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SwRI-led team finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
SwRI scientists studied the composition of a small shard of a meteoroid to determine that it likely originated from a previously unknown parent asteroid. This false-color micrograph of the meteoroid sample shows the unexpected amphibole crystals identified in orange. Credit: NASA/USRA/Lunar and Planetary Institute

A Southwest Research Institute-led team of scientists has identified a potentially new meteorite parent asteroid by studying a small shard of a meteorite that arrived on Earth a dozen years ago. The composition of a piece of the meteorite Almahata Sitta (AhS) indicates that its parent body was an asteroid roughly the size of Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and formed in the presence of water under intermediate temperatures and pressures.

night sky
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Another great photo opportunity occurs Monday after sundown: the Winter Solstice and the sighting of the "Christmas Star."

You can use a smartphone to capture what is promised to be the closest visible conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 800 years. The planets are expected to appear as one large star, lighting up the sky.

"Shooting a night sky is one of the most amazing things you can witness," says travel photographer Austin Mann.

You don't need a fancy DSLR or mirrorless camera to capture the light show. Mann and other photographers say you can get a great shot on a smartphone.

The 2020 and 2019 editions of the iPhone (11 and 12 series) offer "Night Mode," for making dark shots more possible for smartphone photographers, while the Google Pixel introduced "Night Sight," in the Pixel 4 and 5 series.

Samsung doesn't have an official name for photos, but says it too can do awesome night photos on recent Galaxy S edition phones, and shows off examples on its website.

Mann recommends going to your location shortly after sunset, which is generally between 4:20 and 4:45 in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Sunday, 20 December 2020 13:00

Instruments installed on Euclid spacecraft

Instruments installed on Euclid spacecraft Image: Instruments installed on Euclid spacecraft
Riverside CA (SPX) Dec 17, 2020
An astro-statistics course University of California, Riverside, graduate student Remington O. Sexton took three years ago taught him techniques that led him to develop free, open-source code benefiting astronomers everywhere. Called BADASS, which stands for Bayesian AGN Decomposition Analysis for SDSS Spectra, the code in its current form fits astronomical spectra of active galactic nuclei
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 16, 2020
UP42 has announced that image data and information from the planned LatConnect 60 constellation of mid-inclined orbit remote sensing satellites will be available on the UP42 developer platform for Earth observation data and analytics. In early 2022, LatConnect 60 will launch its first two "smart" small satellites equipped with onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) for data pre-processing an
Paris, France (SPX) Dec 17, 2020
The French Armament General Directorate, through the Defence Innovation Agency, is supporting Exotrail to develop technologies allowing small satellites to operate in geostationary orbit. Under the RAPID programme, a funding framework operated by the Defence Innovation Agency, Exotrail will mature its technologies and extend their product portfolio to provide thrust vectoring and cold gas propul
Germantown MD (SPX) Dec 17, 2020
Hughes Network Systems has been chosen by OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company, to develop and manufacture essential ground system technology for the new LEO constellation. In a three-year contract valued at approximately $250 million, Hughes will produce the gateway electronics for the OneWeb system as well as the core module that will be used in every us
Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:14

Steampunk in Orbit

Scottsdale AZ (SPX) Dec 21, 2020
December 18, 2020 - Since their introduction in 1999, CubeSats have made a dramatic mark in space, widely used for technology demonstrations, earth sensing, telecom and other missions. But their full potential has been held back by the lack of a good propulsion solution. That's about to change, thanks to a breakthrough engine design which Howe Industries has submitted to the National Scien
Bethesda MD (SPX) Dec 21, 2020
Lockheed Martin has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AJRD) for $56 per share in cash, which is expected to be reduced to $51 per share after the payment of a pre-closing special dividend. This represents a post-dividend equity value of $4.6 billion and a total transaction value of $4.4 billion including the assumption of net cash.
Saturday, 19 December 2020 06:32

Hubble Sees a 'Molten Ring'

Baltimore MD (SPX) Dec 21, 2020
The narrow galaxy elegantly curving around its spherical companion in this image is a fantastic example of a truly strange and very rare phenomenon. This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, depicts GAL-CLUS-022058s, located in the southern hemisphere constellation of Fornax (the Furnace). GAL-CLUS-022058s is the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever di
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