An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have directly imaged an exoplanet roughly 12 light-years from Earth. While there were hints that the planet existed, it had not been confirmed until Webb imaged it. The planet is one of the coldest exoplanets observed to date.

Launched less than two months ago, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has already returned images from two of its four instruments. Now, it has also delivered the first images from its multispectral imager, showcasing various types of clouds and cloud temperatures worldwide. This instrument is set to add valuable context to the data from EarthCARE’s other instruments.

ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence involves not just one spacecraft but three: two shoebox-sized CubeSats will fly up to a few dozen kilometres away from their mothership around the Didymos binary asteroid system. Keeping this trio in communication to fulfil their own mission needs while also ensuring their safe separation is the task of a novel inter-satellite link radio technology, produced by a Portuguese company best known for terrestrial drone systems.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 23, 2024
Researchers have identified a crucial link between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and dark matter particles, shedding light on the "final parsec problem" in astrophysics. New calculations suggest that the merger of SMBH pairs into a single entity is facilitated by the previously underestimated behavior of dark matter particles. This discovery offers a potential solution to the "final par