Kirtland AFB NM (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
The Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate held an inaugural Space Cyber Summit October 13-14. More than 140 space professionals participated in the in-person and virtual event held at Kirtland AFB. The gathering included space experts from across AFRL, the U.S. Space Force, several federally funded research and development centers, NASA, and many other organizations.

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
A team of researchers from the CSIC and the University of Tuscia (Italy) has demonstrated the role that glass played in the historical experiment carried out by Stanley Miller in 1952 to simulate the conditions that would have given rise to life on the early Earth. The results, published in Scientific Reports, open a new way to study the emergence of life. Miller built a glass apparatus in

Beijing, China (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
Abundant geological evidence demonstrates that Earth's climate has experienced millennial-scale variability superimposed on glacial-interglacial fluctuations through the Pleistocene. The magnitude of millennial climate variability has been linked to glacial cycles over the past 800 thousand years?(kyr). For the period before the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, when global glaciations were less

Munster, Germany (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
The lunar surface is covered by numerous craters that date back to the impacts of asteroids. Age determinations on lunar rocks formed during these impacts show a surprising clustering at ages of about 3.9 billion years before present, or about 500 million years after the Moon was formed. These observations have led to the theory of a Late Heavy Bombardment of the Moon (or LHB). But what wa

Providence RI (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
Around 12,000 years ago, something scorched a vast swath of the Atacama Desert in Chile with heat so intense that it turned the sandy soil into widespread slabs of silicate glass. Now, a research team studying the distribution and composition of those glasses has come to a conclusion about what caused the inferno. In a study published in the journal Geology, researchers show that samples o

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 2, 2021
NASA is in the final stages of preparation to launch the nearly $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, an engineering marvel that may reveal secrets of time and the universe, from South America on Dec. 18. Technicians are preparing to load the space observatory with fuel that will power it for up to 13 years as it orbits the sun about one million miles from Earth, NASA officials said T

Kamuela HI (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars in our galaxy - known as exoplanets. However, it's difficult to know what exactly these planets are made of, or whether any resemble Earth. To try to find out, astronomer Siyi Xu of NSF's NOIRLab partnered with geologist Keith Putirka of California State University, Fresno, to study the atmospheres of what are known as polluted whit

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
Now that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has safely arrived at its launch site in French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America, technical teams have begun making progress on the final checklist of preparations before liftoff later this year. These preparations are expected to last 55 days from the observatory's arrival by ship to the day of launch. After Webb arrived a

Los Alamos NM (SPX) Nov 03, 2021
A team of researchers used 3D particle simulations to model the acceleration of ions and electrons in a physical process called magnetic reconnection. The results could contribute to the understanding and forecasting of energetic particles released during magnetic reconnection, which could help protect space assets and advance space exploration. "For the first time ever, we can use 3D simu

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, offline for more than a week because of an issue with its instruments, is likely to remain out of service for another week as engineers investigate the problem.

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