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For arid, Mars-like desert, rain brings death![]() Ithaca NY (SPX) Nov 15, 2018 When rains fell on the arid Atacama Desert, it was reasonable to expect floral blooms to follow. Instead, the water brought death. An international team of planetary astrobiologists has found that after encountering never-before-seen rainfall three years ago at the arid core of Chile's Atacama Desert, the heavy precipitation wiped out most of the microbes that had lived there. "When the rains came to the Atacama, we were hoping for majestic blooms and deserts springing to life. Instead, we l ... read more |
Extended life for ESA's science missionsParis (ESA) Nov 15, 2018 ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) has confirmed the continued operations of ten scientific missions in the Agency's fleet up to 2022. After a comprehensive review of their scientific mer ... more
NASA wants people on Mars within 25 yearsWashington (AFP) Nov 13, 2018 Deadly radiation from the cosmos, potential vision loss, and atrophying bones are just some of the challenges scientists must overcome before any future astronaut can set foot on Mars, experts and top NASA officials said Tuesday. ... more
Atmospheric opacity over Opportunity drops to storm-free levelsPasadena CA (JPL) Nov 14, 2018 The global dust storm on Mars has ended and atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site has dropped to a storm-free level of 0.8. Since loss of signal on Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018), 253 recove ... more
Colonizing Mars means contaminating MarsNashville TN (SPX) Nov 14, 2018 The closest place in the universe where extraterrestrial life might exist is Mars, and human beings are poised to attempt to colonize this planetary neighbor within the next decade. Before that happ ... more |
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| Previous Issues | Nov 15 | Nov 14 | Nov 13 | Nov 12 | Nov 09 |
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Dawn falls silent as a successful mission comes to an endBonn, Germany (SPX) Nov 12, 2018 An extraordinary mission has drawn to an end, after the NASA space probe Dawn fell silent on 31 October. On 27 September 2007, Dawn set off to explore the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, ... more
The Mars InSight Landing Site Is Just Plain PerfectPasadena CA (JPL) Nov 06, 2018 No doubt about it, NASA explores some of the most awe-inspiring locations in our solar system and beyond. Once seen, who can forget the majesty of astronaut Jim Irwin standing before the stark beaut ... more
NASA looks to university researchers for innovative space tech solutionsWashington DC (SPX) Nov 09, 2018 University-led research could transform the future of space exploration, from small spacecraft to "smart" systems for the Moon, Mars and beyond. NASA has selected 14 proposals for the study of innov ... more
Five Months Since We Received A Signal From OpportunityPasadena CA (JPL) Nov 08, 2018 The global dust storm on Mars has ended and atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site hovers around a typical seasonal value between 1.0 and 1.2. No signal from Opportunity has been heard ... more
Evidence of outburst flooding indicates plentiful water on early MarsJackson MS (SPX) Nov 06, 2018 The presence of water on Mars has been theorized for centuries. Early telescopes revealed ice caps, and early astronomers noted channels that were hypothesized to be natural rivers or creature-created canals. ... more |
![]() Curiosity on the move again
Water cycle along the northern rim of Hellas Basin throughout Mars' historyMountain View CA (SPX) Nov 02, 2018 The northeastern rim region of Hellas impact basin, located in the southern hemisphere of Mars, contained numerous ephemeral lakes throughout Mars' history, a new study reveals. A new paper publishe ... more |
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Naturally occurring 'batteries' fueled organic carbon synthesis on MarsWashington DC (SPX) Nov 01, 2018 Mars' organic carbon may have originated from a series of electrochemical reactions between briny liquids and volcanic minerals, according to new analyses of three Martian meteorites from a team led ... more
Five things to know about InSight's Mars landingPasadena CA (JPL) Nov 01, 2018 Every Mars landing is a knuckle-whitening feat of engineering. But each attempt has its own quirks based on where a spacecraft is going and what kind of science the mission intends to gather. ... more
NASA launches a new podcast to MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Oct 31, 2018 NASA has a new mission to Mars, and it's taking podcast listeners along for the ride. Launching this week, the eight-episode series "On a Mission" follows the InSight lander as it travels hund ... more
NASA will keep trying to contact stalled Mars rover OpportunityWashington (AFP) Oct 30, 2018 NASA has changed its mind about how long it will continue to seek contact with an aging robotic vehicle that was blanketed in a dust storm on Mars back in June and has been stalled ever since. ... more
Desert test drive for Mars rover controlled from 1,000 miles awayLondon, UK (SPX) Oct 29, 2018 A UK-built Mars rover was taken for a test drive in Spain's Tabernas Desert this week, under remote control from the Harwell Space Cluster in Oxfordshire - 1,000 miles away. The ExoFiT Mars ro ... more |
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Lunar Outpost unveils lunar resource prospecting rover Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 14, 2018
Lunar Outpost, a space technology startup developing enabling technologies for a sustained presence on the Lunar surface, announced their Lunar Prospector designed to search for and map the Moon's natural resources.
The first Prospector was demonstrated driving and drilling in Lunar regolith simulant at the Colorado School of Mines' new Lunar testbed facility in the Earth Mechanics Institu ... more |
China releases smart solution for verifying reliability of space equipment components Beijing (XNA) Nov 13, 2018
The Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences released a smart solution for verifying the operational reliability of space equipment components on Friday.
The selection of space equipment components involves reliability verification, data collection, transmission and comparison.
