The Artemis II Moon rocket lifted off from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, 2026. Our live launch day coverage continues on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_UjBMIzNo
Stick with us for more Artemis II content including live broadcasts for lunar flyby and splashdown, daily news conferences, and 24/7 streams providing views from the Orion spacecraft and from NASA Kennedy.
This artistâs impression visualizes a variety of terrestrial planets.
There are several ways to find a planet, but most methods are best at discovering worlds that are gargantuan, ultra-close to their star, or both. Those toasty, star-hugging planets are fascinating, however astronomers want to find more familiar worlds too. One of the most mind-bending planet hunting methods, called microlensing, promises to reveal planets like those in our solar system thanks to tiny wrinkles in space-time.
Microlensing is a light-bending phenomenon that occurs because anything that has mass warps the fabric of space-time, sort of like the sag a bowling ball makes when set on a trampoline. The effect is extreme around the heftiest objects, like black holes and entire galaxies. But even stars and planets cause a detectable degree of warping.
This animation illustrates the concept of gravitational microlensing. When one star in the sky appears to pass nearly in front of another, the light rays of the background source star become bent due to the warped space-time around the foreground star. This star acts like a virtual magnifying glass, amplifying the brightness of the background source star. If the nearer star harbors a planetary system, then those planets can also act as lenses, each one producing a short deviation in the brightness of the source. When astronomers find planets this way, they can measure their mass and orbital distance from their host star.
Hereâs how it works. Light travels in a straight line, but if space-time is bent â which happens near something massive, like a star â light follows the curve. Any time two stars align closely from our vantage point, light from the more distant star curves as it travels through the warped space-time around the nearer star.
If the alignment is especially close, the nearer star acts like a cosmic lens, focusing and amplifying light from the background star. Planets orbiting the foreground star may also modify the lensed light, acting as their own tiny magnifying glasses. Astronomers see the effect as a spike in the starâs brightness.
This animation illustrates how a star and orbiting planet can lens light from a farther star when they align from our vantage point.
Even for powerful telescopes, itâs extremely difficult to see these little surges of starlight. For one thing, theyâre rare â they rely on chance alignments between two widely separated and unrelated stars drifting through space. And the signals often only last a few hours before disappearing forever, so there is some luck involved.
Telescopes on the ground also have to peer through Earthâs hazy atmosphere, which can make images too blurry to tell different stars apart. Put all that together, and itâs little surprise that less than 5% of known exoplanets have been found using this method so far.
A rogue planet drifts through the galaxy alone, untethered to a star.
But microlensing can reveal a wide variety of worlds, including ones too small or far from their host star for other methods to detect. While other techniques are biased toward bizarre planets, like lava worlds and hot Jupiters, microlensing is best suited to finding familiar ones â worlds in their starâs habitable zone and even farther out.Â
That includes ice giants, like Uranus and Neptune in our solar system, and even rogue planets â worlds freely roaming the galaxy unbound to any stars.
Most microlensing exoplanets discovered so far were found by ground based observatories, though our retired Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes found a few too. Soon our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will begin surveying the cosmos, and its wide, sharp view will take us from dozens of microlensing planets to more than a thousand! Who knows how many Earth-like planets will be among them?
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Ya know, the further into the season we get, the less articulate my so-called reviews become, and I am having all the feelings about this. Without further ado, let's get into it - and cheers, my friends, to a SPECTACULAR finale!
So, for all of our anxieties and death predictions, this has been the greatest subversion of all - that everyone (that we like) is alive and well. From the title card I knew Caesar was done for, but I didn't dare hope he'd be the only one to die until the very end. "Uncoupled from history" indeed. Farewell, IG model Caesar, I won't miss you.
