The astonishing first photo of a black hole, revealed Wednesday by the team behind the Event Horizon Telescope, opens up new avenues for researchers to probe more deeply into the inner workings of these extreme and fundamental aspects of our universe.
Why it matters: The major announcement that scientists have finally caught one on camera, so to speak, paves the way for the pursuit of new avenues in astrophysics that will probe the nature of gravity, scientists tell Axios. This work may reveal limits to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
SpaceX is raising up to $510 million in new funding for the second time this year, according to a Delaware stock authorization filing uncovered by the Prime Unicorn Index. Such filings do not guarantee that the issuer will sell all, or any, of the authorized shares.
The bottom line: Shares would be sold at a 9.7% premium to the prior round, which valued Elon Musk's private space company at over $30 billion. To date, SpaceX has raised around $2.75 billion from equity investors.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket — the most powerful rocket flying today — lofted a communications satellite to orbit from Florida on Thursday evening, before coming in for a soft landing back on Earth.
Why it matters: While SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy launch in February 2018 was a successful proof of concept, this launch marks the first time the rocket has actually delivered a payload to orbit for a paying customer. It also is the first time the Elon Musk-founded company successfully recovered 3 rocket stages at once.
The Israeli Beresheet lunar lander didn't stick its potentially historic moon landing on Thursday, suffering from a main engine failure in the final moments of its descent.
Why it matters: Had it not crashed, the lander would have been the first privately funded spacecraft to land on the moon's surface and the first for Israel. In spite of the landing's failure this history-making mission shows that space is slowly but surely becoming more and more accessible.
A ferocious and sprawling spring storm is dumping heavy snowfall on the central U.S., leading to paralyzing blizzard conditions from northeastern Colorado into extreme southwestern Minnesota.
Why it matters: This is the second intense, large storm to strike the central U.S. in a month. The first one, which qualified as a bomb cyclone due to its rapid intensification, led to at least $4 billion in damage, mainly from widespread flooding. One major concern centers on what happens after the storm abates, as the new snow cover will melt in an already flood-ravaged region.
Israel's uncrewed Beresheet lander is flying ever closer to its moon landing on Thursday.
Why it matters: The landing, if successful, will mark the first time a privately-built spacecraft has touched down on the lunar surface. The moon has historically been the domain of wealthy nations like the U.S., China and Russia, but today's landing could prove that space is open to more people than just a chosen few.
