Image: NASA astronaut Jonny Kim operates European robots from the International Space Station

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 03, 2025
Less than three weeks after its 13 August launch, the Metop Second Generation A1 (Metop-SGA1) satellite is already transmitting data from two of its six instruments. Early readings from the Microwave Sounder (MWS) and the Radio Occultation Sounder (RO) mark the beginning of a new era in European meteorological and climate monitoring. Metop-SGA1 is the first satellite in the EUMETSAT Polar

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 02, 2025
NASA scientists have developed a new set of tools to monitor plant growth under various conditions throughout the growing season. The hope is that land managers could use these tools to detect sudden drops in plant productivity and to respond earlier to events like heat stress, droughts, and cold snaps. Monitoring the productivity, or how efficiently plants are producing energy through pho

Sofia, Bulgaria (AFP) Sept 2, 2025
Bulgaria will not open an investigation into the GPS jamming that hit a plane carrying EU chief chief Ursula von der Leyen as it readied to land in the Balkan nation, its prime minister said Tuesday. The European Commission said on Monday that Bulgarian authorities believed Moscow was responsible for the weekend incident but it was not clear whether the aircraft was deliberately targeted as

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 03, 2025
NASA has launched the 2026 Human Lander Challenge (HuLC), inviting student teams across the United States to propose new solutions for advancing human landing system technologies. The initiative supports NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate in preparing for lunar missions under the Artemis program. The competition seeks innovative ideas in known technology development

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 03, 2025
The first magnetic fields that emerged after the Universe's birth may have been billions of times weaker than the pull of a refrigerator magnet, with intensities comparable to the magnetism created by neurons in the brain. Despite their weakness, researchers have found that these fields left detectable traces in the cosmic web that spans the Universe. The conclusions come from a collaborat

Medford MA (SPX) Sep 03, 2025
What was the universe like in the first few hundreds of millions of years after it came into existence? How did the first stars and galaxies form? Those are questions that astronomers now have a better chance of answering, thanks to a new research program using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which came online in 2022. The MINERVA program, co-led by a Tufts astronomer, will give res

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 03, 2025
In a new study published in Nature Astronomy, scientists have identified a clear origin for hypervelocity white dwarfs - stellar remnants racing through space at more than 2000 km/s. The research, led by Dr. Hila Glanz of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, used advanced three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to model the merger of two rare hybrid helium - carbon - oxygen wh

Amsterdam, Netherlands (SPX) Sep 03, 2025
Astronomers have confirmed that massive stars in galaxies with low metal content often exist in binary systems, much like their counterparts in the Milky Way. An international team of seventy researchers from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Israel used the European Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to monitor massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Their findings appear in Nature Astronomy.