Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
New research led by the University of Texas at Austin reveals that thick layers of clay on Mars likely formed in ancient, stable lakebeds, creating environments that could have supported early life. These clay-rich regions, often spanning hundreds of feet, owe their formation to abundant water and minimal geological disruption, according to findings published in Nature Astronomy. The study

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
Northrop Grumman Corporation is deepening its collaboration with NVIDIA by integrating the NVIDIA Omniverse simulation platform into space applications and utilizing the NVIDIA Isaac Lab framework to advance AI for autonomous spacecraft operations. The aerospace company plans to develop a comprehensive AI robotics architecture capable of supporting a broad range of complex space environmen

Paris, France (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
New research from the University of Bern reveals that tidal forces from the Sun may have significantly contributed to the formation of Mercury's hills and cliffs, challenging the long-standing belief that these features resulted solely from planetary cooling and contraction. The findings draw on models of Mercury's orbit and rotation, and future studies will be supported by data from ESA and JAX

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
SkyMapper has partnered with the SETI Institute to create a decentralized astronomical data network aimed at providing continuous, real-time sky observations to scientists, educators, and citizen astronomers worldwide. The initiative will allow sky-observing stations and telescopes, including the SETI Institute's LaserSETI, CAMS, and Unistellar programs, to receive and respond to live obse

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
Redwire Corporation has completed integration of its Hammerhead spacecraft platform for the European Space Agency's upcoming ALTIUS mission, marking a key milestone at its satellite processing facility in Kruibeke, Belgium. Redwire serves as the prime contractor for the mission. The Hammerhead spacecraft, designed for low Earth orbit applications, will next undergo system-level testing and

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center is preparing for the first hypersonic test flights of its Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOSS), a compact and lightweight technology that measures temperature and strain on high-speed vehicles. These upcoming rocket launches, scheduled for summer 2025, mark a key milestone in the advancement of hypersonic research. On March 26, Armstrong engineers condu

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
Southwest Research Institute and Yale University scientists have compiled recent advancements in understanding how late-stage accretion shaped the evolution of the solar system's rocky planets. Their review in Nature emphasizes how the final stages of planetary growth dramatically influenced geophysical, chemical and potentially habitable conditions on worlds like Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury.

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
A European-led team of astronomers has identified a colossal, high-temperature filament of gas stretching across 23 million light-years and connecting four galaxy clusters. The discovery sheds light on the elusive warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), a form of matter suspected to contain a significant portion of the universe's missing normal matter. Utilizing the Japanese Suzaku and Europ

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
Firefly Aerospace has unveiled a new lunar imaging service called Ocula, set to debut as early as 2026 aboard its Elytra spacecraft. Enabled by high-resolution ultraviolet and visible spectrum telescopes from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Ocula will support mineral detection, landing site scouting, and enhanced cislunar domain awareness. "Ocula will be one of the first, if