Tucson, AZ (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Observations during a stellar occultation detected the presence of evolving material orbiting around Centaur (2060) Chiron, rather than a two- ring system interpretation, according to a paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Amanda Sickafoose. "We observed a star passing behind the Centaur Chiron from the 1.9-m telescope in Sutherland. We detected dips in the starlight as it

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Two small businesses are benefitting from NASA's expertise as they develop heat shield technologies, cargo delivery systems, and new protective materials for spacecraft and space stations in the growing commercial industry of low Earth orbit operations. The two American companies - Canopy Aerospace Inc. of Littleton, Colorado and Outpost Technologies Corp. of Santa Monica, California - rec

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 29, 2021
The United States and Saudi Arabia have announced intentions to explore the use of outer space together in pursuit of peaceful purposes, the U.S. State Dept. announced Tuesday. The agreement is an extension of the Jeddah Communique, a document outlining the strategic partnership between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States signed by King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Pre

San Antonio TX (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
The satellite discovered during the first asteroid encounter of NASA's Lucy mission has an official name. On Nov. 27, 2023, the International Astronomical Union approved the name "Selam", which means "peace" in the Ethiopian language Amharic, for Dinkinesh's moon. "Dinkinesh is the Ethiopian name for the fossil nicknamed 'Lucy,'", says Raphael Marshall of the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 30, 2023
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the Universe, and searching for life on Mars is a major goal of the Mars 2020 mission. While humans have long wondered whether there are others like us, it's only been a few decades since we've developed the technologies to search for life beyond Earth in earnest. With space-based telescopes like James Webb, as

Washington (AFP) Nov 30, 2023
More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try once again to land a craft on the Moon on January 25, said the head of what could be the first private company to successfully touch down on the lunar surface. The lander, named Peregrine, will have no one on board. It was developed by American company Astrobotic, whose CEO John Thornton said it will carry NASA ins

Video: 00:03:39

Focus on Euclid with Guadalupe Cañas Herrera: “I’m exactly where I’ve always wanted to be.”

Guadalupe Cañas Herrera, an ESA Internal Research Fellow currently working for ESA’s Euclid mission at ESTEC, the Netherlands, describes in this interview her personal and professional trajectory.

Passionate about space since her early childhood, she has spent endless nights looking at the stars. Now, this theoretical physicist develops her activities within the Euclid Scientific Consortium to establish the quantity of dark matter and dark energy existing in the Universe.

Listen to Guadalupe for a vivid account from a vocational scientist and an ardent defender of

Video: 00:02:16

Scenes from the combined hot-fire test held for Ariane 6 on 23 November 2023. Teams on the ground went through a complete launch countdown followed by a seven-minute full firing of the core stage’s engine, as it would fire on a launch into space.

This video shows the Ariane 6 mobile building opening its doors, the building rolling away to leave the Ariane 6 test model on the launch pad and the seven minutes of firing.

On the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, the Ariane 6 test model fired of its Vulcain 2.1 main stage engine for seven

In around six months, ESA’s Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer mission will take to the skies to advance our understanding of the interactions between clouds, aerosols and radiation in Earth’s atmosphere. But how will it do that exactly?