Paris, France (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
SatRevolution S.A. has secured Series B funding from Virgin Orbit, the US-based responsive launch and space solutions company that has announced a planned business combination with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II. The Transaction values SatRev at approximately $150 million, and will support SatRev's business development. The Transaction, signed at World Satellite Business Week, follows a stra

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun's upper atmosphere - the corona - and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
The world's first 3D simulation simultaneously considering dust motion and growth in a disk around a young star has shown that large dust from the central region can be entrained by and then ejected by gas outflows, and eventually fall back onto the outer regions of the disk where it may enable planetesimal formation. This process can be likened to volcanic "ashfall" where ash carried up b

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
Research using new antennas in the Australian hinterland has reduced background noise and brought us closer to finding a 13-billion-year-old signal The early Universe was dark, filled with a hot soup of opaque particles. These condensed to form neutral hydrogen which coalesced to form the first stars in what astronomers call the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR). "Finding the weak signal of thi

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
In June of 2018, telescopes around the world picked up a brilliant blue flash from the spiral arm of a galaxy 200 million light years away. The powerful burst appeared at first to be a supernova, though it was much faster and far brighter than any stellar explosion scientists had yet seen. The signal, procedurally labeled AT2018cow, has since been dubbed simply "the Cow," and astronomers have ca

Norwich UK (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Manchester have helped conduct a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein's theory of general relativity. The international team looked to the stars - a pair of extreme stars called pulsars to be precise - through seven radio telescopes across the globe. And they used them to challenge Einstein's most famous theo

Hannover, Germany (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
The European Union wants to use the unique properties of Alexandrite crystals in Earth observation satellites in the future. To make the EU independent of non-European suppliers, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), Altechna Coatings, and Optomaterials work on a purely European supply chain for space-qualified Alexandrite laser crystals in the EU project GALACTIC. The project partners have mad

Long Beach CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
Rocket Lab USA has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SolAero Holdings, Inc. (SolAero), a premier supplier of space solar power products and precision aerospace structures for the global aerospace market, for $80 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition aligns with Rocket Lab's growth strategy of vertical integration to deliv

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 15, 2021
As we continue exploring Maria Gordon notch, we are planning a touch and go with lots of remote sensing activities between the "touch" and the "go." MSL is parked near the base of the cliff to the west, and the science team is interested in investigating the bedrock in this area. Unfortunately, none of the bedrock targets shown near the top of the image above are suitable for close A

Boulder CO (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
In science fiction movies and television shows, real-life locations on Earth, such as California's Redwood National Forest and the Sahara Desert, have long been used to represent alien worlds. But recently, in a Star Trek-style twist, a group of scientists, including researchers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, have been using a pl