Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 26, 2021
Earth sails the solar system in a ship of its own making: the magnetosphere, the magnetic field that envelops and protects our planet. The celestial sea we find ourselves in is filled with charged particles flowing from the Sun, known as the solar wind. Just as ocean waves follow the wind, scientists expected that waves traveling along the magnetosphere should ripple in the direction of the sola

Munich, Germany (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) is a scientific collaboration bringing together teams of astronomers around the largest European radio telescopes, as well as groups specialized in data analysis and modelling of gravitational-wave (GW) signals. It has published a detailed analysis of a candidate signal for the since-long sought gravitational-wave background (GWB) due to in-spiraling super

Image: Lunar Lander in Dubai

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
NEOM Tech and Digital Holding Company - the first holding company to be established as a subsidiary of NEOM - and OneWeb, the global communications network powered from space, have signed a $200 million (SAR 750m) joint venture agreement to bring high-speed satellite connectivity to NEOM, Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East and neighboring East African countries. The partnership will se

Chelmsford, MA (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
AiRANACULUS, a private, Massachusetts-based technology company providing early stage research, development, prototyping and consulting services, announced it has been awarded a Phase II NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract for development of an advanced space communications system to support upcoming missions to the Moon and Mars. Under the new contract, AiRANACULUS will demons

Strathclyde UK (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
The Earth's atmosphere has been used as a 'laboratory' to carry out a physics experiment, in research collaboration involving the University of Strathclyde which could help to improve the performance of GPS. The study displays a new method of remotely monitoring the plasma in the ionosphere and of controlling wave modes in a way which could help GPS make better calculations in the face of

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
NASA launches satellites, rovers, and orbiters to investigate humanity's place in the Milky Way. When these missions reach their destinations, their science instruments capture images, videos, and valuable insights about the cosmos. Communications infrastructure in space and on the ground enables the data collected by these missions to reach Earth. Without ground stations to receive it, the extr

Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
A new study shows how the chemicals in an exoplanet's atmosphere can, in some cases, reveal whether or not the temperature on its surface is too hot for liquid water. In our solar system, planets are either small and rocky (like Earth) or large and gaseous (like Neptune). But around other stars, astronomers have found planets that fall in between - worlds slightly larger than Earth but sma

By Jim Shelton for Yale News
New Haven CT (SPX) Oct 28, 2021 Astronomers searching for Earth-like planets in other solar systems have made a breakthrough by taking a closer look at the surface of stars. A new technique developed by an international team of researchers - led by Yale astronomers Rachael Roettenbacher, Sam Cabot, and Debra Fischer - uses a combination of data from ground-based and orbiting telescopes to

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 28, 2021
How do we understand the significance of new scientific results related to the search for life? When would we be able to say, "yes, extraterrestrial life has been found?" NASA scientists are encouraging the scientific community to establish a new framework that provides context for findings related to the search for life. Writing in the journal Nature, they propose creating a scale for ev