WASHINGTON — A report by the National Science Foundation estimates it will cost up to $50 million to clean up the damage from the collapsed Arecibo radio telescope, but that it is still too soon to determine whether or how to rebuild the famous observatory.

Washington DC (AAS) Mar 04, 2021
Some observatories - like the recently collapsed Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico - examine nearby objects by bouncing radio light off of them. A new study has now improved how we analyze these observations to learn about near-Earth asteroids. There's plenty we can learn about the universe from passive radio astronomy, in which we observe the radio signals emitted by distant sources. But w

Odense, Denmark (SPX) Mar 04, 2021
The universe was created by a giant bang; the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, and then it started to expand. The expansion is ongoing: it is still being stretched out in all directions like a balloon being inflated. Physicists agree on this much, but something is wrong. Measuring the expansion rate of the universe in different ways leads to different results. So, is something wrong

Hefei, China (SPX) Mar 04, 2021
Gas around black holes and interstellar medium distribution are key factors in understanding the growth of supermassive black holes and the evolution of their host galaxies. However, as a crucial parameter, gas density is hard to be determined reliably, because the general method is not applicable to all quasars. Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Perseverance rover has started moving on the Martian surface as project scientists prepare to send the rover toward the remnants of a river delta in search of signs of past life.

At a March 5 press briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, project officials said that the rover made its first movements since landing in Jezero Crater Feb.

WASHINGTON — The top House Republicans on the committee that oversees civil and commercial space are asking the Biden administration to update lawmakers on its plans regarding space security and space traffic management.

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology; and Rep.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 05, 2021
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover performed its first drive on Mars March 4, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. The drive served as a mobility test that marks just one of many milestones as team members check out and calibrate every system, subsystem, and instrument on Perseverance. Once the rover begins pursuing its science goals, regular commutes extending 656 feet

London, UK (SPX) Mar 05, 2021
In a giant leap in British spaceflight history, government publishes response to commercial spaceflight consultation. A giant leap in British spaceflight history is being made 5 March 2021 as the government publishes its commercial spaceflight consultation response, paving the way for space launches from UK soil. Over the past few months, the government has been inviting industry, st

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 05, 2021
In early 2016, an icy visitor from the edge of our solar system hurtled past Earth. It briefly became visible to stargazers as Comet Catalina before it slingshot past the Sun to disappear forevermore out of the solar system. Among the many observatories that captured a view of this comet, which appeared near the Big Dipper, was the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, NASA's t

Beijing (XNA) Mar 05, 2021
The crewmembers who will participate in the construction of China's space station have been selected and are being trained for their missions, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The construction of the space station has entered a crucial stage, said the CMSA, noting that this year will see several space missions including the launch of the station's core module, cargo reple