Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 24, 2025
Earth is immersed in material streaming from the Sun. This stream, called the solar wind, is washing over our planet, causing breathtaking auroras, impacting satellites and astronauts in space, and even affecting ground-based infrastructure. NASA's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission will be the first to image the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, and solar win

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 24, 2025
ClearSpace has commenced the consolidation phase of its GEO Life Extension Mission. Backed by the Government of Luxembourg and supported by an ESA contract under the Luxembourg National Space Programme LuxIMPULSE, which is implemented by the Luxembourg Space Agency, this initiative represents a major operational milestone. The mission underscores ClearSpace's steadfast commitment to sustai

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 24, 2025
Optical atomic clocks hold the promise of enhancing timekeeping and positioning in everyday devices by a factor of one thousand. Yet their large size and complex design have kept them confined to advanced laboratories. Researchers at Purdue University, USA, and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have now devised a method using on-chip microcombs to dramatically reduce the size of these p

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
A research team led by Dr. Jae Hwa Seo at the Advanced Semiconductor Research Center of KERI has developed cutting-edge technology to evaluate radiation resistance and enhance the reliability of silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor devices for space applications. Power semiconductors are critical in electronic systems, managing current flow and enabling power conversion. While silicon

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 23, 2025
A shell of icy objects at the edge of the solar system known as the Oort cloud has a pair of spiral arms that resemble a miniature galaxy, new research suggests. Until now, the shape of the cloud and how it is affected by forces beyond our solar system have not been largely understood. But the new research, published Feb. 16 at arXiv, says the cloud may look like a spiral disk, one of t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 24, 2025

Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 is set to land on the Moon in less than a week with touchdown expected on Sunday March 2 after its launch on Jan 15. In preparation for descent, the spacecraft will execute its final lunar orbit maneuver on Monday, Feb 24, inserting it into a near-circular low orbit that brings it closer to the lunar surface. Approximately one hour before landing, a Descent Orbit

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) to harness space technology for humanitarian assistance worldwide. The partnership will combine ESA's space expertise with ICRC's humanitarian reach to develop space-enabled solutions that can help protect and assist communities affected by disasters and conflicts across Europe and beyond.

The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission will create artificial solar eclipses in orbit, allowing scientists to study the Sun’s corona for longer periods of time than would be possible during eclipses observed from Earth. To test the functionality of Proba-3’s systems, researchers from the Royal Observatory of Belgium took a snapshot of a star field – in the very first image captured by the mission’s coronagraph.

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 21, 2025
How prepared is humanity to deflect an incoming asteroid? This question is addressed in two recent studies published in *Nature Communications*, stemming from a collaboration between Politecnico di Milano, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and other global research institutions. The studies analyze the outcomes of NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which successfully impa