Copernical Team
Webb unveils dark side of pre-stellar ice chemistry
The discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of a molecular cloud measured to date has been announced by an international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This result allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets, while opening a new window on the origin of more complex molecules that are the first step in the creation of the building blocks of life.
Mapping the Moon
A paper published in December 2022 has analysed the rocky features of the lunar South Pole and identifies possible areas of interest for astronauts to explore and gather the best samples on the Artemis III mission.
ESA to help develop secure quantum communications
Staying safe from cyberattacks that target vital services such as power supplies is increasingly important in today’s digital world. ESA is supporting European autonomy to keep people connected by working with satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space to develop highly secure technologies based on the unbreakable laws of quantum physics.
AIR launches high-resolution sensing and electrical stimulation neural activity study
A major interdisciplinary project "Research on high-resolution sensing and electrical stimulation of sleep-wake neural electrical activity", led by Prof. CAI Xinxia from the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Fudan University, Zhejiang University and Ruijin Hospital, has been approved by the National Natural Science Foundation Satellite mapping finds new colony of Emperor penguins
Satellite mapping technology has discovered another new colony of the highly threatened Emperor penguins in Antarctica, researchers revealed Friday.
The find, announced by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to mark Penguin Awareness Day, brings the total number of known emperor penguin breeding sites around Antarctica's coastline to 66.
It is the latest in a series of Emperor penguin bre Rare opportunity to study short-lived volcanic island reveals sulfur-metabolizing microbes
In 2015, a submarine volcano in the South Pacific erupted, forming the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai island, destined to a short, seven-year life. A research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) jumped on the rare opportunity to study the early microbial colonizers of a newly formed landmass and to their surprise, the Star visibility eroding rapidly as night sky gets brighter
Light pollution is growing rapidly and in some places the number of stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky is being reduced by more than half in less than 20 years, according to a study released Thursday.
The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Science, said the increase in light pollution - skyglow - that they found was much larger than that measured by sat Ingenuity's 40th flight on Mars tracks a rocky road
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has acquired new images using its high-resolution color camera. The camera, which is mounted in the helicopter's fuselage, was pointed approximately 22 degrees below the horizon during the flight. The image shows the tracks of Perseverance running alongside a rocky outcrop.
On January 19, 2023 (Sol 681 of the Perseverance rover mission), Ingenuity completed Star visibility eroding rapidly as night sky gets brighter: study
Light pollution is growing rapidly and in some places the number of stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky is being reduced by more than half in less than 20 years, according to a study released Thursday.
The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Science, said the increase in light pollution —skyglow—that they found was much larger than that measured by satellite observations of Earth at night.
For the study of the change in global sky brightness from artificial light, the researchers used stellar observations from 2011 to 2022 submitted by more than 51,000 "citizen scientists" around the world.
Exotic water ice contributes to understanding of magnetic anomalies on Neptune and Uranus
Ordinary everyday ice, like the ice produced by a fridge, is known to scientists as hexagonal ice (ice Ih), and is not the only crystalline phase of water. More than 20 different phases are possible. One of them, called "superionic ice" or "ice XVIII", is of particular interest, among other reasons, because it is thought to make up a large part of Neptune and Uranus, planets frequently referred 
