Washington DC (UPI) Feb 14, 2021
SpaceX plans to launch 60 more of its Starlink communications satellites from Florida on Sunday night as the company expands sales of the broadband internet service those satellites provide. Liftoff on a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for 11:20 p.m. EST, but the U.S. Space Force forecasts a 60% chance that storm clouds or a threat of lightning that could cause a postponement. Elon

Paris (ESA) Feb 12, 2021
This satellite mockup, seen during antenna testing, shows the shape of ESA's new Proba-V Companion CubeSat, which is due for launch at the end of this year. The mission is a 12-unit 'CubeSat' - a small, low-cost satellite built up from standardised 10-cm boxes. It will fly a cut-down version of the vegetation-monitoring instrument aboard the Earth-observing Proba-V to perform experimental

Nanjing, China (XNA) Feb 12, 2021
China's tracking vessel Yuanwang-6 on Wednesday departed from a port in east China's Jiangsu Province for maritime spacecraft monitoring missions in the Indian Ocean. The Yuanwang fleet will continue to carry out intensive and challenging maritime missions this year, and Yuanwang-6 alone will operate at sea for over 200 days, according to sources with the country's satellite maritime track

Warwick UK (SPX) Feb 12, 2021
Remnants of planets with Earth-like crusts have been discovered in the atmospheres of four nearby white dwarf stars by University of Warwick astronomers, offering a glimpse of the planets that may have once orbited them up to billions of years ago. These crusts are from the outer layers of rocky planets similar to Earth and Mars and could give astronomers greater insights into the chemistr

Munich, Germany (SPX) Feb 12, 2021
Globular clusters are extremely dense stellar systems, in which stars are packed closely together. They are also typically very old - the globular cluster that is the focus of this study, NGC 6397, is almost as old as the Universe itself. It resides 7800 light-years away, making it one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. Because of its very dense nucleus, it is known as a core-collapsed c

Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 11, 2021
For nearly a century, scientists have worked to unravel the mystery of dark matter - an elusive substance that spreads through the universe and likely makes up much of its mass, but has so far proven impossible to detect in experiments. Now, a team of researchers have used an innovative technique called "quantum squeezing" to dramatically speed up the search for one candidate for dark matter in

Livermore CA (SPX) Feb 12, 2021
Advances in astronomical observations have resulted in the discovery of an extraordinary number of extrasolar planets, some of which are believed to have a rocky composition similar to Earth. Learning more about their interior structure could provide important clues about their potential habitability. Led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a team of researchers aims to unloc

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 12, 2021
In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets beyond the borders of our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds to blisteringly hot gas giants, the planets display a remarkable variety. This variety is not unexpected. The sophisticated computer models, with which scientists study the formation of planets, also spawn very different planets. What the models h

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 15, 2021
Nearly six-and-a-half months and 300 million miles since launch, NASA's Perseverance rover will land on Mars Feb. 18, 2021, to begin its robotic exploration of the Red Planet. But before Perseverance touches down on the surface of Mars, it has to achieve a successful entry, descent, and landing (EDL). Onboard the rover's protective aeroshell is the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrume

Busan, South Korea (SPX) Feb 12, 2021
Modern telecommunication systems rely on satellites to relay signals across the globe quickly and reliably, enabling users to send messages across the world in an instant, watch live television, or - more recently - hold conference calls with global partners right from the kitchen table! Communications satellites use high-frequency radio waves to transmit data, with antennas acting as a tw