The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s sunshield in space, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 04, 2022
Kerstin Perez is searching for imprints of dark matter. The invisible substance embodies 84 percent of the matter in the universe and is thought to be a powerful cosmic glue, keeping whole galaxies from spinning apart. And yet, the particles themselves leave barely a trace on ordinary matter, thwarting all efforts at detection thus far. Perez, a particle physicist at MIT, is hoping that a

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 05, 2022
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun's nearest neighbor stars. TESS has so far discovered 172 confirmed exoplanets and compiled a list of 4703 candidate exoplanets. Its sensitive camera takes images that span a huge field of view, more than twice the area of the constellation of Orion, and TESS has also as

Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 04, 2022
Earlier, NASA said that Apophis - the poster child for "hazardous asteroids" - was no longer deemed a threat for Earth based on a refined estimate of its orbit around the Sun. Asteroid 99942 Apophis, estimated to measure 340 metres (1,100 ft) across and identified by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as one of the most hazardous asteroids that could impact Earth, wil

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 3, 2022
The Quandrantid meteor shower helped kick off the first workday of the new year on Monday, with the peak somewhat tough to see in North America - but the rest of the world got a good show. The "Quads" as they are nicknamed, are slated to peak around 4 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Monday, according to Margaret Campbell-Brown and Peter Brown in the 2022 version of the Observer's Handbook of th

Beijing, China (SPX) Jan 05, 2022
In the early morning of November 24, 2020, the Chang'E 5 lunar probe was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center and successfully executed a 23-day journey of lunar sample return (LSR) mission. In a review paper recently published in Space: Science and Technology, Dr. Zhong-Sheng Wang and his colleagues from the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, addresses three key orbit

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 4, 2021
The China National Space Administration released photos on New Year's Day, of its Mars orbiter circling high above the Red Plant. The selfies were taken by a small camera which was deployed by the Tianwen 1, capturing images of the orbiter and sending them back to it via a WiFi connection. The photos were then relayed back to Earth where they were published by China's space agenc

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 05, 2022
Tosol, Curiosity woke up in a new mapping quadrant, Roraima. The Roraima quadrant is named after the northern-most state of Brazil and Mount Roraima, which is the highest peak in the Pakaraima mountains which sits between Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana. The terrain in the Roraima region on Earth looks somewhat similar to the area Curiosity is in - with flat-topped hills and some steep slope

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 05, 2022
The next flight on Mars marks the first of 2022 and the nineteenth for NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The current mission goal is to reach the Jezero river delta to aid the Perseverance rover in path planning and scientific discovery. This flight, which will take place no earlier than Friday, Jan. 7, takes the scout vehicle out of the South Seitah basin, across the dividing ridge, and u

Beijing (XNA) Jan 04, 2022
China has approved the fourth phase of its lunar exploration program, including a basic model of a research station built on the moon over the coming decade, according to the China National Space Administration. Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the administration, said China would carry out lunar exploration in the future Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions. As planned, Chang'e-