Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 16, 2024
Using impact craters as a dating tool, Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Alexander Morgan has determined maximum timescales for the formation of Martian valley networks shaped by running water. "Mars today is a global desert, but its surface preserves extensive evidence of past flowing water, including what appear to be river valleys. The timescale over which these valleys for

Bristol UK (SPX) Jan 16, 2024
New research has cracked a vital process in the creation of a unique rock type from the Moon. The discovery explains its signature composition and very presence on the lunar surface at all, unravelling a mystery which has long eluded scientists. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, reveals a key step in the genesis of these distinctive magmas. A combination of high temperature labora

Newcastle UK (SPX) Jan 15, 2024
Newcastle University research turns to ancient hot springs to explore the origins of life on Earth. The research team, funded by the UK's Natural Environmental Research Council, investigated how the emergence of the first living systems from inert geological materials happened on the Earth, more than 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists at Newcastle University found that by mixing hydrogen, b

Syracuse NY (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
At the center of most large galaxies lives a supermassive black hole (SMBH). The Milky Way has Sagittarius A*, a mostly dormant SMBH whose mass is around 4.3 million times that of the sun. But if you look deeper into the universe, there are vastly larger SMBHs with masses that can reach up to tens of billions of times the mass of our sun. Black holes grow in mass by gravitationally consumi

Yuma AZ (SPX) Jan 15, 2024
A modified parachute system for Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for NASA's Commercial Crew Program was tested over the Arizona desert on Jan. 9. Parachute deployment and a soft landing of the test article were visually confirmed. Preliminary data analysis of this two-parachute test suggest the primary test objectives were met. Engineering teams will continue to review the results, inspect the test

Pullman WA (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
Researchers have taken the first steps toward finding liquid solvents that may someday help extract critical building materials from lunar and Martian-rock dust, an important piece in making long-term space travel possible. Using machine learning and computational modeling, Washington State University researchers have found about half a dozen good candidates for solvents that can extract m

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
A team of astronomers including those from the University of Tokyo created the first-ever map of magnetic field structures within a spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Previous studies on galactic magnetic fields only gave a very general picture, but the new study reveals that magnetic fields in the spiral arms of our galaxy break away from this general picture significantly and are tilted away

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
Astronomers analyzing 13 years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found an unexpected and as yet unexplained feature outside of our galaxy. "It is a completely serendipitous discovery," said Alexander Kashlinsky, a cosmologist at the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, who presented the research at the 243rd meeting of the American As

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
Russia and China are deploying capabilities that can target GPS and other vital space-based systems in an effort to degrade the military space advantage of the U.S. and its allies, said Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. Hicks made the remarks in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as Army Gen. James H. Dickinson relinquished command of U.S. Space Command to Space Force Gen. Stephen N. Whiti

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 12, 2024
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would provide legal protection to civilian pilots who report UAP sightings. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., introduced the Safe Airspace for Americans Act, which aims to facilitate reporting of the unidentified aerial phenomena formerly called UFOs and to increase transparency of the reports coming