Helsinki, Finland (SPX) May 05, 2021
A new auroral phenomenon discovered by Finnish researchers a year ago is probably caused by areas of increased oxygen atom density occurring in an atmospheric wave channel. The speculative explanation offered by the researchers gained support from a new study. Observations made by University of Helsinki researchers increased the validity of a speculative mechanism according to which a type

Boston MA (SPX) May 05, 2021
In work that could someday turn cell phones into sensors capable of detecting viruses and other minuscule objects, MIT researchers have built a powerful nanoscale flashlight on a chip. Their approach to designing the tiny light beam on a chip could also be used to create a variety of other nano flashlights with different beam characteristics for different applications. Think of a wide spot

Washington DC (UPI) May 5, 2021
Washington-based spaceflight company Blue Origin opened up an auction Wednesday for a seat on its first crewed flight to the edge of space in July. The New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket is expected to be launched July 20 from the company's spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, about 120 miles southeast of El Paso. Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, said the a

Washington DC (Sputnik) May 04, 2021
Mixing human ingenuity with machine efficiency, power, and speed can create superhuman capabilities in the coming decade, and the US must embrace this change in technological era or fall behind global adversaries, Dr. Joel B. Mozer, the Chief Scientist of the US Space Force, said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Inspire event. "In the last c

Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 05, 2021
Nine weeks of darkness and temperatures down to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Under these harsh conditions of Antarctica, NASA and the German Aerospace Center have begun a joint series of experiments on vegetable cultivation techniques for use on the Moon and Mars. Until early 2022, NASA guest scientist Jess Bunchek will research how future astronauts could grow lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers

Fayetteville AK (SPX) May 05, 2021
A new map including rover paths of the Schrodinger basin, a geologically important area of the moon, could guide future exploration missions.The map was created by a team of interns at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, including Ellen Czaplinski, a University of Arkansas graduate student researcher at the Arkansas Center for Planetary Sciences and first author of a paper published in The Planet

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 05, 2021
New Australian space startup Quasar Satellite Technologies is set to revolutionise space communication, allowing ground stations to talk to hundreds of satellites at once using technology developed by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. Over the next decade, more than 57,000 satellites will be launched worldwide to support a surge in demand for space-derived data, from environmenta

Media will have the opportunity to see the iconic golden mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope open for the last time on Earth during a virtual briefing Tuesday, May 11, at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT).

Washington (AFP) May 5, 2021
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will send its first crew to space on July 20 and is offering one of the seats to the winner of an online auction, the company said Wednesday. The trip will last a total of ten minutes, four of which passengers will spend above the Karman line that marks the recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space. "We've been perfecting our ability to launch, land

Washington (AFP) May 5, 2021
SpaceX managed to land its prototype Starship rocket at its Texas base without blowing it up on Wednesday, the first time it has succeeded in doing so in five attempts. The test flight represents a major win for the hard-charging company, which eventually wants to carry crew inside Starship for missions to Mars. "Starship landing nominal!" tweeted founder Elon Musk triumphantly, after th