|
|
Mysterious Martian Methane Bursts Confirmed![]() Tucson AZ (SPX) Apr 05, 2019 Martian methane releases are rare, episodic, and often debated, but scientists have discovered evidence of a methane emission in June 2013, which constitutes the first confirmation of a methane release on Mars. Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Dorothy Z. Oehler is an author on two new papers on methane detections in the Martian atmosphere. The first is "Methane spikes, background seasonality and non-detections on Mars: A geological perspective" that appears in Planetary and Space Scien ... read more |
Life on Mars?Washington DC (SPX) Apr 05, 2019 According to NASA, scientists are in agreement that there is no life on Mars. However, they continue to assess whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting microbial life. Now, r ... more
Curiosity Captured Two Solar Eclipses on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Apr 05, 2019 When NASA's Curiosity Mars rover landed in 2012, it brought along eclipse glasses. The solar filters on its Mast Camera (Mastcam) allow it to stare directly at the Sun. Over the past few weeks, Curi ... more
After the Moon in 2024, NASA wants to reach Mars by 2033Washington (AFP) April 2, 2019 NASA has made it clear they want astronauts back on the Moon in 2024, and now, they are zeroing in on the Red Planet - the US space agency confirmed that it wants humans to reach Mars by 2033. ... more
Scientists find likely source of methane on MarsParis (AFP) April 1, 2019 The mystery of methane on Mars may finally be solved as scientists Monday confirmed the presence of the life-indicating gas on the Red Planet as well as where it might have come from. ... more |
|
| Previous Issues | Apr 04 | Apr 03 | Apr 02 | Apr 01 | Mar 31 |
|
|
|
|
Rivers raged on Mars late into its historyChicago IL (SPX) Mar 28, 2019 Long ago on Mars, water carved deep riverbeds into the planet's surface - but we still don't know what kind of weather fed them. Scientists aren't sure, because their understanding of the Martian cl ... more
Laser blasts show asteroid bombardment, hydrogen make great recipe for life on MarsGreenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 26, 2019 A new study reveals asteroid impacts on ancient Mars could have produced key ingredients for life if the Martian atmosphere was rich in hydrogen. An early hydrogen-rich atmosphere on Mars could also ... more
Mars callingParis (ESA) Mar 27, 2019 An exciting new competition is giving citizens of planet Earth the opportunity to get their voices to Mars in the next phase of the ExoMars programme. The ExoMars rover and platform will launch to t ... more
Dormant viruses reactivate during spaceflightWashington DC (SPX) Mar 19, 2019 Herpes viruses reactivate in more than half of crew aboard Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions, according to NASA research published in Frontiers in Microbiology. While only a sma ... more
Google and Haughton-Mars Project Partner on Moon-Mars Exploration PrepMountain View CA (SPX) Mar 26, 2019 The Mars Institute and the SETI Institute are announcing a new partnership between Google and the NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) to advance Mars exploration at one of the most otherworldly places ... more |
![]() ExoMars landing platform arrives in Europe with a name
NASA's Mars 2020 rover is put to the testPasadena CA (JPL) Mar 20, 2019 In a little more than seven minutes in the early afternoon of Feb. 18, 2021, NASA's Mars 2020 rover will execute about 27,000 actions and calculations as it speeds through the hazardous transition f ... more |
|
|
Drone maps icy lava tube to prepare for cave exploration on Moon and MarsMountain View CA (SPX) Mar 20, 2019 The SETI Institute and Astrobotic Technology, Inc. are announcing the successful mapping in 3D of the interior of an ice-rich lava tube in Iceland using a LiDAR-equipped drone. The team was investig ... more
Trembling Aspen Leaves Could Save Future Mars RoversCoventry, UK (SPX) Mar 19, 2019 Researchers at the University of Warwick have been inspired by the unique movement of trembling aspen leaves, to devise an energy harvesting mechanism that could power weather sensors in hostile env ... more
Rehearsing for the Mars landings in Hawaii and IdahoHamilton, Canada (SPX) Mar 19, 2019 Imagine astronauts on Mars, tasked with picking rock samples that will be used by scientists to search for signs of life. But they can only transport a limited number back to Earth. What should they ... more
Bernese Mars Camera CaSSIS Returns Spectacular ImagesBern, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 15, 2019 Three years ago, on 14 March 2016, the Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS started its journey to Mars with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. The camera system developed at the University of Bern has ... more
InSight lander among latest ExoMars image bountyNoordwijk, The Netherlands (SPX) Mar 15, 2019 Curious surface features, water-formed minerals, 3D stereo views, and even a sighting of the InSight lander showcase the impressive range of imaging capabilities of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. ... more |
|
|
SpaceIL lunar lander in orbit around moon ahead of touchdown Washington (UPI) Apr 4, 2019 Next week's record-setting lunar landing was dependent on the success of this week's entry into orbit.
On Thursday, the first privately funded lunar lander, a small Israeli spacecraft named Beresheet, successfully inserted itself into orbit around the moon.
Engineers on the first-of-its-kind mission watched the spacecraft's vitals with anticipation as Beresheet executed six-minut ... more |
China launches new data relay satellite Beijing (XNA) Apr 01, 2019
China sent a new data relay satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province late Sunday night.
The Tianlian II-01 satellite was launched at 11:51 p.m. Beijing Time by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.
As the first satellite to constitute China's second-generation data relay satellite network, the Tianlian II-01 will provide data relay ... more |
|
|
OSIRIS-REx Captures Laser 3D View of Bennu Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 05, 2019
This three-dimensional view of asteroid Bennu was created by the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA), contributed by the Canadian Space Agency, on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
From Feb. 12 through 17, OLA made more than 11 million measurements of the distance between OSIRIS-REx and Bennu's surface as the spacecraft flew less than 1.2 miles (2 km) above the surface - the closest orbit ever ac ... more |
Europa Clipper High-Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing Hampton, VA (SPX) Apr 01, 2019
It probably goes without saying, but this isn't your everyday satellite dish.
