space

• Opinion

The Sun missed an important space story

The Sun missed an important story about plans by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon, using a drone.

• Maryland

Star Points: Dress rehearsal for moon landing took place 50 years ago this month

On its surface, the mission seemed like a marriage of Apollo 8 and 9. It was a return to the moon as in Apollo 8, but this time with a LM. And while Apollo 9 tested the lunar module in Earth orbit, Apollo 10 would haul it off to the moon.

• Maryland

Star Points: Astronomers have long held the key to precision time-keeping

Astronomers have long held the keys to the kingdom of precision time-keeping. There are numerous types of telescopes with each having its advantages and disadvantages.

• Space

Emanuel 'Emil' Skrabek, spacecraft engineer, inventor of thermoelectric power source for Mars Curiosity Rover, dies

Emanuel A. “Emil” Skrabek, a Baltimore-born spacecraft engineer who co-invented a thermoelectric material that powered the Mars Curiosity Rover and other space probes, died of progressive supranuclear palsy and Parkinson’s disease at his home in Lutherville on March 14, his family said. He was 85.

By Colin Campbell

Mar 24, 2019

• Maryland

Editorial: Thumbs up to a well-trained student, physics aficionados and Carroll One Book

Who received thumbs up from the Carroll County Times this week?

• Maryland

Star Points: Foreign landers heading to moon a half-century later

50 years later, other nations are still trying to catch up to where America was back then. Some of them have gotten off the ground.

• Maryland

Eggs, vectors and duct tape at Liberty High School, the 2019 Physics Olympics

Two eggs, one meter of duct tape, six McDonald’s straws, 50 grams of paper and some aluminum foil were all Francis Scott Key High School Senior Maddie Rohde and her fellow students had to protect two eggs from breaking during a four-meter drop from the Liberty High School cafeteria mezzanine.

• Opinion

Alternative Fact of the Week: We feel your pain, Opportunity rover

The alleged Mars rover's final gasp, 'My battery is low and it's getting dark,' may be mostly fiction but wouldn't it be great if some alternative facts could get a pass?

• Science

An asteroid could destroy humanity like it did dinosaurs. A Hopkins team has a plan to save the world.

DART is NASA’s first mission not to explore space, but to defend against it. Researchers at Johns Hopkins plan to launch a spacecraft and smash it into an asteroid. BOOM! The impact, they hope, will bump the big space rock off course.

By Tim Prudente

Feb 4, 2019

• Science

Lights, camera, action! Tumbling space snowman in film debut

Scientists from NASA 's New Horizons mission on Tuesday released the first stitched together animation of Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever explored by humans.

• Maryland

Star Points: Only total lunar eclipse for 2019 visible from here this month

The only total lunar eclipse for 2019 will be visible from the continental United States, including Maryland, on the night of Sunday-Monday, Jan. 20-21.

• Environment

Snowman-shaped object on edge of solar system may explain how planets formed, finds Hopkins' New Horizons mission

Ultima Thule, the distant object NASA's New Horizons spacecraft explored on New Year's Day, is actually a pair of spheres that have been fused together by gravity, scientists revealed Wednesday. The Johns Hopkins-led mission could already be helping to confirm theories about how the planets formed.

By Scott Dance

Jan 2, 2019

• Science

Johns Hopkins-led New Horizons mission successfully captures data from distant Ultima Thule; first images coming Wednesday

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft successfully captured images and data as it flew past an object nicknamed Ultima Thule early Tuesday morning, scientists confirmed. But they won't get their first close-up glimpse of the edge of the solar system until Wednesday afternoon.

By Scott Dance

Jan 1, 2019

• Weather

Attention stargazers: 2019 brings a 'Super Blood Wolf Moon' and Mercury's transit across the sun

The highlights of 2019 for stargazers include a total lunar eclipse some are calling a “Super Blood Wolf Moon” and a transit of Mercury. And there are plenty of sights to spot in the heavens in between.

