Not long after one of the closest supernovae of the century was found, another one just a little farther away has shown up. Professional pictures of the star exploding have not been released yet, but amateur pictures are filling in the gaps. However, many of the amateurs live too far north to be able to take part.

Since the invention of the telescope, there haven’t been any supernova explosions in our galaxy, though there might be some that are dust-obscured. Adding 1987a to our local group of galaxies is the only one that astronomers have seen in their entire careers. That’s a shame, because these are some of the coolest and most useful astronomical events, and a galaxy the size of the Milky Way should have one about every hundred years.

That makes the next ring of galaxies beyond the local group even more important. This century, there have been five galaxies that are 22 million light-years away or less. This new one, SN 2024ggi, was seen for the first time on April 11 and may still be getting brighter.

Last year, small telescopes were able to see the most recent nearby supernova, 2023xf. As an added bonus, it was in the Pinwheel galaxy, which is always a popular place for amateur astronomers to look.

SN 2024ggi is in NGC 3621, which isn’t quite as impressive because we see it all the way along one edge. Even so, if you have a good enough telescope, it’s still a beautiful sight. NGC 3621 is 22 million light-years away, which is a million more than the Pinwheel. However, these numbers aren’t exactly accurate, so it’s possible that it’s a little closer. Both are going almost the opposite way. The pinwheel is so far to the north that it never sets in Europe or most of North America. While NGC 3621 is at 33 degrees south, it’s almost impossible to see from Britain and can only be seen for a short time from most of the US.

Magnitude is a measure of how bright a star is. Magnitudes 5 and below can be seen with the naked eye in dark skies, while magnitudes above 5 get fainter.

ATLAS, which stands for the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System, made the new find. ATLAS’ main job is to look for space rocks close by. With four telescopes on three continents, it now finds more supernovae than any other sky survey. When it was found, SN 2024ggi was about 19th magnitude, which means that backyard astronomers would need a very large telescope.

That’s not unusual; just this year, dozens of supernovae were recorded at 16th or 14th magnitude. However, because they were so far away, very few got brighter than that. At the same brightness, 2023ixf was seen, but it got brighter by more than a hundred times and reached its brightest point at 10.9. It has gone down to 12th magnitude after almost a year.

Many people say that 2024 g is brighter than a 12th magnitude star nearby, even though official records show that it is getting brighter to 14th magnitude. There would be a lot more people with the right tools to catch it if that’s the case.

Five supernovae have been seen in the Pinwheel galaxy since 1900 because it is so busy making new stars. This is the first supernova seen in NGC 3621.

The NASA Ingenuity team said goodbye to the helicopter robot and got one last message before splitting up. But ingenuity isn’t really dead yet; it will still be collecting data on Mars.

It’s a great little robot, and in April 2021, it was the first to fly powered and controlled on a planet other than Earth. That’s not easy to do because conditions on Mars are so different.

“The Red Planet has a much lower gravity—one-third that of Earth’s—and an extremely thin atmosphere with only 1% of Earth’s pressure at the surface,” NASA said in a press release after Ingenuity’s first flight. “This means there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity’s two 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight.”

It was planned for the helicopter, which was really just a prototype, to make five flights over 30 days on Mars. Instead, it made 72 flights over 1,000 days. NASA started to use it to get a bird’s-eye view of Mars and find interesting places for Perseverance to go back and look at more closely.

On the 72nd flight, unfortunately, Ingenuity had to make an emergency landing and lost touch with Perseverance. When they got in touch again, pictures from the helicopter showed that a rotor was badly damaged, so Ingenuity would not be able to fly again.

Even though the helicopter can’t fly anymore, it can still gather information and send it to Perseverance. Perseverance then sends the information to Earth through NASA’s Deep Space Network. Before the Ingenuity team broke up, they got one last message from Ingenuity and ate cake to celebrate.

“I’m sorry, Dylan Thomas, but Ingenuity will not be going gently into that good Martian night,” said Josh Anderson, lead of the Ingenuity team at JPL. “It’s hard to believe that she still has something to give after more than 1,000 days on Mars’ surface, 72 flights, and one rough landing.” Because of how hard this amazing team worked, not only did Ingenuity do better than we thought it would, but it may also teach us new things in the years to come.

After stopping in “Valinor Hills” to rest, the robot’s job will be to gather data while it’s still, hopefully learning useful things about the planet’s environment before future missions with people.

The world may soon witness the potential inauguration of the inaugural military maneuver in the Earth’s orbit as the US Space Force fulfills its purpose by employing military force in space.

The Space Force, which has faced ridicule for adopting the Star Trek logo as its emblem, possessing its own equine companion, and its debatable theme melody, has recently intensified its operations in the realm of space. In addition to dispatching an astronaut to the International Space Station, the organization intends to carry out a Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission, codenamed VICTUS HAZE.

The test will involve two firms, Rocket Lab National Security and True Anomaly, demonstrating a realistic response to a potential attack in a space domain awareness demonstration conducted in orbit. According to Ars Technia, the practice may include one satellite exhibiting unusual behavior or deliberately moving closer to the other. The second satellite would subsequently react to protect its own satellite or dissuade the adversary satellite from launching an attack.

Despite the seemingly fictional nature of these events, the United States is concerned about potential confrontations in outer space, as China is carrying out numerous enigmatic experiments in the region of space close to Earth.

The quantity and intricacy of hostile dangers in space are continuously expanding. “In order to promptly address these threats, it is imperative that we provide the United States’ most cutting-edge TacRS capabilities,” stated Lt. Col. MacKenzie Birchenough, the Materiel Leader for Space Safari, upon announcing the demonstration scheduled for August 2023. “VICTUS HAZE will enhance our capacity to evaluate potential dangers and maintain our unrestricted ability to navigate in space.”

“We acknowledge the substantial potential to utilize the advancements in the commercial space industry to counter China, which is currently seen as America’s primary threat,” stated Col. Bryon McClain, the program executive officer for Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power at Space Systems Command, specifically mentioning China.

The United States possesses the most pioneering space industry globally. VICTUS HAZE aims to showcase our capacity to effectively address reckless conduct in space while operating in situations that closely resemble real-world scenarios.

The project is anticipated to have a total cost of approximately $92 million, with True Anomaly securing approximately $30 million of internal private finance for it. True Anomaly is currently in the process of conducting more demonstrations prior to VICTUS HAZE. If all progresses as planned, the US Space Force is expected to execute its inaugural military exercise in orbit by 2025.