The first satellite in ESA’s Cluster quartet safely came back down to Earth last night in a world-first ‘targeted reentry’, marking a brilliant end to this remarkable mission.

The spacecraft, dubbed ‘Salsa’ (Cluster 2), reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 20:47 CEST on 8 September 2024 over the South Pacific Ocean. In this region, any risk of fragments reaching land are absolutely minimised.

During the last two decades Cluster has spent in space, it has provided invaluable data on how the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, helping us better understand and forecast space weather. With this first-ever targeted reentry,

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
The shoebox-sized BurstCube satellite has observed its first gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion in the universe, according to a recent analysis of observations collected over the last several months. "We're excited to collect science data," said Sean Semper, BurstCube's lead engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's an important mileston

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 06, 2024
Planet formation has traditionally been described as a "bottom-up" process, where dust grains gradually clump together over millions of years, forming larger structures step by step. However, a competing theory suggests that planets can form much faster via a "top-down" process, where material in a protoplanetary disk fragments due to gravitational instability. An international team of ast

Boston MA (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
Exoplanets form in protoplanetary disks, a collection of space dust and gas orbiting a star. The leading theory of planetary formation, called core accretion, occurs when grains of dust in the disk collect and grow to form a planetary core, like a snowball rolling downhill. Once it has a strong enough gravitational pull, other material collapses around it to form the atmosphere. A secondar

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Sep 06, 2024
New observations of the outer Solar System using the Subaru Telescope have revealed the presence of several unexpected objects, suggesting that the region may be home to a much larger population of celestial bodies than previously believed. These findings could significantly alter our understanding of the Solar System's formation and its similarities to other planetary systems, potentially influ

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
A study conducted by Chinese researchers has confirmed that it is possible to continuously produce fiber materials from Martian soil, suggesting that "in-situ resource utilization" could be achieved in the construction of future Mars bases. A research team from the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), collaborated with various

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Sep 06, 2024
China is preparing to launch its Tianwen-3 mission with the aim of returning samples from Mars by 2028, a Chinese space expert revealed on Thursday. Liu Jizhong, the chief designer of the Mars sample-return mission, provided details during the 2nd International Deep Space Exploration Conference held in Tunxi, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, China. The mission's primary goal will be t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
For centuries, observers have watched the bright poles of Mars change with the seasons. In the last 50 years, scientists have determined that these polar caps are primarily composed of carbon dioxide that cycles in and out of the atmosphere with the seasons. However, the underlying processes driving these changes are intricate and continue to be a focus of scientific study. In a recent pap

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
ICEYE, a leader in satellite-powered disaster management, has announced an expanded data licensing agreement with Aon, a global professional services firm. This partnership now includes ICEYE's Flood Insights data globally and Wildfire Insights data for the United States. Through this agreement, Aon will integrate ICEYE's near real-time flood and wildfire data into its event response capab

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
A newly published study in 'Geophysical Research Letters' reveals that Floodbase's flood mapping technology achieves an 11% improvement in accuracy over leading methods, offering more precise flood monitoring and potentially lowering costs for parametric flood insurance. Floodbase, a key provider of flood intelligence and data for disaster management and re/insurance sectors, has developed