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Artificial gravity breaks free from science fiction![]() Boulder CO (SPX) Jul 05, 2019 Artificial gravity has long been the stuff of science fiction. Picture the wheel-shaped ships from films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Martian, imaginary craft that generate their own gravity by spinning around in space. Now, a team from CU Boulder is working to make those out-there technologies a reality. The researchers, led by aerospace engineer Torin Clark, can't mimic those Hollywood creations-yet. But they are imagining new ways to design revolving systems that might fit within a ... read more |
Dust storms swirl at the north pole of MarsParis (ESA) Jul 08, 2019 ESA's Mars Express has been keeping an eye on local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet over the last month, watching as they disperse towards the equator. Loc ... more
Methane vanishing on MarsAarhus, Denmark (SPX) Jul 05, 2019 The processes behind the release and consumption of methane on Mars have been discussed since methane was measured for the first time for approx. 15 years ago. Now, an interdisciplinary research gro ... more
InSight Uncovers the 'Mole' on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Jul 05, 2019 Behold the "mole": The heat-sensing spike that NASA's InSight lander deployed on the Martian surface is now visible. Last week, the spacecraft's robotic arm successfully removed the support structur ... more
Mars 2020 Rover Gets a Super InstrumentPasadena CA (JPL) Jul 03, 2019 Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have installed the SuperCam Mast Unit onto the Mars 2020 rover. The instrument's camera, laser and spectrometers can identify t ... more |
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NASA's TESS Mission Finds Its Smallest Planet YetGreenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 28, 2019 NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet, called L 98-59b, marks the tiniest di ... more
Santorini volcano, a new terrestrial analogue of MarsMadrid, Spain (SPX) Jun 28, 2019 One of the great attractions of the island of Santorini, in Greece, lies in its spectacular volcanic landscape, which also contains places similar to those of Mars. A team of European and U.S. scien ... more
Life on Mars Was Possible After Last Great Meteorite ImpactLondon, Canada (SPX) Jun 27, 2019 A new international study led by Western University shows that Mars' first 'real chance' at developing life started very early, 4.48 billion years ago, when giant, life-inhibiting meteorites stopped ... more
NASA's Curiosity rover finds new methane spike on MarsWashington (AFP) June 24, 2019 NASA's Curiosity Rover has detected the highest ever levels of methane in the course of its mission on Mars, an exciting discovery because the gas could point to the existence of microbial life. ... more
Experiments with salt-tolerant bacteria in brine have implications for life on MarsSan Francisco CA (SPX) Jun 24, 2019 Salt-tolerant bacteria grown in brine were able to revive after the brine was put through a cycle of drying and rewetting. The research has implications for the possibility of life on Mars, as well ... more |
![]() A Rover for Phobos and Deimos
Curiosity detects unusually high methane levelsPasadena CA (JPL) Jun 24, 2019 This week, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover found a surprising result: the largest amount of methane ever measured during the mission - about 21 parts per billion units by volume (ppbv). One ppbv means t ... more |
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Mars 2020 Rover Gets Its WheelsPasadena CA (JPL) Jun 21, 2019 In this image, taken on June 13, 2019, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, install the starboard legs and wheels - otherwise known as the mobility suspension - on ... more
NASA Invests $45M in US Small Businesses for Space Tech DevelopmentWashington DC (SPX) Jun 19, 2019 American businesses will help NASA land astronauts on the Moon in five years and establish a sustainable presence there, as part of the agency's larger Moon to Mars exploration approach. NASA has se ... more
NASA scientists find Sun's history buried in lunar crustGreenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 18, 2019 The Sun is why we're here. It's also why Martians or Venusians are not. When the Sun was just a baby four billion years ago, it went through violent outbursts of intense radiation, spewing sco ... more
The Mast is raised for NASA's Mars 2020 roverPasadena CA (JPL) Jun 17, 2019 In this image, taken on June 5, 2019, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, take a moment after attaching the remote sensing mast to the Mars 2020 rover in the Space ... more
Meteors explain Mars' cloud coverWashington (UPI) Jun 17, 2019 New research suggests the wispy clouds found 18 miles above the Marian surface are made of icy dust produced by meteors hitting the Red Planet's atmosphere. ... more |
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New camera system to offer high-resolution images, video of lunar landing Tucson AZ (SPX) Jul 03, 2019
A new spacecraft-mounted camera system funded by NASA is poised to return the first high-resolution video of a landing plume as it lands on the Moon.
The Heimdall camera system project, headed by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist R. Aileen Yingst, consists of four color cameras and a DVR to store images until they can be uplinked to Earth.
"The camera system will return th ... more |
From Moon to Mars, Chinese space engineers rise to new challenges Beijing (XNA) Jul 08, 2019
With eyes bright, Sun Zezhou, chief designer of China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe, speaks fast but clearly.
"Every time I see the moon, I think how Chinese probes have left permanent footprints on it, especially Chang'e-4, the first spacecraft to soft-land on the far side. As a member of the mission, I'm very proud," said Sun.
Chinese engineers began plans for the Chang'e-1 lunar probe i ... more |
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'Oumuamua Is Not an Alien Spacecraft Honolulu HI (SPX) Jul 02, 2019
An international team of asteroid and comet experts, including two from the University of Hawaii, agrees on a natural origin for our first interstellar visitor. On October 19, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 (Pan-STARRS1) telescope, located at the University of Hawaii's Haleakala Observatory, discovered the first known interstellar object to pass through our sola ... more |
Kuiper Belt Binary Orientations Support Streaming Instability Hypothesis San Antonio TX (SPX) Jun 27, 2019
A Southwest Research Institute-led team studied the orientation of distant solar system bodies to bolster the "streaming instability" theory of planet formation.