By Scott Dance

Jan 1, 2019

• Science

After Pluto, Hopkins-led New Horizons mission nears an object 'beyond the known world,' Ultima Thule

Three and a half years after exploring Pluto, the New Horizons mission will reach another new frontier in the first hours of 2019. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory-led mission will fly past a Kuiper Belt object known as Ultima Thule, a pristine remnant of the early universe.

By Scott Dance

Dec 24, 2018

• Maryland

Star Points: Comet Wirtanen to brighten during December apparition

Wirtanen’s perihelion distance is only 8 percent greater than Earth’s average distance from the sun. This month, Earth and comet will experience a close encounter. This occurs on the morning of Dec. 16 when the comet is only 7.2 million miles from Earth.

• Maryland

Nobel laureate John Mather gives Carroll residents a tour of the universe

In a far-ranging talk Wednesday on space, physics and the origin of all that is, Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Mather went from the very old and incredible small, to the infinite, and nearly back again.

• Maryland

Nobel Prize-winning NASA scientist John Mather to come to Westminster

The Westminster Astronomical Society will be hosting a special guest at its Oct. 10 club meeting — John Mather, a senior astrophysicist at the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and senior project scientist for NASA’s James Webb space telescope.

• Maryland

NASA sun expert talks solar probes, possible partnership with Carroll library

In addition to educating the group about the sun, Young — associate director for science in NASA’s Heliophysics Science Division — said NASA is also going to work on a future partnership with CCPL in efforts to get involved with Maryland libraries.

• Maryland

Star Points: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to get up close and personal with the sun

Last month NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, its second deep space mission in 2018. (The other was Insight, destined for a November landing on Mars.)  Parker is different from other solar missions of the past that observed the sun from far off. Parker will get up close and personal.

• News

What we know about David Katz, the alleged Jacksonville shooting gunman from Maryland

What we know about David Katz, the Baltimore man behind a mass shooting at a Florida game video tournament Sunday.

By Christina Tkacik

Aug 27, 2018

• News

In Howard County, parents of Jacksonville shooting suspect had been desperate to find psychiatric care for son

David Katz, who police said fatally shot two others before killing himself at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and struggled at the University of Maryland.

• Science

NASA probe operated from Johns Hopkins lab in Laurel rockets toward sun for closest look yet

Scores of Johns Hopkins University scientists watched as a NASA spacecraft zoomed toward the sun Sunday on an unprecedented quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before.

• Maryland

Weekend will be peak time to view shooting stars of Perseid meteor shower

The Perseid meteor shower will be at its peak volume this weekend and visible to the naked eye, making this the best time all year to catch shooting stars.

• Sports

Sports Digest (Aug. 3): With Aces no-shows, Mystics game canceled

Friday night's game between the Las Vegas Aces and the Washington Mystics at Capital One Arena was canceled, the WNBA announced.

• Opinion

The future is brighter than you think

Do you remember the future when you were a kid? The one that couldn’t come soon enough? We looked forward to the next space flight, the next scientific discovery. We heard about meals instantly cooked by sound waves, TV wrist watches, robots that vacuumed the floor, cars that steered themselves.

• Features

This Day in History: July 8

In 1958, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. Orioles pitcher Billy O'Dell (above center) secured the American

• Obituaries

Charles A. Harper, a chemical engineer who worked on NASA programs, dies

Charles A. Harper, a chemical engineer who worked on projects for NASA, died from complications of pneumonia Feb. 26 at Brightview Mays Chapel Ridge retirement community.

By Andrea K. McDaniels

Mar 4, 2018

• Maryland

Star Points: How fast does light travel, and how do we know?

The light-year is a unit of measurement for distance equivalent to the span traveled by light in one year in a vacuum. If an object is 20 light-years away, then the light from it we are seeing left that object 20 years ago during which time it rapidly traveled through space before meeting our eyes.

• Harford

Harford council president says he's a human climate change denier

Harford County Council President Richard Slutzky disputes public consensus that humans are responsible for climate change, citing his research of scientists that have expressed skepticism on the subject.

• Maryland

Star Points: Fake news hit astronomy in a big way last month

In this summary of fake news in astronomy, The New York Times published two erroneous facts (blue moon and blood moon) and one imprecise definition (supermoon) in a single article.

