Minneapolis MN (SPX) Jan 12, 2021
A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has discovered a groundbreaking one-step process for creating materials with unique properties, called metamaterials. Their results show the realistic possibility of designing similar self-assembled structures with the potential of creating "built-to-order" nanostructures for wide application in electronics and optical devices.

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
By most accounts, 2020 has been a rough year for the planet. It was the warmest year on record, just barely exceeding the record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree according to NASA's analysis. Massive wildfires scorched Australia, Siberia, and the United States' west coast - and many of the fires were still burning during the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record. "This ye

Seoul (AFP) Jan 15, 2021
Nuclear-armed North Korea unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a military parade in Pyongyang, state media reported Friday, in a show of strength days before Joe Biden's inauguration as US president. The display came after the five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers' Party, where leader Kim Jong Un decried the US as his country's "foremost principal enemy". A grinnin

Washington DC (AFNS) Jan 15, 2021
The Secretary of the Air Force, on behalf of the Office of Secretary of Defense, selected Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred location for the U.S. Space Command Headquarters. The Department of the Air Force conducted both virtual and on-site visits to assess which of six candidate locations would be best suited to host the U.S. Space Command Headquarters based on facto

Melbourne FL (SPX) Jan 18, 2021
The night sky is speckled with the light from hundreds of billions of stars within our galaxy. The brightest few thousand of these celestial bodies captivate the human eye and imagination. For astronomers seeking to detect undiscovered stars and, potentially, the planets around them, however, this brightness can be problematic as it may overwhelm the light coming from fainter, nearby objects.

Beijing (XNA) Jan 18, 2021
Three major components of China's space station program have passed technical and quality assessments and are ready for upcoming missions, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Experts from the agency, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp reviewed the design, construction and test reports on the space station's Tianhe core module, the Tianzh

Milan, Italy (SPX) Jan 18, 2021
Leaf Space, the Italian ground segment as-a-service company focused on microsatellites, announced it has completed its Series A financing round of 5 million euro, bringing its total funding to 10 million euro. A contribution of 2 million euro came from Primo Space, the investment fund of Primomiglio SGR focused on investments in highly innovative companies in the space industry. The other 3 mill

London, UK (SPX) Jan 18, 2021
OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company jointly owned by the UK Government and Bharti Global, has secured additional funding from SoftBank Group Corp. ("SoftBank") and Hughes Network Systems LLC ("Hughes"), bringing OneWeb's total funding to $1.4 billion. The capital raised to date positions the Company to be fully funded for its first-generation satellite fleet, total

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 18, 2021
NASA, in partnership with Space Center Houston - the official visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center- has selected 22 qualifying teams to compete in the competition round of Phase 2 of the Space Robotics Challenge. Eligible teams will advance to the final virtual competition round, which will begin in late January. Phase 2 of the Space Robotics Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenge

New York NY (SPX) Jan 15, 2021
A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity - the theory that connects space, time, and gravity - is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped. For the last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a particle disintegration could draw energy from