Berlin, Germany (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
The global space sector is witnessing a significant transformation, fueled by new supply and demand dynamics, disruptive innovations, and transformational business models. As reported in the recently released market report, "Software-first satellites: essential growth lever for space," this change is largely driven by the increasing importance of digital technologies. Produced jointly by ReOrbit

Ithica NY (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
After a distant star's explosive death, an active stellar corpse was the likely source of repeated energetic flares observed over several months - a phenomenon astronomers had never seen before, a Cornell-led team reports in new research published Nov. 15 in Nature. The bright, brief flashes - as short as a few minutes in duration, and as powerful as the original explosion 100 days later -

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) has demonstrated the highest resolution yet with observations of an old star. The observations show that the star is surrounded by a ring-like structure of gas and that gas from the star is escaping to the surrounding space. Future observations with the newly demonstrated high resolution are expected to elucidate, not only the end of a star's l

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
Astronomers are baffled by a mysterious and extremely bright event in the distant Universe, nicknamed the "Tasmanian Devil", which has been observed to explode repeatedly and emit more energy than hundreds of billions of stars like our Sun. The report, published in Nature, describes a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) monitored in a new way and shown to have unusual behaviour. L

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 16, 2023
Some exoplanets seem to be losing their atmospheres and shrinking. In a new study using NASA's retired Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers find evidence of a possible cause: The cores of these planets are pushing away their atmospheres from the inside out. Exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) come in a variety of sizes, from small, rocky planets to colossal gas giants. In the midd

Baltimore MD (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
Scientists are following neon signs in a search for clues to one planetary system's future and the past of another - our own solar system. Following up on a peculiar reading by NASA's previous infrared flagship observatory, the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the agency's James Webb Space Telescope detected distinct traces of the element neon in the dusty disk surrounding the young Sun-like

Leuven, Belgium (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
A team of European astronomers, co-led by researchers from the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, used recent observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the nearby exoplanet WASP-107b. Peering deep into the fluffy atmosphere of WASP-107b they discovered not only water vapour and sulfur dioxide, but even silicate sand clouds. These particles reside within a d

Lancaster UK (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
A Lancaster University PhD student has measured the optical depth of Saturn's rings using a new method based on how much sunlight reached the Cassini spacecraft while it was in the shadow of the rings. The optical depth is connected to the transparency of an object, and it shows how far light can travel through that object before it gets absorbed or scattered. The research, led by La

Manoa HI (SPX) Nov 16, 2023
On the surface of many of the icy moons in our solar system, scientists have documented strike-slip faults, those that occur when fault walls in the ground's crust move past one another sideways, as is the case at the San Andreas fault in California. Two recently published studies led by University of Hawai'i at Manoa earth and space scientists document and reveal the mechanisms behind these geo

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 16, 2023
The remotely operated facility aboard the International Space Station has created another tool that researchers can use to probe the fundamental nature of the world around us. For the first time in space, scientists have produced a quantum gas containing two types of atoms. Accomplished with NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station, the achievement marks another step to