In fact, it's not a satellite dish at all. It's a high-gain antenna (HGA), and a future version of it will send and receive signals to and from Earth from a looping orbit around Jupiter.
The antenna will take that long journey aboard NASA's Europa Clipper, a spacecraft that will conduct detailed reconnaissa ... more |
|
|
New close-ups of the mini-moons in Saturn's rings Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 29, 2019 Nestled between Saturn's rings are a collection of mini-moons that NASA's Cassini spacecraft skimmed past in 2017.
On Thursday, for the first time, astronomers and scientists are detailing their findings about the moons in the US journal Science.
Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora and Epimetheus each measure between eight and 116 kilometers (five to 72 miles) in diameter. They are either round ... more |
Natural climate processes overshadow recent human-induced Walker circulation trends Seoul, South Korea (SPX) Apr 03, 2019
A new study, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that the recent intensification of the equatorial Pacific wind system, known as Walker Circulation, is unrelated to human influences and can be explained by natural processes. This result ends a long-standing debate on the drivers of an unprecedented atmospheric trend, which contributed to a three-fold acceleration of s ... more |
|
|
More Delays Ahead for Boeing's New Space Capsule for Astronauts Cape Canaveral FL (VOA) Apr 05, 2019
Boeing's new space capsule for astronauts faces more launch delays. The Starliner capsule was supposed to make its debut this month, after a series of postponements. But the first test flight is now off until August. And the second test flight, with astronauts, won't occur until late in the year.
NASA announced the revised lineup Wednesday. At the same time, officials said the first Starli ... more |
Biologists find world's first organism with non-photosynthesizing chlorophyll Washington (UPI) Apr 4, 2019 Scientists have discovered the world's first organism that can produce chlorophyll but does not perform photosynthesis.
The unprecedented animal is called a corallicolid because it is found in 70 percent of the planet's corals.
"This is the second most abundant cohabitant of coral on the planet and it hasn't been seen until now," Patrick Keeling, a botanist at the University of B ... more |
|
|
A short first hop for 'drone taxi' in Vienna Vienna (AFP) April 4, 2019
It was more of a small step than a giant leap, but the first public outing of a pilotless "drone taxi" in Vienna on Thursday nevertheless offered a glimpse into the possible future of urban travel.
Several big companies such as Boeing and Airbus are working on their own versions of the technology but it was the Chinese firm EHang that unveiled its aircraft to assembled journalists in the Aus ... more |
And the Blobs Just Keep on Coming Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 05, 2019
When Simone Di Matteo first saw the patterns in his data, it seemed too good to be true. "It's too perfect!" Di Matteo, a space physics Ph.D. student at the University of L'Aquila in Italy, recalled thinking. "It can't be real." And it wasn't, he'd soon find out.
Di Matteo was looking for long trains of massive blobs - like a lava lamp's otherworldly bubbles, but anywhere from 50 to 500 ti ... more |
|
|
NASA Achieves Rocket Engine Test Milestone Needed for Moon Missions Bay St. Louis MS (SPX) Apr 05, 2019
NASA is a step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon in the next five years following a successful engine test on Thursday at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The latest "hot fire" was the culmination of four-plus years of testing for the RS-25 engines that will send the first four Space Launch System (SLS) rockets into space.
"This completes four years o ... more |
Heavy Metal Planet Fragment Survives Destruction from Dead Star Coventry, UK (SPX) Apr 05, 2019
Astronomers from University of Warwick detected the small body orbiting a white dwarf 'closer than we would expect to find anything still alive'; Planetesimal orbits with a 'comet-like tail' of gas, creating a ring within the debris disc; Offers a hint as to the future of our solar system, 6 billion years from now; Artist's impression available, see below. **
A fragment of a planet that ha ... more |
|
|
Upgraded Detectors to Resume Hunt for Gravitational Waves London, UK (SPX) Mar 27, 2019
UK astrophysicists are gearing up to resume the search for gravitational waves, the ripples in spacetime caused by some of the universe's most spectacular events, after substantial upgrades to the three global detectors mean that they will be able to survey an even larger volume of space than ever before for powerful, wave-making events, such as the collisions of black holes.
Over the last ... more |
Behavior of 'trapped' electrons in a one-dimensional world observed in the lab Cologne, Germany (SPX) Apr 02, 2019
A team of physicists at the University of Cologne has, for the first time, seen a particularly exotic behaviour of electrons on an atomic scale. Electrons normally move almost freely through three-dimensional space. However, when they are forced to move in only one dimension - i.e. in a chain of atoms - they begin to act rather strangely.
The Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory predicted this ... more |
|
|
'Edtech' boom transforms how Indian kids learn Mumbai (AFP) March 31, 2019
From a multi-billion-dollar education startup to wired-up mannequins, technology is helping to revolutionise the way Indian schoolchildren are learning - provided their parents can afford it.
A host of online platforms are taking advantage of a surge in smartphone ownership to engage millions of youngsters with interactive games and animated video lessons.
India's education system suffe ... more |
China launches new data relay satellite Beijing (XNA) Apr 01, 2019
China sent a new data relay satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province late Sunday night.
The Tianlian II-01 satellite was launched at 11:51 p.m. Beijing Time by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.
As the first satellite to constitute China's second-generation data relay satellite network, the Tianlian II-01 will provide data relay ... more |
|
| Buy Advertising | Media Advertising Kit | Editorial & Other Enquiries | Privacy statement |
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement |