Montreal, Canada (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
When bears and ground squirrels hibernate in winter, they stop eating, lasting until spring simply on the fat reserves they've stored up in their bodies. Usually, this sort of prolonged fasting and inactivity would significantly reduce the mass and function of muscle, but hibernators don't suffer this fate. How they avoid it, however, has been a mystery. Now, in research published in Scien

Guildford UK (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
The University of Surrey and Space Power are tackling the problem of powering satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) during their eclipse period when they cannot see the sun. By collaborating on a space infrastructure project, the joint team will develop new technology which uses lasers to beam solar power from satellites under solar illumination to small satellites orbiting closer to Earth during

Washington (AFP) Jan 27, 2022
NASA said Thursday it aims to survey the crater formed when the remains of a SpaceX rocket are expected to crash into the Moon in early March, calling the event "an exciting research opportunity." The rocket was deployed in 2015 to put a NASA satellite into orbit and its second stage, or booster, has been floating in the cosmos ever since, a common fate for such pieces of space technology.

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
In its third dedicated rideshare mission with SpaceX, Exolaunch, the leading global provider of launch, in-space logistics and deployment services, successfully integrated and launched 29 small satellites from customers across the globe. The company's rideshare clusters aboard the SpaceX Transporter-3 mission were an amalgamation of microsats, cubesats (up to 16U) and PocketQubes. The combinatio

Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
Armed with a new statistical analysis of stellar flares on hundreds of distant stars, scientists are beginning to understand the likelihood that remote "exoplanets" might sustain life in our galaxy, research at the University of Colorado Boulder suggests. The most-intense flares, which are more complex than previously observed, could have implications for the viability of life on nearby pl

Newark NJ (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
New findings published Jan. 27 in the journal Nature Astronomy have called into question decades of theoretical understanding used by astrophysicists to interpret an observational phenomenon central to understanding energy released during powerful eruptions from the Sun, known as solar flares. Solar flares, which are triggered when magnetic field lines break and reconnect above the Sun's s

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
Scientists from the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe and the University of Minnesota, Tomotake Matsumura and Shaul Hanany, and their collaborators have made a new type of optical element that will improve the performance of telescopes studying radiation from the Big Bang. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a relic radiation remnant from the big bang. It

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 28, 2022
In becoming the first country to sign the Artemis Accords in 2022, Israel affirmed its commitment to a common set of principles to guide cooperation among nations participating in 21st century space exploration. "Israel already has demonstrated its commitment to Artemis with the contribution of the AstroRad radiation protection vest on Artemis I, scheduled to launch this spring," said NASA

Orlando FL (UPI) Jan 28, 2022
SpaceX on Thursday scrubbed its planned launch of an Italian Earth-observation satellite, the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation 2 and said it plans to try again Friday. "Due to unfavorable weather, now targeting Friday, January 28 at 6:11 p.m. EST for launch of COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2," the company tweeted. SpaceX plans to launch the satellite aboard the Falcon 9 rocket from

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 28, 2022
Laurie Leshin, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has been appointed director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and vice president of Caltech. Leshin will formally assume her position on May 16, 2022, succeeding Michael Watkins, who retired in August 2021, and Lt. Gen. Larry D. James USAF (Ret.), who currently serves as JPL interim director. She joins JPL from WPI, on