The mission to return martian samples back to Earth will see a European 2.5 metre-long robotic arm pick up tubes filled with precious soil from Mars and transfer them to a rocket for an historic interplanetary delivery.

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 12, 2022
Although the Earth has long been studied in detail, some fundamental questions have still to be answered. One of them concerns the formation of our planet, about whose beginnings researchers are still unclear. An international research team led by ETH Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS is now proposing a new answer to this question based on laboratory experiments an

London, UK (SPX) Jul 17, 2022
Changes in atmospheric density after sunset can cause hot pockets of gas called 'plasma bubbles' to form over the Earth's equator, resulting in communication disruptions between satellites and the Earth. New AI models are now helping scientists to predict plasma bubble events and create a forecast. The work was presented this week at the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2022) by Sachin Redd

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 12, 2022
Air quality planning agencies in the U.S. Great Lakes region now include high-resolution NASA satellite data and near real-time Earth observations in their ozone pollution assessments. Creating models that accurately predict the complex lake and land breezes along Lake Michigan's shoreline is very difficult, but it's also vital to understanding how ozone pollution circulates in the region.

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 11, 2022
Many people are familiar with the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, but what is less well known is that occasionally, the protective ozone in the stratosphere over the Arctic is destroyed as well, thinning the ozone layer there. This last happened in the spring months of 2020, and before that, in the spring of 2011. Each time the ozone layer has been thinned out, climate researchers

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 12, 2022
Over the next two weeks, a handful of NASA scientists will be living very different lives from the rest of us: they will board a research plane in Greenland alongside laser instruments to help calibrate NASA's space-based measurements of Arctic ice. The ice researchers and instrument scientists will board NASA's Gulfstream V jet and fly out of Thule Air Base in northwestern Greenland to he

Glasgow UK (SPX) Jul 14, 2022
Researchers have shown that a quantum-inspired technique can be used to perform lidar imaging with a much higher depth resolution than is possible with conventional approaches. Lidar, which uses laser pulses to acquire 3D information about a scene or object, is usually best suited for imaging large objects such as topographical features or built structures due to its limited depth resolution.

Berkeley CA (SPX) Jul 14, 2022
Deep below the Black Hills of South Dakota in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), an innovative and uniquely sensitive dark matter detector - the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) - has passed a check-out phase of startup operations and delivered first results. The take home message from this successful startup: "We're ready and

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Jul 15, 2022
Space Systems Command (SSC) officials and other agencies involved in Space Domain Awareness (SDA) will meet with traditional and non-traditional space industry professionals July 28 in Colorado Springs to exchange ideas and methods to execute SDA missions at the next SSC Industry Day. To register, visit the SSC Front Door webpage. "Strengthening partnerships with industry and having valuab

Washington DC (UPI) Jul 17, 2021
SpaceX on Sunday launched 53 Starlink satellites after the company's Dragon cargo craft carrying crew supplies and scientific experiments docked with the International Space Station on Saturday. The Starlink satellites were launched to orbit from a Falcon 9 rocket at the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:20 a.m. Sunday. It was the 31st