Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 27, 2023
The primary structure that will serve as the "bones" of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has moved into the big clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The spacecraft bus, Roman's primary support element, will now be built upon this skeletal framework. When it launches by May 2027, Roman will help unravel the secrets of dark energy and dark matter, search

Paris (AFP) April 26, 2023
Astronomers said Wednesday that for the first time they have confirmed what ignites quasars, the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe, which put galaxies in their "death throes". These celestial behemoths form when two galaxies smash into each other, the astronomers said, warning that this could be the Milky Way's fate in a few billion years. Quasars are one of the most ex

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 26, 2023
Astronomers in a Canadian research program made a significant discovery that could lead to a better understanding of the mysterious phenomenon known as fast radio bursts. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment's fast radio burst project discovered 25 repeating fast radio bursts coming from deep space and 14 potential repeaters. This discovery doubles the number of known fast

Lund, Sweden (SPX) Apr 27, 2023
The rare metal terbium has been found in an exoplanet's atmosphere for the first time. The researchers at Lund University in Sweden have also developed a new method for analyzing exoplanets, making it possible to study them in more detail. KELT-9 b is the galaxy's hottest exoplanet, orbiting its distant star about 670 light years from Earth. The celestial body, with an average temperature

Green Bank WV (SPX) Apr 27, 2023
"Previously we had seen both the black hole and the jet in separate images, but now we have taken a panoramic picture of the black hole together with its jet at a new wavelength", says Ru-Sen Lu, from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and leader of a Max Planck Research Group at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The surrounding material is thought to fall into the black hole in a process know

byJennifer Chu for MIT News
Boston MA (SPX) Apr 27, 2023 In 2017, astronomers captured the first image of a black hole by coordinating radio dishes around the world to act as a single, planet-sized telescope. The synchronized network, known collectively as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), focused in on M87*, the black hole at the center of the nearby Messier 87 galaxy. The telescope's laser-focused resolution revealed a

Paris (ESA) Apr 27, 2023
ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, has recorded magnetic field data as its 10.6 m-long magnetometer boom deployed. Juice launched on 14 April, with deployments and activation of its antennas, booms, sensors and instruments ongoing over the next months in a dedicated check-out period known as the commissioning phase. The Juice magnetometer boom (J-MAG) was deployed on 21 April,

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 27, 2023
I am 'shadow' Geo science team lead (GeoSTL) today, helping a new colleague to learn the details of the role. It's so amazing that we train the next generation, in year 11 of our mission. I still remember my own training, as I wasn't part of the initial cohort of GeoSTLs. Inspired by watching my colleague doing a great job, I went back through my notebook, and found out that one of the ear

Fayetteville AR (SPX) Apr 27, 2023
Andy Weir's bestselling 2011 book, The Martian, features botanist Mark Watney's efforts to grow food on Mars after he becomes stranded there. While Watney's initial efforts focus on growing potatoes, new research presented at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by a team of interdisciplinary researchers from the U of A suggests future Martian botanists like Watney may have a better o

Houston TX (SPX) Apr 27, 2023
For more than two decades, the International Space Station has provided a platform for growing and studying protein crystals. In the early days of microgravity research, scientists discovered that they protein crystals grown in space were more uniform and larger than those grown in Earth's gravity. Since then, drug companies and academic researchers have conducted hundreds of protein crystal gro