The climate events of 2020 show how excess heat is expressed on Earth
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41
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By most accounts, 2020 has been a rough year for the planet. It was the warmest year on record, just barely exceeding the record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree according to NASA's analysis. Massive wildfires scorched Australia, Siberia, and the United States' west coast - and many of the fires were still burning during the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record.
"This ye Researchers develop new one-step process for creating self-assembled metamaterials
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41 Write a comment
A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has discovered a groundbreaking one-step process for creating materials with unique properties, called metamaterials. Their results show the realistic possibility of designing similar self-assembled structures with the potential of creating "built-to-order" nanostructures for wide application in electronics and optical devices. Using light to revolutionize artificial intelligence
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41 Write a comment
An international team of researchers, including Professor Roberto Morandotti of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), just introduced a new photonic processor that could revolutionize artificial intelligence, as reported by the prestigious journal Nature.
Artificial neural networks, layers of interconnected artificial neurons, are of great interest for machine learning Green Run hotfire test ends early
Friday, 15 January 2021 23:18 Write a comment
Updated 11:30 p.m. Eastern after post-test briefing.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — NASA performed a hotfire test of the core stage of the Space Launch System Jan. 16, but the stage’s four main engines shut down a little more than a minute into a test designed to last eight minutes.
Policy directive on GPS issued in closing days of Trump administration
Friday, 15 January 2021 19:01 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Jan. 15 issued a policy memo focused on the United States’ dependence on the Global Positioning System and the need to prepare for a day when GPS might not be available.
FCC C-band auction raised nearly $81 billion so far
Friday, 15 January 2021 00:59 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s C-band auction of 280 megahertz of C-band has raised nearly $81 billion and it’s not quite over.
Still to come is the assignment phase, where companies awarded spectrum blocks bid for frequency-specific licenses.
NASA ceases efforts to deploy Mars InSight heat flow probe
Friday, 15 January 2021 00:45 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — After nearly two years of struggles, NASA has abandoned efforts to deploy a heat flow probe on its InSight lander into the surface of Mars.
In a Jan. 14 statement, NASA said that a final effort to hammer the “mole” into the surface of Mars Jan.
Six-wavelength spectroscopy can offer new details of surface of Venus
Thursday, 14 January 2021 19:40 Write a comment
A trio of papers provide new insight into the composition and evolution of the surface of Venus, hidden beneath its caustic, high temperature atmosphere. Utilizing imaging from orbit using multiple wavelengths—six-band spectroscopy proposed as part of the VERITAS and EnVision missions—scientists can map the iron content of the Venusian surface and construct the first-ever geologic map.
"Previous missions have only imaged one wavelength, and used 30-year-old topographic data to correct the spectra. Moreover, they were based on theoretical ideas about what Venus spectra look like, at very high temperatures. So the prior data have all been fairly qualitative," said M. Darby Dyar, a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and author on three recent papers on the topic.
These papers are based on new data from the Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory at German Aerospace Center Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, where Dyar works with a team including Jörn Helbert, first author of "Deriving iron contents from past and future Venus surface spectra with new high-temperature laboratory emissivity data" that appears today in Science Advances.
Foust Forward | “Pro-space” lawmakers on wrong side of history after Capitol riot
Thursday, 14 January 2021 19:34 Write a comment
After further review, Space Force confirms selection of NSTXL to manage industry consortium
Thursday, 14 January 2021 18:25 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL) on Jan. 15 received a contract to manage the U.S. Space Force’s Space Enterprise Consortium for the next 10 years.
The Space and Missile Systems Center intended to award the contract Dec.
Week in images: 11 - 15 January 2021
Thursday, 14 January 2021 14:20 Write a comment
Week in images: 11 - 15 January 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Mars is still an active world—here's a landslide in Nili Fossae
Thursday, 14 January 2021 14:05 Write a comment
Since the 1960s and '70s, scientists have come to view Mars as something of a "dead planet." As the first close-up images from orbit and the surface came in, previous speculation about canals, water and a Martian civilization were dispelled. Subsequent studies also revealed that the geological activity that created features like the Tharsis Mons region (especially Olympus Mons) and Valles Marineris had ceased long ago.
However, in the past few decades, robotic missions have found ample evidence that Mars is still an active place. A recent indication was an image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which showed relatively fresh landslides in a crater near Nili Fossae. This area is part of the Syrtis Major region and is located just north of the Jezero Crater (where the Perseverance rover will be landing in six weeks).
The landslide was captured as a part of a larger image acquired by the MRO's Context Camera (CTX) on September 21, 2018.
Metal Fuels. We research. You benefit.
Thursday, 14 January 2021 13:00 Write a comment
Video:
00:07:30
Did you know that in microgravity we are preparing one of the most promising fuels for the future?
Microgravity is helping to find answers and models to refine the processes needed to efficiently burn solid fuel like iron dust. Are we witnessing the raise of a new "Iron Age"? Could we use metal powders instead of petrol to fuel our cars?
Solid fuels are used for burning a match, lighting a sparkler on New Year's Eve as well as the fuel inside the boosters of Ariane and of other rockets. But metals such as iron can also burn, in
ESA kids app now available
Thursday, 14 January 2021 12:35 Write a comment
ESA kids app now available
OneWeb raises $400 million
Thursday, 14 January 2021 12:07 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Broadband satellite company OneWeb announced Jan. 15 it has raised $400 million from SoftBank and Hughes Network Systems, allowing the company to continue deployment of its constellation.
The new round includes $350 million from SoftBank, who was the biggest shareholder in OneWeb before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020.