Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 31, 2025
On January 29, 2025, senior officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Arianespace formalized the launch contract for ESA's PLATO science mission. The agreement was signed by Carole Mundell, ESA's Director of Science; Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA's Director of Space Transportation; and Steven Rutgers, Chief Commercial Officer of Arianespace. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is playing a key

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 31, 2025
For the first time, astronomers have identified a long-theorized but previously unobserved component essential to star formation: magnetic fields within merging galaxies. Much like a pressure cooker uses a weighted lid to retain heat and pressure, these magnetic fields may regulate the extreme environments where stars are born. An international team, including researchers from the Center f

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 31, 2025
Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 has reached the 15th day of its planned 45-day journey to the Moon, marking an important milestone in its transit. Among the key scientific payloads onboard is the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument, developed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. This sophisticated imaging system is designed to capture high-re

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 31, 2025
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore successfully completed a spacewalk at 1:09 p.m. EST on Jan. 30. This marked the ninth spacewalk for Williams and the fifth for Wilmore, contributing to the 274th extravehicular activity (EVA) dedicated to the assembly, maintenance, and upgrades of the International Space Station (ISS). Notably, Williams set a new milestone by surpassing forme

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 28, 2025
In a move that has taken the global artificial intelligence (AI) community by surprise, DeepSeek, a private Chinese artificial intelligence company founded in 2023 by entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng, has open-sourced its cutting-edge reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1, alongside detailed scientific documentation and a consumer-facing iOS application. The release comes amidst a backdrop of intense geo

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
As humanity envisions establishing a permanent presence on the moon, Mars, and beyond, the challenge of sustaining life comes down to the essentials: oxygen, food, and water. While it is well-known that water exists on the moon, pinpointing its exact locations remains a key question. Is it hidden within craters, trapped in the moon's shadowed regions, or concentrated near the poles? Answering th

Nottingham UK (SPX) Jan 31, 2025
The Artemis program has been Nasa's best chance to get "boots on the Moon" again. But with the new US administration taking guidance from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is focused on Mars colonisation, will they end up abandoning or pushing back lunar missions? For example, there's been speculation that returning US president Donald Trump may cancel the Space Launch System rocket, which

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image highlights part of the São Francisco River in eastern Brazil.

Week in images: 27-31 January 2025

Discover our week through the lens

As we prepare to go deeper into space, the demand for autonomous systems capable of operating independently from ground control and crew interactions is increasing. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is shaping up to be an essential tool for reaching this goal. With support from ESA's Discovery programme, a team of researchers from Airbus explored how AI can collect and analyse data onboard the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) in order to improve its prognosis and fault detection capabilities.