Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
SiriusXM and Maxar Space Systems said the SXM-10 satellite has finished in-orbit testing and is now in full operational service with SiriusXM. The spacecraft launched on June 7, 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 and advanced smoothly through checkout before handover. "The SXM-10 satellite strengthens the health of our fleet and the infrastructure that provides a critical foundation for our aud

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
IBM and NASA have introduced Surya, an open-source foundation model designed to interpret high resolution solar data and improve space weather forecasting. The system, trained on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory images, offers a new capability for predicting how solar activity impacts satellites, power grids, communications, and navigation systems. The Sun, though 93 million miles away, h

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
A research team led by Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo has identified gas streamers as a key mechanism feeding high-mass young stars, challenging the long-held assumption that large accretion disks are the primary drivers of stellar growth. Massive stars, defined as those more than eight times the mass of our sun, form rapidly despite losing material through stellar winds and

Tokyo (AFP) Aug 20, 2025
A flashing fireball dashed across the skies of western Japan, shocking residents and dazzling stargazers, though experts said it was a natural phenomenon and not an alien invasion. Videos and photos emerged online of the extremely bright ball of light visible for hundreds of kilometres shortly after 11:00 pm (1400 GMT) local time on Tuesday. "A white light I had never seen before cam

London, UK (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
A team of physicists is arguing that one of the biggest taboos in cosmology-asking what existed before the big bang-can now be approached using numerical relativity. In a new paper published in Living Reviews in Relativity, Eugene Lim of King's College London, together with Katy Clough of Queen Mary University of London and Josu Aurrekoetxea of Oxford University, describe how computer simulation

Minneapolis MN (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have made a groundbreaking discovery by observing and analyzing the first new type of plasma wave in Jupiter's aurora. This research helps us understand "alien aurora" on other planets, which in turn teaches us more about how Earth's magnetic field protects us from the sun's harmful radiation. The research is published in Physical Revi

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
The dwarf planet is cold now, but new research paints a picture of Ceres hosting a deep, long-lived energy source that may have maintained habitable conditions in the past. New NASA research has found that Ceres may have had a lasting source of chemical energy: the right types of molecules needed to fuel some microbial metabolisms. Although there is no evidence that microorganisms ever exi

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
Astrobotic reported that its LunaGrid-Lite mission has cleared Critical Design Review (CDR) and has begun building flight hardware, moving the project closer to a planned 2026 demonstration of lunar surface power transmission. The mission will deploy 500 meters of lightweight cable across the Moon and deliver one kilowatt of power using an Astrobotic CubeRover. "This milestone signals the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
Approximately 4.6 billion years ago our solar system formed from a huge disk of gas and dust orbiting our Sun. The asteroids we see today are some of the most complete artifacts of this formation left for us to observe, like the screws, offcuts, and other debris leftover at a construction site. Scientists can study these floating time capsules and examine their composition, shape, and surface ma

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Aug 21, 2025
Space Machines Company has announced the completion of its in-house Scintilla propulsion engine, designed to power the Optimus Viper platform for rapid orbital manoeuvring and space domain awareness. The engine has achieved 65-second sustained burns, more than 1,200 seconds of cumulative testing, and 40 restarts to date. The metal 3D-printed thruster delivers 50 Newtons of thrust at 92 per