With help from a cryocooler, Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument has dropped down to just a few degrees above the lowest temperature matter can reach and is ready for calibration.

Beijing, China (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
A German team of astronomers from the Universities of Tubingen and Potsdam, led by Prof. Klaus Werner, have discovered a new type of weird stars. The spectra of the star sample, obtained by Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, USA, and the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) based at Xinglong and operated by the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chi

Munich, Germany (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
An international team of astronomers have used ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), to track Neptune's atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year period. They found a surprising drop in Neptune's global temperatures followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole. "This change was unexpected," says Michael Roman, a postdocto

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
An enormous comet - approximately 80 miles across, more than twice the width of Rhode Island - is heading our way at 22,000 miles per hour from the edge of the solar system. Fortunately, it will never get closer than 1 billion miles from the sun, which is slightly farther from Earth than Saturn; that will be in 2031. Comets, among the oldest objects in the solar system, are icy bodies that

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 12, 2022
In Scots Gaelic, "deoch-an-doris" loosely means "one for the road." Today we planned one more set of investigations on the fascinating Feorachas outcrop before we leave it behind forever. We first visited it over a month ago as we were climbing up the Greenheugh Pediment and now we have given it a more thorough investigation on the way down thanks to some crafty driving by Curiosity's rove

Moscow, Russia (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
Skoltech scientists have proposed a concept for a modular Mars exploration rover. Leveraging the power of cooperative robotics, the new system described in an Acta Astronautica paper consists of four two-wheeled robots that can operate independently or combine in various constellations. According to the study, that approach will enable longer exploration missions that gather more information abo

Paris (ESA) Apr 12, 2022
ESA's new Space Safety Centre is a hub for activities protecting our planet from a raging star, risky asteroids and defunct satellites. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher inaugurated the Centre today at the Agency's ESOC mission control centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. Living close to an active star, in a Solar System filled with ancient and fast-moving asteroids, on a planet that i

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
NASA's MAVEN mission and the United Arab Emirates' Hope Probe mission are paving the way toward greater scientific collaboration and data exchange between the two Mars orbiters. A new partnership that encourages the sharing of data between NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) project and the Emirates Mars Mission's (EMM) Hope Probe will enhance scientific returns from both

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
Dwarf planet Ceres is becoming a new research focus in the recent field of ocean worlds science. It is the only large, water-rich body that has been characterized to an extraordinary level of detail thanks to NASA's Dawn mission. But what does all this research mean and where do we go from here? In Ceres: An Ice-Rich World in the Inner Solar System, Drs. Li and Castillo-Rogez provide a tho

Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Apr 13, 2022
The Chemical Propulsion Flight Programs Group at the Air Force Research Laboratory has successfully completed the Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-toxic Propellant (ASCENT) monopropellant 1 Newton (1N) thruster testing in the Chemical in-Space Thruster Test and Research Site test facility. "This work is important to the U.S. Space Force since it provides satellites with propulsive capab