and also easily delete your conversation history with Grok from the same settings menu. Here’s what you’ll need to do from the desktop version of X to stop training Grok:
Scroll down and click on “Grok” under “Data sharing and personalization”
Uncheck the box to disable data sharing with Grok
You can also click “Delete conversation history” while you’re here
Unfortunately, that menu isn’t accessible from the X mobile app. It might be added in the future, but there’s no “Grok” option in the Settings menu in the app. You’ll have to load up X/Twitter in a browser on your desktop computer to deactivate this setting.
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On the X Help Center, the company says “making your account private prevents your posts from being used to train Grok’s underlying model or to generate responses to user queries.” So here’s what you need to do to make your account private:
