New research models concept for data transport using train of satellites
Friday, 24 February 2023 10:24Although the Pony Express lasted only a short time in the mid-1800s before being outperformed by the transcontinental telegraph, it inspired a concept for a string of small satellites to transport data from Mars to Earth and help alleviate the data logjam currently occurring in the Deep Space Network. "The Solar System Pony Express is a mission concept that aims to augment the data transmi
Image: Sun releases strong solar flare
Friday, 24 February 2023 08:22The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 3:16 p.m. ET on Feb. 17, 2023. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare—as seen in the bright flash in the upper left—on Feb. 17, 2023.
The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in teal.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
This flare is classified as an X2.2 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Russia launches rescue ship to space station after leaks
Friday, 24 February 2023 08:05Earth from Space: The Triple Frontier
Friday, 24 February 2023 08:00Cosmic contortions
Friday, 24 February 2023 07:47Galactic Energy plans sea launches
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27Galactic Energy, a private space company in Beijing, plans to launch one of its own rockets from the sea in the coming summer, which, if it succeeds, will become the first sea-based launch by the country's private sector. Xia Dongkun, a vice-president at Galactic Energy, said on Thursday that the prospective launch has been scheduled to take place in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Shandon
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft remains in safe mode after IMU issue
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27NASA's MAVEN spacecraft went into safe mode on Feb. 16 due to an issue with its Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which measures the spacecraft's rate of rotation for determining its pointing during a minor maneuver scheduled to reduce eclipse durations in 2027. On Feb. 17, MAVEN exited safe mode and is currently operating in all stellar mode, which does not rely on IMU measurements and all
Drilling the Marker Band Again: Sols 3750-3751
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27We continue to drive along the Marker Band and found ourselves this morning (as planned) in an area of strongly laminated bedrock. The accompanying image shows the bedrock to the right of our current workspace, with very regular distinctive laminations or layers, about 3 cm or less apart. We are interested generally to see how this compares to the "rippled" Marker Band material that we tri
First look at Ryugu Asteroid sample reveals it is organic-rich
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27Asteroid Ryugu has a rich complement of organic molecules, according to a NASA and international team's initial analysis of a sample from the asteroid's surface delivered to Earth by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The discovery adds support to the idea that organic material from space contributed to the inventory of chemical components necessary for life. Organic molecules are the building
Another Busy Day on Mars: Sol 3749
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27After a holiday/soliday weekend, we're back to work with today's single sol plan, and there's a lot to pack into it. After the drive, Curiosity's wheel scuffed the rippled sand feature right in front of us, which you can see in the image above. This scuff - nicknamed 'Taracua' - is the subject of both ChemCam and Mastcam observations looking at both the surface and interior of the feature.
Study Finds Venus' 'Squishy' Outer Shell May Be Resurfacing the Planet
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27Earth and Venus are rocky planets of about the same size and rock chemistry, so they should be losing their internal heat to space at about the same rate. How Earth loses its heat is well known, but Venus' heat flow mechanism has been a mystery. A study that uses three-decade-old data from NASA's Magellan mission has taken a new look at how Venus cools and found that thin regions of the planet's
Weighing OJ 287 and the project MOMO
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27An international research group led by Stefanie Komossa from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, presents important new results on the galaxy OJ 287, based on the most dense and longest radio-to-high-energy observations to date. The scientists were able to test crucial binary model predictions using multiple observing tools including the Effelsberg radio telescope and
How could the Aurora Borealis affect energy grids when renewables are added to the mix
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27As the world transitions toward more renewable energy resources and deals with the consequences of a changing climate, the resiliency of energy infrastructure is becoming ever more urgent. University of Oklahoma researcher Paul Moses, Ph.D., has received a Faculty Early CAREER Development award from the National Science Foundation to better understand how chaotic grid disturbances from events li
Over one billion galaxies blaze bright in colossal map of the sky
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27The largest two-dimensional map of the sky ever made has grown even larger with the tenth data release from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys - a monumental six-year survey covering nearly half the sky. This new data release adds increased sky and wavelength coverage to the already completed surveys made with data from NSF's NOIRLab telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and Cerro
Building a Giant 2D Map of the Universe to Prepare for the Largest 3D Map
Friday, 24 February 2023 05:27Before DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, can begin its 5-year mission from an Arizona mountaintop to produce the largest 3D sky map yet, researchers first needed an even bigger 2D map of the universe. The 2D map, pieced together from 200,000 telescope images and several years of satellite data, lacks information about galaxy distances, and DESI will supply this and provide ot