RocketSTEM

@RocketSTEM

Nonprofit educational media foundation inspiring the next generation of explorers. Publisher of RocketSTEM website.

Worldwide

Joined November 2012

724Following

1KFollowers

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RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 6

The signs of life beyond Earth will be difficult to interpret from afar. A new model is helping scientists figure out where exactly to look. rocketstem.org/2025/06/05/new…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. The search for life beyond Earth is a key driver of modern astronomy and planetary science. The U.S. is building multiple major telescopes and planetary probes to advance this search. However, the...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · 10 h

Curious Kids: Henry asks how the inside of the Earth has stayed as hot as the Sun’s surface for billions of years? rocketstem.org/2025/07/23/how…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. “How does the inside of the Earth stay boiling hot for billions of years?” — Henry, age 11, Somerville, Massachusetts Our Earth is structured sort of like an onion – it’s one layer after another....

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 22

Jasmine asks if Mars is really red? A physicist answers by explaining the planet’s reddish hue and why it looks different to some telescopes. rocketstem.org/2025/07/22/is-…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. “Is Mars really as red as people say it is?” — Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington People from cultures across the world have been looking at Mars since ancient times. Because it appears reddish, it...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 21

Curous Kids: Light is fast. Anadi from India asks if humans have made an object that could travel at least 1% the speed of light? rocketstem.org/2025/07/21/hav…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Have we made an object that could travel at at least 1% the speed of light? – Anadi, age 14, Jammu and Kashmir, India Light is fast. In fact, it is the fastest thing that exists, and a law of the...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 20

On this 56th anniversary of the #Apollo11, we've launched Curious Kids, a new section of the website, where kids get their questions about space answered by experts. Miles in London wants to know how high he could jump on the Moon? rocketstem.org/2025/07/20/how…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. How high could I jump on the Moon? – Miles, age 5, London, United Kingdom If you were lucky enough to go to the Moon, you’d be able to jump six times as high there as you can here on Earth. Try it:...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 17

Mysterious objects from other stars are passing through our solar system. Scientists are planning new missions to study them up close. rocketstem.org/2025/07/17/her…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. In late 2017, a mysterious object tore through our solar system at breakneck speed. Astronomers scrambled to observe the fast moving body using the world’s most powerful telescopes. It was found to...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 15

Do photons wear out? An astrophysicist explains why light doesn't wear out and lose energy over time and vast cosmic distances. rocketstem.org/2025/07/15/how…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. My telescope, set up for astrophotography in my light-polluted San Diego backyard, was pointed at a galaxy unfathomably far from Earth. My wife, Cristina, walked up just as the first space photo...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 15

Studying ancient layers of rocks on Earth has revealed that our moon has been slowly drifting away from the planet for 2.5 billion years. rocketstem.org/2025/07/11/our…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Looking up at the moon in the night sky, you would never imagine that it is slowly moving away from Earth. But we know otherwise. In 1969, NASA’s Apollo missions installed reflective panels on the...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 6

Astronomers have discovered another puzzling interstellar object − this third one is big, bright and moving fast through the solar system. rocketstem.org/2025/07/06/ano…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Astronomers manning an asteroid warning system caught a glimpse of a large, bright object zipping through the solar system late on July 1, 2025. The object’s potentially interstellar origins excited...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jul 3

Camille Flammarion was a 19th century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the possibilities that life on Mars could hold. rocketstem.org/2025/07/03/ear…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Living in today’s age of ambitious robotic exploration of Mars, with an eventual human mission to the red planet likely to happen one day, it is hard to imagine a time when Mars was a mysterious and...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 30

The fabric of the universe itself is ever-expanding as time goes on, which begs the question is there actually a center to the universe? rocketstem.org/2025/06/30/whe…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. About a century ago, scientists were struggling to reconcile what seemed a contradiction in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Published in 1915, and already widely accepted worldwide by...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 26

Earth’s magnetic field protects life on Earth from radiation, but it can move, and the magnetic poles can even flip over thousands of years. rocketstem.org/2025/06/26/ear…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. The Earth’s magnetic field plays a big role in protecting people from hazardous radiation and geomagnetic activity that could affect satellite communication and the operation of power grids. And it...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 23

How did everything begin? It’s a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. The current best theory is the Big Bang. rocketstem.org/2025/06/23/que…

RocketSTEM's tweet image. How did everything begin? It’s a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. The current best theory is the Big Bang.

rocketstem.org/2025/06/23/que…

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 20

A decade after the release of ‘The Martian’ and a decade out from the world it envisions, a scientist checks in on real-life Mars exploration. rocketstem.org/2025/06/20/whe…

RocketSTEM's tweet image. A decade after the release of ‘The Martian’ and a decade out from the world it envisions, a scientist checks in on real-life Mars exploration.

rocketstem.org/2025/06/20/whe…

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 17

The @Axiom Mission 4 commercial crew launch to the ISS scrubbed last week due to a fuel leak in the Falcon 9 rocket. The next possible launch window is no earlier than June 19. rocketstem.org/2025/06/17/axi…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Everything had been looking good for a liftoff of the Axiom Mission 4 carrying a quartet of astronauts to the International Space Station last Wednesday, June 11, until SpaceX engineers discovered a...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 16

X-rays have revealed a mysterious cosmic object that doesn't resemble any known type of star or system in our galaxy – or beyond. rocketstem.org/2025/06/16/x-r…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. In a new study published recently in Nature, we report the discovery of a new long-period transient – and, for the first time, one that also emits regular bursts of X-rays. Long-period transients are...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 12

100 years ago, worsening light pollution led to the building of the first planetariums in order to give the public a view of the stars and planets from a perspective we actually see. rocketstem.org/2025/06/12/bri…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Picture this: a small audience is quietly ushered into a darkened room. They gasp in awe, as a brilliant night sky shines above. They wonder – as many after them will do – what trickery has made the...

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RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 9

The new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located atop a mountain in Chile and using the largest digital camera ever, is assembling our most complete time-lapse record of the night sky. rocketstem.org/2025/06/09/rub…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. On 23 June 2025, the world will get a look at the first images from one of the most powerful telescopes ever built: the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Perched high in the Chilean Andes, the observatory...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · Jun 3

Landing on the Moon is an incredibly difficult feat − 2025 has brought successes and shortfalls for companies and space agencies. rocketstem.org/2025/06/02/lan…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. Half a century after the Apollo astronauts left the last bootprints in lunar dust, the Moon has once again become a destination of fierce ambition and delicate engineering. This time, it’s not just...

RocketSTEM@RocketSTEM · May 27

NASA astronaut Sally Ride’s legacy remains in encouraging young women to embrace science and engineering careers. rocketstem.org/2025/05/26/ast…

RocketSTEM's tweet card. On June 24, 1983, Sally Ride returned to earth after becoming the first American woman to fly into space, riding Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-7 along with four other crew members. Only...