Paris, France (SPX) May 05, 2023
Half a century after Apollo 11 initiated the first lunar surveys, a collaborative team of scientists from CNRS, University of the Cote d'Azur, Cote d'Azur Observatory, Sorbonne University, and Paris Observatory-PSL has unveiled a previously unknown aspect of the Moon's internal structure: a solid core akin to Earth's. Alongside this groundbreaking discovery, the researchers also provide evidence

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 05, 2023
In August 1865, a 10-pound rock fell from space to Earth, landing with a bang in the remote village of Sherghati, India. After being recovered by witnesses to the event, the stone passed into the possession of a local British magistrate who endeavored to identify the source of the strange object. After more than a century of studying the meteorite fragments-so-called shergottites-researchers in

Washington DC (UPI) May 4, 2023
Russian Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin completed a spacewalk Wednesday to transfer an equipment airlock from one module of the International Space Station to another. While Prokopyev and Petelin were outside assisting, a third cosmonaut, Andrey Fedyaev, stayed inside the station to operate the European Robotic Arm to move the airlock from the station's Rassvet

Ithica CA (SPX) May 05, 2023
A "beautiful effect" predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) can explain the puzzling first observations of polarized X-rays emitted by a magnetar - a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field, according to a Cornell astrophysicist. The extremely dense and hot remnant of a massive star, boasting a magnetic field 100 trillion times stronger than Earth's, was expected to generate h

Leiden, Netherlands (SPX) May 05, 2023
Searching for life's building blocks lightyears away is an important task of the James Webb Space Telescope. But how does it know what to look for? PhD student Marina Gomes Rachid is offering a helping hand by mapping out molecules that could exist in deep space. Imagine the headlights of a car on a misty day. A beam of light becomes visible in the fog, revealing particles of moisture floa

Forres UK (SPX) May 05, 2023
Orbex has announced that construction has begun at Sutherland Spaceport (formerly known as Space Hub Sutherland) in Scotland, making this the first vertical launch spaceport to be built on the UK mainland. Located on the North coast of Scotland, the spaceport will be the 'home' spaceport of Forres-based rocket and launch services company, Orbex, which will use the site to launch up to 12 orbital

San Francisco (AFP) May 4, 2023
A US regulator put artificial intelligence in the crosshairs ahead of a White House meeting Thursday with tech firms to strategize about its dangers. "While the technology is moving swiftly, we already can see several risks," Federal Trade Commission chief Lina Khan wrote in a guest essay in the New York Times. "Enforcers and regulators must be vigilant." The tough talk comes as US l

Oak Ridge TN (SPX) May 04, 2023
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed advanced manufacturing technology, AMCM, was recently licensed by Orbital Composites and enables the rapid production of composite-based components, which could accelerate the decarbonization of vehicles, airplanes and drones. Additive manufacturing compression molding, or AMCM, uses short-fiber-filled polymer and continuous fiber to print directl

Menlo Park CA (SPX) May 04, 2023
Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over El Oued, in northeast Algeria, about 80 km west of the border with Tunisia.