Houston TX (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Japanese and U.S. physicists have used atoms about 3 billion times colder than interstellar space to open a portal to an unexplored realm of quantum magnetism. "Unless an alien civilization is doing experiments like these right now, anytime this experiment is running at Kyoto University it is making the coldest fermions in the universe," said Rice University's Kaden Hazzard, corresponding theory

Baltimore MD (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
For the first time, astronomers have used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb's powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
By precisely tracing a small, almost imperceptible, wobble in a nearby star's motion through space, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting that star, which is one of a binary pair. Their work, using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), produced the first-ever determination of the complete, 3-dimensional structure of the orbits of a binary pair of

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Was there ever life on the moon? What about on other planets? With the U.S. slated to blast off soon to orbit the moon - its first trip there in 50 years - the University of Virginia and NASA's Artemis space missions seek to answer big questions like these, while pushing the scope of what can be analyzed on alien soils. The new collaborative research will take the form of a roving, ground-

San Antonio TX (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
NASA's Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter's clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022. Citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops,

Ithaca NY (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
With an eye toward a possible return mission years in the future, Cornell University astronomers have shown how smooth terrains - a good place to land a spacecraft and to scoop up samples - evolve on the icy world of comets. By applying thermal models to data gathered by the Rosetta mission - which caught up to the barbell-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko almost a decade ago - they s

Paris (ESA) Sep 02, 2022
This month NASA's DART spacecraft will collide with the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids in deep space, attempting to shift its orbit in what will be humankind's first test of the 'kinetic impactor' planetary defence technique. Meanwhile, down on the ground, ESA's follow-on mission to Didymos has reached its own crucial milestone. The main 780-m diameter Didymos asteroid is orbited by

Exeter UK (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Analysing the charred remains of plants can confirm the locations of asteroid strikes in the distant past, new research shows. Based on estimates of crater-producing asteroid strikes in the last 11,650 years (known as the Holocene), only about 30% of impact sites have been located. Until now, there has been no way to distinguish between normal land structures and very small asteroid

Long Beach CA (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully test fired a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time - a significant technical achievement in the Company's efforts to make its Electron launch vehicle the world's first reusable orbital small rocket. Rocket Lab conducted the full duration, full-thrust test fire of the refurbished Rutherford engine earlier this week at the

Kennedy Space Center, United States (AFP) Sept 2, 2022
The stars appear to be aligned for NASA's Moon rocket to finally blast off on Saturday, with weather forecasts favorable and technical issues that postponed the launch earlier this week resolved. Liftoff is scheduled for 2:17 pm local time (1817 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the potential for up to a two-hour delay if necessary. The chance for favorable weather conditio