A science team has combined data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck II telescope to see evidence of cloud convection on Saturn’s moon Titan in the northern hemisphere for the first time. Most of Titan’s lakes and seas are located in that hemisphere, and are likely replenished by an occasional rain of methane and ethane. Webb also has detected a key carbon-containing molecule that gives insight into the chemical processes in Titan’s complex atmosphere.

Image: Decommissioning Galileo satellites - Infographic

Boulder CO (SPX) May 13, 2025
University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jeremy Darling is pursuing a new way of measuring the universe's gravitational wave background-the constant flow of waves that churn through the cosmos, warping the very fabric of space and time. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could one day help to unlock some of the universe's deepest mysteries, including how gra

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 13, 2025
HEO and BAE Systems have announced a collaboration aimed at delivering a comprehensive geospatial exploitation solution that integrates HEO's resolved Non-Earth Imagery (NEI) with BAE Systems' latest SOCET GXP software capability, Non-Earth Registration (NER). This combined approach enables the creation of precise sensor models for HEO's NEI data, enhancing customers' ability to derive critical

London, UK (SPX) May 13, 2025
Researchers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and institutes across India and Saudi Arabia have discovered 26 new bacterial species in the cleanrooms used to assemble spacecraft. These microbes exhibit genetic traits linked to extreme resilience, offering insights into how life might survive in space and potential biotech applica

Washington DC (SPX) May 13, 2025
New details about the crust on Venus include some surprises about the geology of Earth's hotter twin, according to new NASA-funded research that describes movements of the planet's crust. Scientists expected the outermost layer of Venus' crust would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack of forces that would drive the crust back into the planet's interior. But the paper

Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 13, 2025
The latest research from Radboud University scientists Heino Falcke, Michael Wondrak, and Walter van Suijlekom builds on their earlier work, revealing that the ultimate fate of the universe may arrive much sooner than previously believed, though still an unimaginable timescale away. In their new study, the team estimates that the final decay of the universe, primarily driven by Hawking-lik

Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 13, 2025
The afterglow of the universe, known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), provides critical insights into the early cosmos and the formation of the first galaxies. However, researchers from the Universities of Bonn, Prague, and Nanjing have presented calculations suggesting that this radiation's strength may have been significantly overestimated. If validated, their findings could challenge

Paris, France (SPX) May 13, 2025
The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and CSA, has provided fresh insights into the intense auroras that dance around Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System. These auroras, hundreds of times brighter than those on Earth, have been studied with Webb's highly sensitive instruments, revealing previously unseen details. Jupiter's auroras form when high-ene

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 13, 2025
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, currently en route to Jupiter's moon Europa, recently utilized a close flyby of Mars to calibrate its critical infrared imaging system. The maneuver, conducted on March 1, positioned the spacecraft just 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the Martian surface, using the planet's gravity to adjust its trajectory for a more efficient journey to Jupiter. The flyb