NASA astrophysics director to step down
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 23:17
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WASHINGTON — Paul Hertz, who has led NASA’s astrophysics programs for nearly a decade, will step down by the end of the year to pursue his “next challenge” at the space agency.
During a town hall session of the 238th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) June 7, Hertz took attendees by surprise when he said it was time for someone new to serve as director of the astrophysics division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
10 firms join Techstars 2021 Space Accelerator class
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 21:21 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO –Techstars Space Accelerator launched its 2021 class June 7 with nine U.S. and one Australian company.
While some of the firms are squarely focused on the space sector, others are newcomers after discovering space applications for related technologies like quantum security, photonics, autonomy and communications.
GAO’s annual review of DoD programs raises concerns on space launch, missile warning satellites
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 19:39 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Technical challenges in the development of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket could prevent the Defense Department from ending its reliance on the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine by 2022 as required by Congress, the Government Accountability Office said in a report published June 8.
Skylo launches connected device services in India on Inmarsat network
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 19:08 Write a comment
TAMPA, Fla. — Silicon Valley startup Skylo has started connecting machines and sensors in India to its Internet of Things (IoT) network, using British operator Inmarsat’s satellites.
Cosmic cartographers map nearby Universe revealing the diversity of star-forming galaxies
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 15:10 Write a comment
Pilotes
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 13:34 Write a comment
Image:
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Megan MacArthur run sessions on the Pilote experiment proposed by France’s space agency CNES in the European Columbus module of the International Space Station.
Continuing French neuroscience experiments started on the Russian space station Mir, the Pilote experiment evaluates a new way of providing tactile and visual feedback to astronauts when operating robots. Using a virtual reality headset and a haptic joystick can recreate the feeling of pressure and touch when tele-operating a robotic arm.
The results from Pilote will improve the work space on the International Space Station and future spacecraft for lunar
UFOs: How to calculate the odds that an alien spaceship has been spotted
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 12:30 Write a comment
The US military has released previously classified photos and films related to unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings, which mostly show something blurry moving strangely. Still, I hear that a friend of a friend has gone from thinking there's a 1% chance that UFOs are aliens to now believing it is 50%. Is he rational?
People are constantly seeing things in the sky they don't understand. The vast majority are airplanes, satellites, weather balloons, clouds, rocket launches, auroras, optical reflections and so on. But for some sightings, there's no known explanation. The problem is that people jump to the conclusion "unknown = aliens". And when you think about it, this is fairly odd. Why not angels?
Anyway, I like to do maths instead. The Bayes formula (below), a mainstay of statistics, gives the probability (Pr) of something, given some evidence.
Software making space missions smarter
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 12:13 Write a comment
To help venture further into space, or to gather ever more data, space missions keep on getting smarter. The latest Earth-observing satellites decide which images need sending to users, while planetary probes or rovers located beyond the limits of real-time oversight are able to set and follow their own course.
Relativity raises $650 million round, announces Terran R rocket
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 12:00 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Relativity Space announced June 8 it has raised $650 million in a new funding round to support development of a fully reusable launch vehicle far larger than its original Terran 1 rocket.
Relativity said Fidelity led its Series E round with participation from new investors BlackRock, Centricus, Coatue and Soroban Capital.
New X-ray map reveals growing supermassive black holes in next-gen survey fields
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 11:47
Scientists identify a rare magnetic propeller in a binary star system
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 11:47 Write a comment
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have identified the first eclipsing magnetic propeller in a cataclysmic variable star system, according to research forthcoming in the Astrophysical Journal.
The star system, referred to as J0240, is only the second of its kind on record. It was identified in 2020 as an unusual cataclysmic variable—a binary system consisting of a white dwarf star and a mass-donating red star. Normally, the compact white dwarf star collects the donated gas and grows in mass. In J0240, however, the fast-spinning, magnetic white dwarf rejects the donor's gas and propels it out of the binary system.
"It takes a rapidly spinning dwarf with a strong magnetic field in order to create a propeller," said Peter Garnavich, professor of astrophysics and cosmology physics and chair of the Department of Physics at Notre Dame, and lead author of the study that presented evidence of the propeller system.
Rosetta stone eruption on the sun could help explain solar explosions
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 11:45 Write a comment
In a dramatic, multi-staged eruption, the sun has revealed new clues that could help scientists solve the long-standing mystery of what causes the sun's powerful and unpredictable eruptions. Uncovering this fundamental physics could help scientists better predict the eruptions that cause dangerous space weather conditions at Earth.
This explosion contained components of three different types of solar eruptions that usually occur separately—making it the first time such an event has been reported. Having all three eruption types together in one event provides scientists with something of a solar Rosetta Stone, allowing them to translate what they know about each type of solar eruption to understand other types and uncover an underlying mechanism that could explain all types of solar eruptions.
"This event is a missing link, where we can see all of these aspects of different types of eruptions in one neat little package," said Emily Mason, lead author on the new study and solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It drives home the point that these eruptions are caused by the same mechanism, just at different scales.
Blue Canyon Technologies names new CEO
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 11:00 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Blue Canyon Technologies has promoted one of its co-founders to chief executive to lead the next phase of growth of the Raytheon-owned smallsat manufacturer.
Blue Canyon announced June 8 that Stephen Steg, who had been chief technical officer of the company since its 2008 founding, will take over as chief executive.
New study calls for ‘national dialogue’ on future environmental satellites
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 08:00 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is poised to make large investments in environmental monitoring satellites but these efforts are not well coordinated across agencies that acquire these systems and the users of data collected by weather satellites, says a new report by the Aerospace Corp.
China releases new Mars image taken by Tianwen 1 probe
Tuesday, 08 June 2021 06:09 Write a comment
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) Monday released a new image taken by the Tianwen 1 probe, showing the country's first Mars rover and its landing platform on the red planet's surface.
In the image, taken by a high-resolution camera installed on the orbiter of Tianwen 1 at 6 pm on June 2 (Beijing Time), two bright spots are visible in the upper right corner. The larger one is