With alarm bells ringing about the rapid demise of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, satellite data have revealed how the intrusion of warmer Atlantic waters is reducing ice regrowth in the winter. In addition, with seasonal ice more unpredictable than ever, ESA’s SMOS and CryoSat satellites are being used to improve sea-ice forecasts, which are critical for shipping, fisheries and indigenous communities, for example.

Toulouse, France (SPX) May 21, 2021
Airbus has released a first collection of sharp images at 30cm native resolution from the Pleiades Neo 3 satellite, recently safely launched and secured in orbit. The successful acquisitions and delivery of these first images are the start of a new era for both commercial and government geospatial applications requiring a high level of accuracy and the ability to see fine details. The Plei

Beijing (XNA) May 21, 2021
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GPS, the European Galileo system, or indeed China's own BeiDou are a testament to the powerful global services that large superpowers can offer the world. Such potent navigational software that can pinpoint a location down to several centimeters from space are invaluable for everyday life, and are embedded into our smartphones, cars and ev

Washington DC (SPX) May 21, 2021
The total lunar eclipse of May 26th - the first in more than two years - favors western North America, but much of the continent will see the partial phases, provided skies are clear. No one has seen a total lunar eclipse since January 20-21, 2019, but the drought is finally ending. Viewers in the western half of North America, western South America, East Asia, and Australia will see the M

Baltimore MD (SPX) May 21, 2021
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have traced the locations of five brief, powerful radio blasts to the spiral arms of five distant galaxies. Called fast radio bursts (FRBs), these extraordinary events generate as much energy in a thousandth of a second as the Sun does in a year. Because these transient radio pulses disappear in much less than the blink of an eye, researchers

Santa Fe NM (SPX) May 21, 2021
When scientists hunt for life, they often look for biosignatures, chemicals or phenomena that indicate the existence of present or past life. Yet it isn't necessarily the case that the signs of life on Earth are signs of life in other planetary environments. How do we find life in systems that do not resemble ours? In groundbreaking new work, a team led by Santa Fe Institute Professor Chri

Washington DC (SPX) May 21, 2021
As part of the Artemis program, NASA is planning to send its first mobile robot to the Moon in late 2023 in search of ice and other resources on and below the lunar surface. Data from the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, would help the agency map resources at the lunar South Pole that could one day be harvested for long-term human exploration at the Moon. VIPER's

Huntsville AL (SPX) May 21, 2021
NASA has awarded $500,000 to seven winning teams in Phase 1 of the agency's Watts on the Moon Challenge. The technology design competition challenged U.S. innovators, from garage tinkerers to university researchers and startup entrepreneurs, to imagine a next-generation energy infrastructure on the Moon. Sixty teams submitted original design concepts aimed at meeting future needs for robu

Washington DC (UPI) May 20, 2021
The European Space Agency plans to build a communications and navigation network of satellites around the moon to aid future missions, including NASA's planned Artemis astronaut crews. The agency has initiated a study of potential designs for the network, named Moonlight, that would tap private companies for proposals. Those firms include the United Kingdom's Surrey Satellite Technology

Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 21, 2021
A NASA team has found that organic, or carbon-containing, salts are likely present on Mars, with implications for the Red Planet's past habitability. A NASA team has found that organic salts are likely present on Mars. Like shards of ancient pottery, these salts are the chemical remnants of organic compounds, such as those previously detected by NASA's Curiosity rover. Organic compounds an