The smart solution will help shorten the time to ... more |
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NASA's OSIRIS-REx executes fourth asteroid approach maneuver Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 14, 2018
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its fourth Asteroid Approach Maneuver (AAM-4) yesterday. The spacecraft fired its Attitude Control System (ACS) thrusters to slow the spacecraft from approximately 0.31 mph (0.14 m/sec) to 0.10 mph (0.04 m/sec).
The ACS thrusters are capable of velocity changes as small as 0.02 mph (0.01 m/sec).
The mission team will continue to examine telemetry ... more |
Evidence for ancient glaciation on Pluto Mountain View CA (SPX) Nov 14, 2018
A letter authored by SETI Institute scientist Oliver White was published by Nature Astronomy today. Co-authors included researchers Jeff Moore, Tanguy Bertrand and Kimberly Ennico at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
The letter "Washboard and Fluted Terrains on Pluto as Evidence for Ancient Glaciation" focuses on these distinctive landscapes that border the vast nitrogen ice p ... more |
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Saturn's Moon Dione Covered by Mysterious Stripes Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 25, 2018
Mysterious straight bright stripes have been discovered on Saturn's moon Dione, says research by Planetary Science Institute Associate Research Scientist Alex Patthoff.
The origins of these linear virgae (virgae meaning a stripe or streak of color) are most likely caused by the draping of surface materials like material from Saturn's rings, passing comets, or co-orbital moons Helene and Po ... more |
Chinese satellites provide advanced solutions to modeling small particles Nanjing, China (SPX) Nov 15, 2018
The assimilation of aerosol optical depth (AOD) observational data from the Chinese satellite Fengyun-3A (FY-3A) can significantly improve the ability to model aerosol mass, according to Prof. Jinzhong MIN, Vice President at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology.
Prof. MIN and his team - a group of researchers from the Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of the Min ... more |
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Poor weather delays US space cargo launch to Saturday Washington (AFP) Nov 15, 2018
Windy weather pushed back until Saturday the planned launch of a US cargo ship loaded with supplies for astronauts living at the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday.
The delay to 4:01 am (0901 GMT) on November 17 from Wallops Island, Virginia marks the second time launch managers have postponed the mission from its initial flight plan of Thursday.
"The teams decided to wait a ... more |
A cold Super-Earth just 6 light years away at Barnard's Star Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Nov 15, 2018 An international group of astronomers, involving the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, has succeeded in detecting a planet around Barnard's star, which is only six lightyears away.
The planet has just over three times the mass of Earth and is slightly colder than Saturn. The discovery was made by measuring the periodic change in the radial velocity of the parent star ... more |
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Northrop Grumman tapped for South Korean drone support Washington (UPI) Nov 15, 2018
Northrop Grumman signed a contract with the Republic of Korea to provide logistical support to ROK's high-altitude RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle fleet.
The contract includes site activation for launching and ground control, training, and support personnel for four RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles set for delivery over the next year, the company announced on Wednesday ... more |
Auroras Unlock the Physics of Energetic Processes in Space London UK (SPX) Nov 16, 2018
A close study of auroras has revealed new ways of understanding the physics of explosive energy releases in space, according to new UCL-led research.
Auroras are an incredible light show caused by electrically charged particles in near-Earth space spiraling down Earth's magnetic field and colliding with gases in the atmosphere, causing them to glow.
They are also a tell-tale sign of ... more |
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Russia's Cargo Craft Blasts Off to Station for Sunday Delivery Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX) Nov 17, 2018
Carrying almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted Russian Progress 71 cargo spacecraft launched at 1:14 p.m. EST (12:14 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, Baikonur) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
At the time of launch, the International Space Station was flying about 252 statute miles over southern Kazakhstan.
The resupply ... more |
Astronomers find picture of hefty star before it blew up Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 16, 2018
Supernovas are the deathly explosions of massive stars. One of the ways that astronomers look for clues about how these stars blow up is to go hunting for what's known as the progenitor to a supernova - the star before it died. They comb through archival telescope images and try to pinpoint the location and identity of the star before it blasted apart.
Now, for the first time, a Caltech-le ... more |
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Griffith precision measurement takes it to the limit Nathan, Australia (SPX) Nov 06, 2018
Griffith University researchers have demonstrated a procedure for making precise measurements of speed, acceleration, material properties and even gravity waves possible, approaching the ultimate sensitivity allowed by laws of quantum physics.
Published in Nature Communications, the work saw the Griffith team, led by Professor Geoff Pryde, working with photons (single particles of light) a ... more |
Atomic parity violation research reaches new milestone Mainz, Germany (SPX) Nov 15, 2018
A reflection always reproduces objects as a complete mirror image, rather than just its individual parts or individual parts in a completely different orientation. It's all or nothing, the mirror can't reflect just a little. This illustrates a fundamental symmetry principle in nature.
For decades, physics assumed that the laws of nature in our world and in the mirror world would be identic ... more |
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Researchers in Japan make android child's face strikingly more expressive Osaka, Japan (SPX) Nov 16, 2018
Japan's affection for robots is no secret. But is the feeling mutual in the country's amazing androids? We may now be a step closer to giving androids greater facial expressions to communicate with.
While robots have featured in advances in healthcare, industrial, and other settings in Japan, capturing humanistic expression in a robotic face remains an elusive challenge. Although their sys ... more |
China releases smart solution for verifying reliability of space equipment components Beijing (XNA) Nov 13, 2018
The Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences released a smart solution for verifying the operational reliability of space equipment components on Friday.
The selection of space equipment components involves reliability verification, data collection, transmission and comparison.
The smart solution will help shorten the time to ... more |
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