Image: Navigation vans

As global temperatures records are smashed and greenhouse gas emissions reach new highs, a new report from the UN Environment Programme finds that current pledges under the Paris Agreement put the world on track for a 2.5–2.9°C temperature rise this century – pointing to the urgent need for increased climate action.

The report is timely as nearly 200 nations gather in the coming two weeks at the United Nations COP28 Climate Change Summit to conclude the world’s first ever ‘Global Stocktake’ on climate change. Swift and sustained climate action is needed to avoid the worst

ESA’s navigation and telecommunications testbed vehicles are custom-built mobile test platforms operated by ESA’s Navigation Laboratory to support test campaigns for navigation and telecommunications services, most notably Europe’s Galileo constellation. Testing in the field provides a unique opportunity to complement laboratory tests, verifying the system’s performance from a user perspective in a more dynamic and realistic setting.

Washington (AFP) Nov 30, 2023
More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try once again to land a craft on the Moon on January 25, said the head of what could be the first private company to successfully touch down on the lunar surface. The lander, named Peregrine, will have no one on board. It was developed by American company Astrobotic, whose CEO John Thornton said it will carry NASA ins

San Antonio TX (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
The satellite discovered during the first asteroid encounter of NASA's Lucy mission has an official name. On Nov. 27, 2023, the International Astronomical Union approved the name "Selam", which means "peace" in the Ethiopian language Amharic, for Dinkinesh's moon. "Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name for the fossil nicknamed 'Lucy,'", says Raphael Marshall of the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 29, 2021
The United States and Saudi Arabia have announced intentions to explore the use of outer space together in pursuit of peaceful purposes, the U.S. State Dept. announced Tuesday. The agreement is an extension of the Jeddah Communique, a document outlining the strategic partnership between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States signed by King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Pre

Tucson, AZ (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Observations during a stellar occultation detected the presence of evolving material orbiting around Centaur (2060) Chiron, rather than a two- ring system interpretation, according to a paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Amanda Sickafoose. "We observed a star passing behind the Centaur Chiron from the 1.9-m telescope in Sutherland. We detected dips in the starlight as it

Beijing (XNA) Nov 30, 2023
Lunar samples retrieved by China's Chang'e 5 robotic mission went on display in Macao on Tuesday, marking the first time any lunar samples have been brought to the city for public exhibition. The samples, contained in a specially built glass case and closely guarded, can be viewed by members of the public at the Macao Science Center until next Saturday. The appearance of the lunar ma

West Lafayette IN (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, orbits in the outer solar system, about two billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth. It is an enormous world - quadruple the diameter of Earth, with 15 times the mass and 63 times the volume. Unvisited by spacecraft for more than 35 years, Uranus inhabits one of the least explored regions of our solar system. Although scientists have learn

New Haven CT (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Scientists have long puzzled over why all of the planets in Earth's solar system have slightly slanted orbits around the sun. But a new, Yale-led study suggests this phenomenon may not be so unusual after all. Even in "pristine" solar systems, planets exhibit a bit of a tilt. Astronomers had long assumed that planets with pitchy, angled orbits - orbits that don't align with the spin axis o