The world's oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about 'seven sisters' stars may reach back 100,000 years
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46
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In the northern sky in December is a beautiful cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the "seven sisters". Look carefully and you will probably count six stars. So why do we say there are seven of them?
Many cultures around the world refer to the Pleiades as "seven sisters", and also tell quite similar stories about them. After studying the motion of the stars very closely, we believe Developing smarter, faster machine intelligence with light
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
Researchers at the George Washington University, together with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the deep-tech venture startup Optelligence LLC, have developed an optical convolutional neural network accelerator capable of processing large amounts of information, on the order of petabytes, per second.
This innovation, which harnesses the massive parallelism of l A new method for the functionalization of graphene
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
An international research team involving Professor Federico Rosei of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has demonstrated a novel process to modify the structure and properties of graphene, a one atom thick carbon.
This chemical reaction, known as photocycloaddition, modifies the bonds between atoms using ultraviolet (UV) light. The results of the study were recently US Space Force enters 'Year 2' with momentum and soaring expectations
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
From the publicly available view on the outside, the birth and creation of the nation's newest military service was going well; there was general agreement as to the need for the new service, its strategic importance and how it would fit in to the nation's existing and sprawling military enterprise.
Hidden, however, was a level of bureaucratic gamesmanship and "churn," worrisome enough tha Satellites can reveal risk of forced labor in the world's fishing fleet
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
Vessels known to have crew that are subject to forced labor behave in systematically different ways to the rest of the global fishing fleet, reveals a new paper published in the scientific journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery was used to build a first-of-its-kind model to identify and predict vessels at high risk of engaging in these abuses.
The study fou DARPA successfully demonstrates, transitions advanced RF networking program
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
A DARPA network technology program recently concluded field tests demonstrating novel software that bridges multiple disparate radio networks to enable communication between incompatible tactical radio data links - even in the presence of hostile jamming. The technology is transitioning to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and the Marine Corps, which plans to put the software on a software repr How scientists are using declassified military photographs to analyse historical ecological change
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
Researchers are using Cold War spy satellite images to explore changes in the environment, including deforestation in Romania, marmot decline in Kazakhstan and ecological damage from bombs in Vietnam.
Ecologists have harnessed new advances in image processing to improve analysis of declassified US military intelligence photographs and detect previously unseen changes in the environment. Dr Weak force has strong impact on nanosheets
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
You have to look closely, but the hills are alive with the force of van der Walls.
Rice University scientists found that nature's ubiquitous "weak" force is sufficient to indent rigid nanosheets, extending their potential for use in nanoscale optics or catalytic systems.
Changing the shape of nanoscale particles changes their electromagnetic properties, said Matt Jones, the Norman an New fullerene crystal production method 50 times faster than predecessor
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 05:46 Write a comment
Researchers from Yokohama National University and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan have developed a highly efficient technique for producing a unique fullerene crystal, called fullerene finned-micropillar (FFMP), that is of significant use for next-generation electronics.
Fullerene is a popular choice for developing technologies not only due to its small size, it is also v Space Development Agency to reevaluate proposals for missile-tracking satellites
Monday, 21 December 2020 23:04 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Companies that competed earlier this year for Space Development Agency satellite contracts awarded to L3Harris and SpaceX were asked to resubmit their proposals following several protests of the awards.
Airbus and Raytheon on Oct.
SLS Exploration Upper Stage passes review
Monday, 21 December 2020 18:12 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — An upgraded upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket has passed a major review, allowing its prime contractor, Boeing, to start producing hardware.
Boeing announced Dec. 21 that the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) of the SLS completed a critical design review with NASA.
Omnibus spending bill gives Space Force its first separate budget
Monday, 21 December 2020 18:10 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The massive $2.3 trillion appropriations package Congress passed for fiscal year 2021 provides $696 billion for the Defense Department, including $15.2 billion for the U.S. Space Force.
The bill passed the House and Senate Dec.
Raytheon completes acquisition of Blue Canyon Technologies
Monday, 21 December 2020 17:23 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Raytheon Technologies’ acquisition of satellite manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies has been completed, the company announced Dec. 22.
Boulder, Colorado-based Blue Canyon from now on will be part of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business unit of Raytheon Technologies based in Arlington, Virginia.
ESA highlights 2020
Monday, 21 December 2020 16:20 Write a comment
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2020 has been another year of progress for ESA. The launch and commissioning of Solar Orbiter heralded a new era of space science, whilst Eutelsat Konnect revolutionised telecommunications. The new Vega SSMS began a cost-effective new launch system for small satellites, deploying exciting new technologies such as PhiSat and ESAIL. ESA’s Earth Observation activities were also showcased, with the launch of Sentinel-6 and an international effort to monitor the environmental and economic impact of COVID-19. Gaia and Cheops yielded new findings about our universe; ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano returned successfully from orbit. With a lunar programme agreement
Image: Instruments installed on Euclid spacecraft
Monday, 21 December 2020 13:30 Write a comment
The optical and infrared instruments of Euclid, ESA's mission to study dark energy and dark matter, have passed the qualification and acceptance review and are now fully integrated into the spacecraft's payload module. This marks an important step forward in the assembly of the Euclid space telescope, which is scheduled for launch in 2022.
The visible and infrared instruments are crucial to measure the shapes and distances of billions of galaxies. This will enable scientists to reconstruct 10 billion years of cosmic history, and investigate the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that are thought to dominate the universe.
This image shows Euclid's payload module, which consists of a silicon baseplate supporting the telescope and two instruments. The visual imager is visible towards the top, which, with more than 600 megapixels, will be one of the biggest cameras in space. The near-infrared spectrometer and photometer is to the right. The telescope's primary and secondary mirrors are hidden from view and inside the white baffle with gold multi-layer insulation, underneath the baseplate in this orientation.