Super-bright stellar explosion is likely a dying star giving birth to a black hole or neutron star
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
In June of 2018, telescopes around the world picked up a brilliant blue flash from the spiral arm of a galaxy 200 million light years away. The powerful burst appeared at first to be a supernova, though it was much faster and far brighter than any stellar explosion scientists had yet seen. The signal, procedurally labeled AT2018cow, has since been dubbed simply "the Cow," and astronomers have ca Closing in on the first light in the Universe
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
Research using new antennas in the Australian hinterland has reduced background noise and brought us closer to finding a 13-billion-year-old signal
The early Universe was dark, filled with a hot soup of opaque particles. These condensed to form neutral hydrogen which coalesced to form the first stars in what astronomers call the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR).
"Finding the weak signal of thi Stellar "ashfall" could help distant planets grow
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
The world's first 3D simulation simultaneously considering dust motion and growth in a disk around a young star has shown that large dust from the central region can be entrained by and then ejected by gas outflows, and eventually fall back onto the outer regions of the disk where it may enable planetesimal formation.
This process can be likened to volcanic "ashfall" where ash carried up b NASA enters the Solar atmosphere for the first time
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:42
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun's upper atmosphere - the corona - and sampled particles and magnetic fields there.
The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching No decision yet on where to build OneWeb second-generation satellites
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 04:41
A week after a OneWeb executive told British officials that the company would move production of its second generation of satellites to the United Kingdom, another executive said the company has yet to decide where it will build those satellites.
Viasat-Inmarsat deal remains on track
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 03:49
Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat is moving ahead, company executives said, despite ongoing work to secure approval from the British government as well as a drop in share price that has cut a billion dollars from the value of the deal.
SPAC activity may pause but it will be back
Wednesday, 15 December 2021 02:36
The rate of space company mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations may be slowing, but the trend isn’t over, according to investors speaking at TechCrunch Space Sessions 2021.
U.S. military looking to build lasting relationships with commercial space industry
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 23:26
Government buyers are still trying to figure out how to work with private firms and attract suppliers that have not traditionally sought government contracts, officials said Dec. 14 at a TechCrunch conference.
Op-ed | How the U.S. can quickly build greater resiliency in space
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 21:00
The National Space Council directs the Department of Defense to “accelerate its transition to a more resilient national security space posture.”
Astranis unveils insurance package for Falcon Heavy launch
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 20:59
Startup Astranis unveiled more details Dec. 14 of the insurance package covering its first commercial small satellite, which SpaceX is slated to launch to geostationary orbit (GEO) as a secondary payload on a Falcon Heavy rocket next spring.
NASA enters the solar atmosphere for the first time, bringing new discoveries
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 20:50
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun's upper atmosphere—the corona—and sampled particles and magnetic fields there.
The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the very stuff the Sun is made of will help scientists uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the solar system.
HyspecIQ selects advisors, offering clues to early applications
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 18:48
HyspecIQ is beginning to fill out its advisory board, a move that offers clues to the hyperspectral imagery applications the startup plans to address.
HyspecIQ selects advisers, offering clues to early applications
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 18:48HyspecIQ is beginning to fill out its advisory board, a move that offers clues to the hyperspectral imagery applications the startup plans to address.
Parker Solar Probe: A spacecraft has 'touched' the sun for the first time
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 17:05
On April 28, 2021, at 0933 UT (3:33 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), NASA's Parker Solar Probe reached the sun's extended solar atmosphere, known as the corona, and spent five hours there. The spacecraft is the first to enter the outer boundaries of our sun.
The results, published in Physical Review Letters, were announced in a press conference at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2021 on December 14. The manuscript is open-access and freely available to download.
"This marks the achievement of the primary objective of the Parker mission and a new era for understanding the physics of the corona," said Justin C. Kasper, the first author, Deputy Chief Technology Officer at BWX Technologies, and a professor at the University of Michigan. The mission is led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL).
NASA's Webb telescope will have the coolest camera in space
Tuesday, 14 December 2021 16:55
Set to launch on Dec. 22, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the largest space observatory in history, and it has an equally gargantuan task: to collect infrared light from the distant corners of the cosmos, enabling scientists to probe the structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.
Many cosmic objects – including stars and planets, as well as the gas and dust from where they form – emit infrared light, sometimes called heat radiation. But so do most other warm objects, like toasters, humans, and electronics. That means Webb's four infrared instruments can detect their own infrared glow.