Astronomers discover 128 new moons orbiting Saturn Planet now has 274 moons, almost twice as many as all the other planets in the solar system combined Some of Saturn's previously discovered moons, seen here in an image derived from Nasa's Cassini-Huygens mission. Photograph: NASA/EPA Astronomers have discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, giving it an insurmountable lead in the running tally of moons in the solar system. Until recently, the "moon king" title was held by Jupiter, but Saturn now has a total of 274 moons, almost twice as many as all the other planets combined. The team behind the discoveries had previously identified 62 Saturnian moons using the Canada France Hawaii telescope and, having seen faint hints that there were more out there, made further observations in 2023. "Sure enough, we found 128 new moons," said the lead researcher, Dr. Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at...
New Shepard flight to demonstrate lunar gravity Blue Origin's New Shepard lifts off Nov. 22 on the NS-28 suborbital human spaceflight. Credit: Blue Origin WASHINGTON — Blue Origin’s next suborbital spaceflight will be a long-awaited demonstration of New Shepard’s ability to generate lunar gravity rather than microgravity. Blue Origin announced Jan. 24 that it has scheduled its new New Shepard flight for no eaelier than Jan. 28 at 11 a.m. Eastern from the company’s test site in West Texas. The NS-29 mission will carry 30 payloads but no people. Unlike previous flights of New Shepard, where the vehicle experiences several minutes of microgravity at the apex of its suborbital trajectory, the New Shepard crew capsule will be spun after separation from its booster using reaction control thrusters. The thrusters will spin the capsule at about 11 revolutions per minute, enough to simulate lunar gravity at the midpoint of payload lockers inside the capsule. Blue Origin expect...