European team to collaborate in optical communication
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands (Airbus DS NL) have signed a memorandum of understanding for collaborative activities regarding ground equipment for space-to-ground optical communication. The agreement will accelerate the development of commercially viable optical ground stations that will be offered by Airbus DS NL and used by SSC in delivering ground ne New Mars rover may collect first sounds recorded on another planet
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
When three new Mars missions reach the Red Planet in February, recording the first sounds from another planet is to be among the scientific milestones.
NASA expects its Perseverance rover to land Feb. 18, after the United Arab Emirates' Hope orbiter arrives Feb. 9 and China's Tianwen-1 mission arrives the next day.
Perseverance carries two microphones. One will record the noise m Holding the system of HR 8799 together
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
All four planets orbiting the star HR 8799 were identified via direct imaging - a feat made possible only because of the planets' large sizes and their wide orbits. Planetary systems with these characteristics often have difficulty holding themselves together under all of the gravitational influences involved. But could the HR 8799 system somehow stay intact?
The direct imaging technique i Light-controlled Higgs modes found in superconductors
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
Even if you weren't a physics major, you've probably heard something about the Higgs boson.
There was the title of a 1993 book by Nobel laureate Leon Lederman that dubbed the Higgs "The God Particle." There was the search for the Higgs particle that launched after 2009's first collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. There was the 2013 announcement that Peter Higgs and Franco Scientists find black holes could reach 'stupendously large' sizes
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
The research, led by Queen Mary Emeritus Professor Bernard Carr in the School of Physics and Astronomy, together with F. Kuhnel (Munich) and L. Visinelli (Frascati), investigated how these SLABs could form and potential limits to their size.
Whilst there is evidence of the existence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei - with masses from a million to ten billion times tha Evidence of intermediate state of matter between crystal and liquid
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
Scientists from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have experimentally confirmed the presence of an intermediate phase between the crystalline and liquid states in a monolayer dusty plasma system.
The theoretical prediction of the intermediate - hexatic - phase was honoured with the Nobel Pr The seven rocky planets of TRAPPIST-1 seem to have very similar compositions
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
A new international study led by astrophysicist Eric Agol from the University of Washington has measured the densities of the seven planets of the exoplanetary system TRAPPIST-1 with extreme precision, the values obtained indicating very similar compositions for all the planets. This fact makes the system even more remarkable and helps to better understand the nature of these fascinating worlds. Astronomers discover first cloudless, Jupiter-like planet
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have detected the first Jupiter-like planet without clouds or haze in its observable atmosphere. The findings were published this month in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Named WASP-62b, the gas giant was first detected in 2012 through the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) South survey. Its atmosphere, however, had The 7 rocky TRAPPIST-1 planets may be made of similar stuff
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
The red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 is home to the largest group of roughly Earth-size planets ever found in a single stellar system. Located about 40 light-years away, these seven rocky siblings provide an example of the tremendous variety of planetary systems that likely fill the universe.
A new study published in the Planetary Science Journal shows that the TRAPPIST-1 planets have remarkably Galaxies hit single, doubles, and a triple growing black holes
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
When three galaxies collide, what happens to the huge black holes at the centers of each? A new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes reveals new information about how many black holes are furiously growing after these galactic smash ups.
Astronomers want to learn more about galactic collisions because the subsequent mergers are a key way that galaxies a Record-breaking laser link could help us test whether Einstein was right
Sunday, 24 January 2021 01:16
Scientists from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) have set a world record for the most stable transmission of a laser signal through the atmosphere.
In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, Australian researchers teamed up with researchers from the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and SpaceX launches record-setting cluster of smallsats
Saturday, 23 January 2021 16:49
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 143 small satellites for a wide range of customers Jan. 24 on the company’s first dedicated rideshare mission, a service that poses a competitive threat to emerging small launch vehicles.
Hyten: U.S. Space Force is ‘on solid ground’ despite speculation
Saturday, 23 January 2021 11:55
WASHINGTON — What does a change in administration mean for the U.S. Space Force? “I get that question a lot,” Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Jan.
U of Louisiana-Lafayette mini-satellite zipping around Earth
Friday, 22 January 2021 13:43
A cubical satellite small enough to sit on the palm of your hand is zipping around the world and sending data about radiation to the Louisiana students who designed and built it.
The satellite, called CAPE-3, carries a chip designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to detect radiation, with an eye to keeping astronauts safe.
"The detectors would provide liquid crystal display readings so astronauts could constantly monitor how much radiation they're being exposed to," Dr. Paul Darby, the university's project leader, said in a news release.
The satellite also carries a tiny Geiger counter so students can tell whether the chip is accurate.
Each side of the satellite is only 10 centimeters—less than 4 inches—across. It was among 10 launched Jan. 17 from a Virgin Orbit rocket that itself was launched high above the Pacific Ocean from a customized Boeing 747.
Eight of the other nine were built by students at other schools. The tenth was built by NASA, which runs the CubeSat Launch Initiative to give nonprofit organizations and schools at all levels a chance to do scientific investigations in space and help NASA with exploration and technology development.
Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to build sensor satellites for Missile Defense Agency
Thursday, 21 January 2021 22:12
WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman and L3Harris were selected by the Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency to each build a prototype sensor satellite capable of tracking hypersonic and ballistic missiles.
The Missile Defense Agency awarded Northrop Grumman a $155 million contract Jan.