"One of the least understood steps in planet growth is the formation of planetesimals, bodies more than a kilometer across, which are just large enough to be held together by gravity," said SwRI scientist Dr. David Nesvorny, the l ... more |
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SMU's 'Titans in a jar' could answer key questions ahead of NASA's space exploration Dallas TX (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
Researchers from Southern Methodist University (SMU) could help determine if Saturn's icy moon - Titan - has ever been home to life long before NASA completes an exploratory visit to its surface by a drone helicopter.
NASA announced in late June that its "Dragonfly" mission would launch toward Saturn's largest moon in 2026, expecting to arrive in 2034. The goal of the mission is to use a r ... more |
Scientists discover the biggest seaweed bloom in the world St. Petersburg FL (SPX) Jul 08, 2019
Scientists led by the USF College of Marine Science used NASA satellite observations to discover the largest bloom of macroalgae in the world called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB), as reported in Science.
They confirmed that the belt of brown macroalgae called Sargassum forms its shape in response to ocean currents, based on numerical simulations. It can grow so large that it bla ... more |
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LightSail 2 phones home to mission control Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 03, 2019
The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft sprang loose from its Prox-1 carrier vehicle as planned, and sent its first signals back to mission control at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California. The CubeSat, about the size of a loaf of bread, was scheduled to leave Prox-1 precisely 7 days after both spacecraft successfully flew to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Following dep ... more |
Planet Seeding and Panspermia Haifa, Israel (SPX) Jun 27, 2019
The first detection of an interstellar asteroid/comet-like object visiting the solar system two years ago has sparked the ideas about the possibility of interstellar travel. New research from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology suggests that such objects also raise far reaching implications about the origins of planets across the galaxy, and possibly even the initial formation of the sol ... more |
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Frequentis Defense gets $8.4M contract for work on MQ-25 Stingray Washington DC (UPI) Jul 04, 2019
Frequentis Defense Inc. received an $8.4 million U.S. Navy contract for work on the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned air vehicle, the Defense Department announced.
The company, based in Columbia, Md., will provide engineering and logistics for the design, development, test, manufacture and repair of the MD-5A Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System, which supports the MQ-25. The integra ... more |
Details of Solar Science Mission Revealed at UK Astronomy Meeting London, UK (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
Named after a Celtic goddess of the Sun, SULIS is a UK-led solar science mission, designed to answer fundamental questions about the physics of solar storms. The mission consists of a cluster of small satellites and will carefully monitor solar storms using state-of-the-art UK technology, as well as demonstrating new technologies in space. Lead Investigator on the project, Dr. Eamon Scullion of ... more |
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Scientists make breakthrough that enables rockets to orbit longer Beijing (XNA) Jul 08, 2019
Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in cryogenic rocket engine technology that can extend the orbital period of rockets from a few hours to 30 days, providing support for China's future deep space exploration.
Cryogenic rocket engines are specially designed to work at extremely low temperatures. They use non-toxic and non-polluting propellants, such as liquid hydrogen and liquid ox ... more |
Scientists weigh the balance of matter in galaxy clusters Birmingham UK (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
A method of weighing the quantities of matter in galaxy clusters - the largest objects in our universe - has shown a balance between the amounts of hot gas, stars and other materials.
The results are the first to use observational data to measure this balance, which was theorized 20 years ago, and will yield fresh insight into the relationship between ordinary matter that emits light and d ... more |
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Artificial gravity breaks free from science fiction Boulder CO (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
Artificial gravity has long been the stuff of science fiction. Picture the wheel-shaped ships from films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Martian, imaginary craft that generate their own gravity by spinning around in space.
Now, a team from CU Boulder is working to make those out-there technologies a reality.
The researchers, led by aerospace engineer Torin Clark, can't mimic those ... more |
X-rays Spot Spinning Black Holes Across Cosmic Sea Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
Like whirlpools in the ocean, spinning black holes in space create a swirling torrent around them. However, black holes do not create eddies of wind or water. Rather, they generate disks of gas and dust heated to hundreds of millions of degrees that glow in X-ray light.
Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and chance alignments across billions of light years, astronomers have d ... more |
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Jumping space robot 'flies' like a spacecraft Paris (ESA) Jul 08, 2019
Astronauts on the Moon found themselves hopping around, rather than simply walking. Switzerland's SpaceBok planetary exploration robot has followed their example, launching all four legs off the ground during tests at ESA's technical heart.
SpaceBok is a quadruped robot designed and built by a Swiss student team from ETH Zurich and ZHAW Zurich. It is currently being tested using robotic fa ... more |
From Moon to Mars, Chinese space engineers rise to new challenges Beijing (XNA) Jul 08, 2019
With eyes bright, Sun Zezhou, chief designer of China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe, speaks fast but clearly.
"Every time I see the moon, I think how Chinese probes have left permanent footprints on it, especially Chang'e-4, the first spacecraft to soft-land on the far side. As a member of the mission, I'm very proud," said Sun.
Chinese engineers began plans for the Chang'e-1 lunar probe i ... more |
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