• Commentary

Ammlung: We don’t know how to think

Mortimer Adler, the philosopher and chairman of Encyclopaedia Britannica authored a book titled “How to Think,” which I found puzzling. Don’t people already know how to think? Many years later, I’ve revised my verdict: We really don’t know how to think.

• Obituaries

Kim Strohbehn, senior professional engineer at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

Kim Strohbehn, whose boyhood embrace of outer space resulted in a lengthy career as a senior professional engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, died Sunday from bone cancer at Sinai Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 64.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Jan 18, 2018

• Maryland

Central Carroll: Bear Branch celebrates winter with 'Snow Much Fun!'

Bear Branch Nature Center will hold a fun family program called “Snow Much Fun!” on Sunday, Jan. 14, from 1 to 2 p.m. at the center, located at 310 John Owings Road, just north of the airport on Md. 97.  

• Crime

Opioids, school upheaval, new bus system, fatberg among other 2017 headlines in Maryland

Here's a look at some of the stories that made headlines in 2017.

By Colin Campbell

Dec 30, 2017

• Weather

New year promises stargazers 'super moons,' meteor showers, visible planets and more

Here is what to look for in the night sky throughout 2018.

By Scott Dance

Dec 28, 2017

• Maryland

NASA chooses Hopkins mission to Titan, Goddard-led comet probe as finalists for mid-2020s launch

NASA said Wednesday it has chosen two finalists for solar system exploration: A Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory plan to visit Saturn's moon Titan, and a proposal for a comet probe that would be managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

By Scott Dance

Dec 20, 2017

• Commentary

Zirpoli: Back to the future

While world leaders met in Paris last week to discuss future global challenges, President Donald Trump held a White House ceremony to announce that the United States will return to the moon, again.

• Maryland

Johns Hopkins astrophysicist and his team win Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist Charles L. Bennett has been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his research on the universe’s origin and expansion.

By Sarah Gantz

Dec 3, 2017

• Space Exploration

NASA asks for help to name New Horizons' next target for exploration

Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 is a mouthful. So NASA is asking for help to name the icy body that Pluto explorer New Horizons is set to visit in just over a year.

By Scott Dance

Nov 7, 2017

• Maryland

Vigliotti: Bring the hyperloop to Carroll County

Vigliotti: Bring the hyperloop to Carroll County

• Astronomy and Astrophysics

University of Maryland astronomers strike gold — and platinum — as they watch neutron stars collide

Scientists said they’ve detected the collision of two neutron stars and confirmed that these cataclysmic events are indeed a source of gold, platinum and other heavy e

• Howard County

Astronaut Terry Virts talks space photography, science fiction and growing up in Columbia

Terry Virts may be retired from NASA, but the son of Columbia hasn’t stopped sharing his passion for space travel.

• Maryland

Star Points: Halloween's considerable connection to astronomy

Halloween is a seasonal holiday, but how did it come to be?  There are numerous astronomical tie-ins to Halloween.

• Harford

Five Harford students are National Merit Scholar semifinalists

Five Harford County students, four in the Science and Mathematics Academy program at Aberdeen High and one at C. Milton Wright High, are named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program

By David Anderson

Sep 25, 2017

• Opinion

How about saving the Earth rather than moving to Mars?

All the talk of interplanetary colonization shouldn't take away from our need to protect the Earth, David Horsey writes.

• Howard County

Science does battle with sorcery at Venus Theater

For the grown-ups, "Agalaonike's TIger" has Ann Fraistat portraying a no-nonsense Greek astronomer beset on all sides by dubious mythmaking, magic and mumbo jumbo.

• Obituaries

John J. Royo Jr, retired spacecraft designer

John J. Royo Jr., a retired design engineer who worked on the LEM and Hubble Telescope, died Monday from multiple myeloma at his Columbia home. He was 82.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Sep 12, 2017

• Maryland

Star Points: Bumps, dents and charts of Earth's wobbling moon

Despite its distance, Earth’s tidal forces dominate its moon.

• Howard County

Week-long camp sent teen to space [Glenelg/Glenwood/Dayton]

Jack Willets from Clarksville recently attended Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.