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1 month ago | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador
A meteor was seen streaking across the Carolina skies early Saturday morning. Residents across four states — from central Virginia to Charleston South Carolina and from eastern Tennessee to the outerbanks — reported seeing the space rock to the American Meteor Society. Based on triangulation of those reports, the meteor was first seen over Greensboro traveling nearly due south toward Asheboro.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador
An artist's rendention of a red giant star and white dwarf orbiting each other steller material flows from the red giant to the denser white dwarf. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)About every 80 years, the T Coronae Borealis star system – or T CrB for short – explodes violently, relighting a long dead star. Earlier this year there were strong indications that T CrB was ready to create this new visible star for a few days. This hasn't happened yet, but history suggests it's just a matter of time.
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Oct 11, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador |Monica Casey |John Rector
It was a colorful display Thursday across North Carolina skies as a geomagnetic storm triggered northern lights in the United States -- and a few people may be able to see the wonder again Friday night. WRAL meteorologist Aimee Wilmoth said, for most of the U.S., the northern lights will not be visible again Friday night. The line of maximum visibility Friday night is in the far northern portion of the country, as visible in this map.
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Oct 11, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador |Monica Casey |John Rector
It was a colorful display Thursday across the North Carolina skies as a geomagnetic storm triggered northern lights Thursday night in the United States,Several North Carolina residents started sending WRAL News photos of the phenomenon around 7:25 p.m.NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) had issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch. It comes in reaction to an Earth facing coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted from the sun Tuesday evening.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador
A geomagnetic storm has triggered northern lights Thursday night in North Carolina and in the United States, though exact locations and times are uncertain, according to NOAA. Just look up and to the north after dark. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch. It comes in reaction to an Earth facing coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted from the Sun Tuesday evening.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador |Tony RiceReporter
While it may not be as dramatic as a total lunar eclipse, Tuesday night’s partial lunar eclipse is still a great reason to step outside and look up. Just don’t expect to see a glowing red or orange Moon lighting up the evening sky. The Earth's shadow will appear as a darker, possibly slightly orange or even reddish color to Moon's upper left edge.
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced choo-cheen-SHAHN atlas) has generated significant excitement since its discovery in early 2023. Initial predictions suggested that it could become one of the brightest comets in recent memory, potentially visible to the naked eye and even during daylight. However, as the comet approached the Sun, it began to dim, raising concerns about its fate.
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Aug 24, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador
Eighteen years ago today, Pluto lost its planetary status in a vote by International Astronomical Union (IAU) members on the final day of their 2006 general assembly meeting. The word "planet" comes from the Greek planētēs or "wander", applied to the points of light observers saw moving night over night against the fixed background of stars. While the word had been used for thousands of years, it didn't have a strict scientific meaning.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador |Tony RiceReporter
The flame is extinguished, the Olympic flag has been passed from the Mayor of Paris to the Mayor of Los Angeles. 11,119 athletes from 206 nations competed across 329 medal according to the IOC, nearly triple the number competing in the 1924 Paris games. The summer games have drawn more than 10,000 athletes beginning in 1996 in Atlanta, including the covid-complicated 2020 games in Tokyo. Host country France entered at least one athlete in each of the 45 disciplines from Archery to Wrestling.
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Jul 3, 2024 | 
wral.com | Tony Rice |NASA Ambassador |Tony RiceReporter
Tony Rice explains SpaceX Starlink launch and what we saw in the skyWRAL viewers from across the state in Raleigh, Wake Forest, Clayton, Dunn, Fayetteville, Pikeville, Zebulon and Roseboro sent photos Wednesday of a SpaceX launch in Florida. SpaceX successfully launched additional Starlink satellites Wednesday, adding to its fleet of over 6,000 satellites providing internet connectivity to pizza box sized antennas and now directly to cell phones.
