Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 07, 2026
China's geospatial information sector, a key component of digital mapping and positioning, is approaching a scale of 1 trillion yuan, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. The industry is expected to have exceeded 900 billion yuan in output for 2025, representing growth of more than 30 percent compared with 2020, and it employs more than 4 million people. At the core of the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 07, 2026
Our galaxy's supermassive black hole is among the faintest known, yet new observations indicate it was far more active in the recent past on cosmic timescales. Sagittarius A*, at the Milky Way's center, appears to have produced a powerful X ray flare within the last few hundred to 1,000 years, leaving an observable imprint in surrounding gas. Michigan State University researcher Stephen Di

St. Louis MO (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, yet none have captured the interest and imagination of astronomers and space scientists quite like Europa, an ice-shrouded world that is thought to possess a vast ocean of liquid salt water. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar syst

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 05, 2026
For the first time, scientists have used NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) to study a white dwarf star. Using IXPE's unique X-ray polarization capability, astronomers examined a star called the intermediate polar EX Hydrae, unlocking the geometry of energetic binary systems. In 2024, IXPE spent nearly one week focused on EX Hydrae, a white dwarf star system located in the c

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 07, 2026
Scientists at the University of Missouri have identified a small group of unusual objects in the early universe that look like stars in images yet behave like compact galaxies when analyzed in detail. Using NASAs James Webb Space Telescope JWST, Haojing Yan and colleagues at Mizzous College of Arts and Science found that these sources appear as single points of light while carrying the spectral

College Station TX (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
When it comes to understanding the universe, what we know is only a sliver of the whole picture. Dark matter and dark energy make up about 95% of the universe, leaving only 5% "ordinary matter," or what we can see. Dr. Rupak Mahapatra, an experimental particle physicist at Texas A&M University, designs highly advanced semiconductor detectors with cryogenic quantum sensors, powering experiments w

The extent and speed of ice moving off the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica into the sea – an important dynamic for climate and sea-rise modelling – has been captured over a 10-year period by satellites from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

Image: This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 6 January 2026, shows Amsterdam in the Netherlands blanketed in snow.

Martian winds can have quite an impact. ESA’s Mars Express has spotted them whipping up sand grains and acting as a cosmic sandblaster, carving out intriguing grooves near Mars’s equator.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 06, 2026
Food businesses rely on cold rooms and process chillers to keep products safe from farm to fork. When cooling systems fail or behave unpredictably, the result can be spoilage, recalls, or subtle quality drift that emerges only when products reach consumers.