The James Webb Space Telescope captured its first images and spectra of Mars on 5 September 2022. The telescope, an international collaboration between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, provides a unique perspective with its infrared sensitivity on our neighbouring planet, complementing data being collected by orbiters, rovers, and other telescopes.

Bothell WA (SPX) Sep 16, 2022
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) delivered to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering OUSD (R&E) a new benchmark: a tactically-relevant electric 300 kW-class laser, the most powerful laser that Lockheed Martin has produced to date. This 300 kW-class laser is ready to integrate with the DOD demonstration efforts including the U.S. Army's Indirect Fires Protection Capa

Falls Church VA (SPX) Sep 18, 2022
Lynk Global, Inc. (Lynk), the world's leading satellite-direct-to-standard-phone telecoms company, has expressed its appreciation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for granting Lynk the world's first-ever commercial license for a satellite-direct-to-standard-mobile-phone service. This FCC license enables Lynk to launch commercial services for its global constellation of satellites l

London, UK (SPX) Sep 16, 2022
The MICROSCOPE mission has confirmed the 'equivalence principle' with unprecedented accuracy, bolstering Einstein's general relativity. The result, announced this week by a team led by the French space agency CNES, is a triumph for Einstein's general relativity. However, it also potentially rules out some candidate universal theories of physics. General relativity is the best theory

Beijing (XNA) Sep 18, 2022
Crew members on the Shenzhou XIV mission stepped out of their spacecraft for the second spacewalk on Saturday afternoon, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The agency said in a brief news release that Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe opened an extravehicular activity hatch on the Tiangong space station at 1:35 pm and then floated out of the station. He was followed by mission commander Se

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Sep 18, 2022
In 1919 astronomers Arthur Eddington and Andrew Crommelin captured photographic images of a total solar eclipse. The Sun was in the constellation Taurus at the time, and a handful of its stars could be seen in the photographs. But the stars weren't quite in their expected place. The tremendous gravity of the Sun had deflected the light of these stars, making them appear slightly out of place. It

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2022
Stargazers can expect excellent views of Jupiter the entire night of Monday, Sept. 26 when the giant planet reaches opposition. From the viewpoint of Earth's surface, opposition happens when an astronomical object rises in the east as the Sun sets in the west, placing the object and the Sun on opposite sides of Earth. Jupiter's opposition occurs every 13 months, making the planet appear la

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 18, 2022
The SHERLOC and PIXL proximity science instruments on Perseverance have enabled more detailed observations of Martian chemistry and minerology than ever before. PIXL can isolate features as small as a grain of sand. To achieve this, these instruments on the end of the robotic arm must be placed at a precise distance from the feature of interest - very close, but not too close. PIXL even has a "h

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 17, 2021
Scientists believe some of the recently-collected rock samples taken by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover likely contain organic matter. The four most recent samples are all sedimentary rocks from an ancient river delta in the Red Planet's Jezero Crater, NASA confirmed this week. They mark the first-ever sedimentary rocks gathered from another planet. "The rocks that we have