WASHINGTON — Less than a week after leaving the agency, former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is joining a private equity firm that invests in the aerospace and defense industries.

Acorn Growth Companies, a private equity firm based in Oklahoma City, said Jan.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency issued an open call for information from the space industry covering a laundry list of technologies. 

The “broad area announcement” published Jan. 25 asks companies to submit pitches for space technology projects that the SDA might be interested in funding if they meet specific needs.

ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed a unique planetary system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythmic dance as they orbit their central star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

In December, China successfully conducted its first lunar sample retrieval mission. Chang’e-5 landed on the moon, deployed a rover who then dug up various pieces of the lunar surface, then returned to Earth with about 5 pounds of material.

Most liquids are in suspension. Particles too small to see by naked eye swirl everywhere as gravity and temperature changes move them around. Keeping liquids from separating can be a hassle for the foods we buy in the supermarket, but also for the pharmaceutical industry seeking to extend the shelf life of medicine as long as possible.

The rapidly rising global population, sustainability and climate change are among the challenges the agriculture sector faces in the business of producing food. Fortunately, information from satellites can help. A new commercial service – the first in the world – cleverly combines radar data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 and optical data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 to offer daily maps of field-scale crop biomass. Importantly, these maps are completely unimpeded by cloud cover. This new service allows farmers to better monitor and assess the growth of their produce, and, ultimately, make more effective decisions.

A research team – the first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data – has discovered that the rate at which ice is disappearing across the planet is speeding up. The findings also reveal that 28 trillion tonnes of ice was lost between 1994 and 2017 – equivalent to a sheet of ice 100 metres thick covering the whole of the UK.