Washington (AFP) Dec 24, 2024
NASA's pioneering Parker Solar Probe made history Tuesday, flying closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures of more than 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (930 degrees Celsius). Launched in August 2018, the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space-weather events that can affect

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2024
The Ohio River Basin, spanning from Pennsylvania to Illinois, covers an area nearly as large as France and is home to over 25 million people. A collaborative effort between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales) through the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission now provides researchers with a valuable tool to monitor water levels in lakes, reservoi

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2024
The Jovian Vortex Hunter project has released a groundbreaking catalog of 7,222 atmospheric vortices on Jupiter, showcasing immense swirling storms captured over the last two years. Each vortex represents a powerful atmospheric phenomenon within the gas giant's turbulent skies, with thousands of volunteers contributing to this unprecedented effort. Vortices are categorized by color, with "

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 18, 2024
ArianeGroup has successfully completed the initial mechanical integration of Themis, the European reusable launcher first stage demonstrator, at its Les Mureaux facility in France. Standing 28 meters tall, the prototype comprises the Multi-Engine Bay (MEB), tanks, the Flight Control Bay (FCB), and the upper segment that completes the stage structure. The Themis demonstrator will be p

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2024
Researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have been awarded a $17.8 million grant by the U.S. Air Force to construct a hypersonic wind tunnel at the UT Space Institute in Tullahoma, Tennessee. The facility will test advanced materials, such as high-temperature ceramics, under the extreme conditions of hypersonic flight - speeds exceeding Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2024
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have awarded Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) a $26 million contract to design and build advanced magnetometers for the Space Weather Next (SW Next) program. These instruments will play a key role in two missions slated for launch in 2029 and 2032, providing critical measurements of the interplanetary magnetic field transport

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 23, 2024
Rock samples collected by China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe from the moon's far side have unveiled key insights into the evolution of the lunar magnetic field. Published in the journal Nature, the analysis of these samples reveals an unexpected resurgence in the moon's magnetic field strength 2.8 billion years ago, following a significant decline around 3.1 billion years ago. This discovery ch

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 23, 2024
NASA and SpaceX have announced a revised target of September 2025 for the launch of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft. The updated schedule allows for additional time to complete final preparations for the IMAP flight systems ahead of its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. IMAP's primary mission is to study the heliosphere, a protective magnetic bubble

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 20, 2024
A research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has pioneered a method to reconstruct the Milky Way's structure by mapping the orbits of stars. This approach reveals a deeper understanding of the galaxy's evolution and the distribution of stellar populations. Despite advances in observational astronomy, much of the Milky Way remains hidden due to the obscuring e

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 23, 2024
Shortly after midnight on Monday, SpaceX launched a new round of 21 Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit, 13 of which can contact cell phones directly. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:35 a.m., EDT. The first stage, making its 15th trip, landed safely on the drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" about eight minutes after the launch.