Paris, France (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
Above the Arctic Circle on Norway's Andoya Island, three ESA radionavigation engineers take a brief respite from their demanding mission, playing shuffleboard as sheep graze under the aurora borealis. Their task is a critical one: evaluating how navigation systems endure interference threats. Over five days, they amassed 100 terabytes of data, essential for fortifying the resilience of satellite

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) has finalized a securities purchase agreement for a private placement, expected to generate approximately $40 million in gross proceeds for the company, prior to deducting associated fees and expenses. The transaction is anticipated to close on or around March 14, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. Under the terms of the agreement, Spire will iss

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
Observing distant stars and galaxies comes with a challenge: how much of what we see is affected by cosmic dust? The presence of interstellar dust clouds can make celestial objects appear redder and dimmer than they actually are, an effect known as reddening and extinction. To address this, two astronomers have created an intricate 3D map that provides an unprecedented view of dust distribution

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in partnership with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), has developed StarBurst, a small satellite (SmallSat) instrument for NASA's StarBurst Multimessenger Pioneer mission, which will detect the emission of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), a key electromagnetic (EM) signature that will contribute to the understanding of neutron star (NS) mergers.

Belo Horizonte, Brazil (AFP) Mar 14, 2025
Stargazers across a swathe of the world marvelled at a dramatic red "Blood Moon" during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, causing our planet to cast a gian

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
Blazars are a class of active galaxies that direct powerful jets of ionized matter toward Earth. Typically, astronomers categorize them into distinct classes based on the characteristics of their emitted electromagnetic radiation. However, BL Lacertae, a well-studied blazar in the background of the Lacerta (Lizard) constellation, defies this traditional classification system. Astronomers h

Hampton VA (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
A team at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has captured first-of-its-kind imagery of a lunar lander's engine plumes interacting with the Moon's surface, a key piece of data as trips to the Moon increase in the coming years under the agency's Artemis campaign. The Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument took the images during the descent a

Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
Perseverance is hard at work on Mars, overcoming obstacles for scientific exploration! Just a few sols after successfully sealing the challenging Green Gardens core, Perseverance roved on to the Broom Point workspace to collect another sample called Main River. Broom Point is situated a few hundred meters down-slope from where Green Gardens was collected, and the Science Team chose to explore th

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
Shortly after landing on the Moon aboard Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lander on March 2, the Southwest Research Institute-led Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) successfully activated and deployed its five sensors. This groundbreaking instrument is designed to analyze the Moon's subsurface by detecting electric and magnetic field variations, marking the first use of magnetotelluric technolo

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
More than 3 billion years ago, Mars had episodic liquid water on its surface. However, as the planet lost much of its atmosphere, surface water became unsustainable. The precise fate of this water-whether locked in ice, stored in deep aquifers, incorporated into minerals, or lost to space-remains a subject of ongoing scientific inquiry. This debate has drawn particular attention from Bruce Jakos