In @blondelucretia 's words, Chekhov's shithead brother is here! And he's not Gabinius' twinđ„ He's not at all what I expected, either - thought he'd be some chaotic, irresponsible drunk, which would've been fun to watch... but no, just extremely patriarchal and creepy (I can't get over that bath sceneđ€ą One moment I was enjoying Claudia Black and then the next, Servius enters... that was my jumpscare... and then he's flashing them casuallyđ€ź). Gabinius, I'm so sorry for hating you a bit a few weeks ago. Come back, please? Please?
Poor Ashur. Not only does he get repeatedly humilliated by everyone of rank, but his guilt is eating him alive. You just know that, whatever everyone around him is saying about Gabinius' killer, he's already said to himself gods know how many times over. The intensity of his self-loathing was every bit as strong as when he was performing the act at the end of the last episode. I wonder if that's what made him lose it with Caesar - if he was temporarily externalizing all that self-loathing. Side note - is he growing a mourning beard, is that something Syrians/Assyrians did? Or was this simply an aesthetic choice to showcase that he's not taking care of himself?
Viridia, girl, having the first kiss with your great love at your dad's funeral ain't romantic. I get it, though. Wonder what the future has in store for them... I can't imagine Servius would let them spend any time together, and she was visibly shaken by seeing Ashur kiss Hilara at the games.
Taurus, Hammer of the gods - I see what you did there, showđ The guy is definitely Norse. So it's Thor against Satyrus and Galatea, which was crazy fun. I found myself loudly cheering for the two while they struggled and clumsily worked together - and as the match went on and they found their rhythm! The choreography was beautiful, their chemistry off the charts. When Galatea went "I am going to fuck you this night, little man" and Satyrus yelled "And I shall let you!", I burst out with laughterđ She's gorgeous, they're both freaks, I ship it! Hope to see more of them next season!
You know whom I don't ship?... More on that later, let's talk a bit about Achillia's match first.
Pure fucking spectacle. The parkour? Perfection. Using the shield as a weapon? Poetic, beautiful. The killing blow paired with Celadus flashbacks? Heartbreaking, gory, visceral, but oh so satisfying. I yelled and laughed and clapped like a seal, and my dogs cheered...
Tarchon getting character development - yes, a million times yes. This is what I've been waiting for. He's evidently picked up his dad's teaching skills, because he's proven himself a very effective teacher, and he was a pleasure to watch in those scenes. Elata really put her foot in it when she referred to Celadus as an obstacle - kudos to the kid for not letting her get away with such disrespect.
His conversation with Achillia after the match was open and honest, the first such interaction they've shared since the beginning. I love them bonding over Celadus, honoring his legacy by finally making peace, and having a real talk about their roles in the ludus and dreams outside of it. But when I say I love them honoring Celadus, SEX ISN'T WHAT I MEANT, KIDS. That's just disturbing. What the hell are we supposed to do with it?đ
Final, random thoughts - Messia is safe! I don't think we've seen the last of her. Cornelia will be beside herself when she hears of Caesar's death, I fully expect her to storm back into Capua, with Messia in tow. And that "outfit" she had Messia in was... good. Yes, it was very good, yesđ
Folks, I'm not done with this yet! More gifs and fun stuff is coming, I intend to keep the conversation going as long as possible - until the start of next season, if we can. I'm nowhere near ready to say goodbye to our lovely little fandomâ€ïžâ€ïžâ€ïž
i love benophie because they fall in love with these magical almost dream-like versions of each other and then they actually get to know each other and fall in love again
đ ( white brazilian / b. 1992 ) ïčon the source link you will find 726 gifs of chay suede on mania de vocĂȘ (2025; episodes 99-104). i donât care what you do with these, just donât be gross and donât claim them as your own. if using these, give this post a reblog. thank you !
they released a trailer for american love story and it doesnât look as bad as i thought. from what the trailer showed me, iâm still not too convinced with paulâs portrayal. i know you canât really discern that off of this alone BUTâŠ. sarah, on the other hand. that scene at the end? and when sheâs looking at the framed pictures of ethel, jackie, jfk, and rfk? sheâs gonna blow it out of the water. iâm so sat for her performance
