Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
The crew of China's Shenzhou XIX mission has completed a pivotal in-orbit test of a pipeline inspection robot aboard the Tiangong space station, marking a major step forward in space station maintenance technology. To evaluate the robot's capabilities, astronauts constructed a simulated pipeline system with an assortment of straight, curved, and conical pipes of varying diameters. Within t

Fairbanks AK (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist is participating in a U.S. government effort to design a satellite and instruments capable of detecting space debris as small as 1 centimeter, less than one-half inch. Debris that small, which cannot currently be detected from the ground, can damage satellites and other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. The idea is to outfit future satellites,

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
A research team from Tokyo Metropolitan University has made significant progress in the ongoing search for dark matter. Utilizing advanced spectrographic technology and the Magellan Clay Telescope, they have established new constraints on the lifetime of dark matter through just four hours of infrared observations. Their results underscore the potential of cutting-edge spectroscopic techniques i

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) are the most energetic particles known in the universe, with energies exceeding those attainable by human-made accelerators by more than a million times. Despite their discovery over six decades ago, the origin of these extreme particles has remained an open question in astrophysics. A groundbreaking theory by Glennys Farrar, a physicist at New York Un

Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
A research team co-led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Columbia University, and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid has developed a new optical computing material from photon avalanching nanoparticles. The breakthrough - which the team published recently in the journal Nature Photonics - paves the way for fabricating optical memory and transistors on a nanometer size sc

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
Researchers from RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau in Southwestern Germany are shedding new light on how life might have developed on early Earth. Their latest findings challenge long-standing theories that biologically available nitrogen was a limiting factor in early life's expansion. Nitrogen is a crucial component of proteins and other biological molecules. Although Earth's atmosph

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
A groundbreaking study by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) sheds light on the interaction of photons-the fundamental particles of light-as they traverse boundaries where material properties change abruptly over time. This research reveals fascinating quantum optical phenomena that could drive innovations in quantum technology and propel the emerging field of four-dimensiona

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 01, 2025
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully facilitated the re-entry of Varda Space Industries' capsule using its custom-built Pioneer spacecraft. The capsule, part of Varda's W-2 mission, landed at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia on February 27 at 1:52 pm UTC, with operational support from Southern Launch. The W-2 mission carried a hypersonic re-entry capsule featuring

Paris (AFP) Mar 1, 2025
After several postponements, Europe's Ariane 6 launcher will carry out its first commercial mission on Monday when it puts a French military intelligence satellite into space. The launch from the Kourou base in French Guiana is key to Europe's efforts to build up its security autonomy amid the shocks caused by the US-Russia diplomatic rapprochement. "The whole world is watching us," Aria

Washington DC (AFP) Mar 02, 2025
A US company successfully landed its spacecraft on the Moon on Sunday after a long journey through space, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone - and the first to do so upright. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down shortly after 3:34 am US ET (0834 GMT) near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon's northeastern near side.