Christopher Crockett

Science Writer and Editor at Freelance

Associate News Editor at Science News

Articles

The Blue Ghost lander just witnessed a lunar eclipse - from the moon

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Lisa Grossman |Christopher Crockett

The privately-owned Blue Ghost moon lander, built by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, has captured a rare view of a lunar eclipse from the moon’s surface. The lander, which touched down March 2 in a volcanic plain on the moon’s nearside, has spent its time deploying instruments and collecting data. On the night of March 13, as Earth’s shadow covered the moon in a total lunar eclipse, Blue Ghost turned its cameras back toward Earth.
Two privately-owned spacecraft make contact from the moon

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Lisa Grossman |Christopher Crockett

This is a developing story and will be updated as we learn more. This year’s hot destination is the moon. Two landers built by private companies have just touched down on the moon within a week of each other. One landed softly and safely — a first for any private spacecraft — while the other’s status remains unknown.
The biggest discoveries of Voyagers - NASA’s most distant explorers

Jan 9, 2025 | snexplores.org | Sarah Wells |Stephen Ornes |Christopher Crockett |Maria Temming

In 1977, NASA loaded two spacecraft, each the size of a Honda Civic, into a rocket and sent them off on a five-year mission to explore our solar system’s outer planets. Free educator resources are available for this article. Register to access: Client key* E-mail Address* Already Registered?
The nearest midsized black hole might instead be a horde of lightweights

Aug 20, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Ken Croswell |Lisa Grossman |Katherine Kornei |Christopher Crockett

Science News is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet's changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? The study doesn’t completely rule out an intermediate-mass black hole, but if one is there, it’s much smaller than previously suggested. No black hole heftier than 6,000 times the mass of the sun exists in the star cluster, his team concludes in work submitted August 1 to arXiv.org.
The North Star is much heavier than previously thought

Jul 25, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Ken Croswell |Christopher Crockett

Science News has partnered with Trusting News to gather feedback on the potential use of AI in journalism. Currently, we do not publish any content produced by generative AI (see our policy). We do want to hear your views on how Science News could use AI responsibly. Let us know by participating in a short 10 question survey. The companion star is so dim that it went unseen until 2005, when astronomer Nancy Evans and her colleagues glimpsed it with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Active volcanoes may be common on Venus

Jul 17, 2024 | snexplores.org | Adam Mann |Bethany Brookshire |Lisa Grossman |Christopher Crockett

For a long time, scientists thought Venus was geologically dead. But newfound evidence suggests active volcanoes may be common on this second planet from the sun. The finding emerged during a careful review of photos taken more than 30 years ago. “This definitely is another step in the path to understanding Venus as a living, breathing world,” says Paul Byrne. He works at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. A planetary scientist, he did not take part in the new study.
Sulfur was key to the first water on Earth

Jul 15, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Ken Croswell |Christopher Crockett |Nikk Ogasa |Anna Gibbs

Science News has partnered with Trusting News to gather feedback on the potential use of AI in journalism. Currently, we do not publish any content produced by generative AI (see our policy). We do want to hear your views on how Science News could use AI responsibly. Let us know by participating in a short 10 question survey.
Analyze This: A recently spotted space object is puzzling scientists

Jun 7, 2024 | snexplores.org | Carolyn Wilke |Adam Mann |Emily Conover |Christopher Crockett

A mystery object has just been spotted in our galaxy. The puzzling entity could be a very heavy neutron star — the left-behind corpse of a giant star. Or maybe it’s one of the lightest black holes ever observed. The MeerKAT Radio Telescope in South Africa spotted the unidentified object circling a pulsar. The observatory was monitoring pulsars in a star cluster 40,000 light years from Earth. As these pulsars spin, they shoot out powerful beams of light, like cosmic lighthouses.
Scientists Say: Corona

Apr 8, 2024 | snexplores.org | Maria Temming |Christopher Crockett

atmosphere: The envelope of gases surrounding Earth, another planet or a moon. aurora: A light display in the sky caused when incoming energetic particles from the sun collide with gas molecules in a planet’s upper atmosphere. The best known of these is Earth’s aurora borealis, or northern lights.
Explore a map of the next 15 total solar eclipses

Apr 4, 2024 | newsbreak.com | Christopher Crockett

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