Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 15, 2024
In 2018, very large organic molecules were discovered in ice particles on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Whether they indicate the existence of life or were created in some other way is still unclear. A recent study could help answer this question. Conditions that support or maintain life in extraterrestrial oceans might leave molecular traces in grains of ice. The research was conducted at the FU Ber

Boston MA (SPX) May 15, 2024
MIT researchers, including several undergraduate students, have discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they happen to live in our own galactic neighborhood. The team spotted the stars in the Milky Way's "halo" - the cloud of stars that envelopes the entire main galactic disk. Based on the team's analysis, the three stars formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, the ti

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 15, 2024
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is analyzing an unusual event in Earth's magnetotail, the part of the magnetosphere trailing away from the Sun. Using data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, SwRI scientists are studying substorms, disturbances in the magnetotail that release energy and can cause aurorae. Since their launch in 2015, the MMS spacecraft have been examinin

Boston MA (SPX) May 15, 2024
Astronomers at MIT, the University of Liege in Belgium, and elsewhere have discovered a huge, fluffy oddball of a planet orbiting a distant star in our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, is a promising key to the mystery of how such giant, super-light planets form. The new planet, named WASP-193b, appears to dwarf Jupiter in size, yet it is a fractio

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 15, 2024
Researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa have made a key discovery about the formation of essential molecules in space, which could provide insights into how life began on Earth. A team from the Department of Chemistry has identified how nitrogen-carrying aromatic molecules can form in space. These molecules are crucial in many chemical and biological processes and are found in co

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 15, 2024
Voyager Space (Voyager) announced it has received a Collaborative Announcement Notice (CAN) from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to develop an airlock for the Mars Transit Vehicle, also known as Deep Space Transport. This cooperative agreement aims to enhance technology development at MSFC while advancing Voyager's technology and infrastructure. This 12-month study, starting thi

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 15, 2024
A project led by the University of Washington (UW) aiming to better understand the Earth's atmosphere is a finalist for NASA's next generation of Earth-observing satellites. NASA has announced that these projects will each receive $5 million for a one-year concept study. The project, STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-Resolved Light Explorer), focuses on th

Orlando FL (SPX) May 15, 2024
The primitive asteroids that UCF physics doctoral student Brittany Harvison studies carry with them traces of their origins and billions of years of our solar system's history. Harvison recently pored through a library of infrared telescope data to analyze the spectral composition of 25 members of the Erigone family of primitive asteroids and help fill in the gaps in our understanding of t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 15, 2024
NASA is conducting a week-long field test in the San Francisco Volcanic Field near Flagstaff, Arizona to practice moonwalk scenarios for the Artemis campaign. NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas are participating as crewmembers, wearing mockup spacesuit systems to perform technology demonstrations, hardware checkouts, and Artemis science-related operations. Two integrated t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 15, 2024
Blue Origin confirmed the launch of its seventh crewed flight, NS-25, from West Texas's Launch Site One, scheduled for Sunday, May 19. The launch window will open at 8:30 AM CDT / 1330 UTC, with the live webcast beginning 40 minutes prior on BlueOrigin.com. The mission will also feature the NS-25 mission patch, which includes several symbols: - "The Gemini spacecraft represents Ed Dw