Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
A system of seven sweltering planets has been revealed by continued study of data from NASA's retired Kepler space telescope: Each one is bathed in more radiant heat from their host star per area than any planet in our solar system. Also unlike any of our immediate neighbors, all seven planets in this system, named Kepler-385, are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. It is one of only a f

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
New observations down to light-year scale of the gas flows around a supermassive black hole have successfully detected dense gas inflows and shown that only a small portion (about 3 percent) of the gas flowing towards the black hole is eaten by the black hole. The remainder is ejected and recycled back into the host galaxy. Not all of the matter which falls towards a black hole is absorbed

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
In a recent comprehensive review published in Space: Science and Technology, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beihang University have synthesized the current understanding and prevailing mysteries surrounding the interaction between the solar wind and the Moon's surface. The Moon, our nearest celestial neighbor, presents a unique environment for study, lacking a signifi

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
In a groundbreaking study conducted by Zhongjie Meng and his team at Northwestern Polytechnical University, a new deployment strategy for tethered satellite systems (TSS) has been developed, addressing the complexity of operating a three-body chain in space. The detailed research has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Space: Science and Technology. The research focuses on a tomogr

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
Crew time is a valuable resource on the International Space Station and its value only increases for future space missions. One way to make the most of crew time is using robotic technology either to assist crew members with various tasks and or to completely automate others. A current investigation on the space station, JEM Internal Ball Camera 2, is part of ongoing efforts to develop thi

Paris (ESA) Nov 03, 2023
The European Space Agency (ESA) has once again pushed the envelope of technological innovation by 3D printing electromagnetic coils in pure copper, a leap forward in the design of versatile tools essential for a myriad of space missions. This breakthrough comes as a result of one of the over 2,000 research contracts completed under ESA's General Support Technology Programme (GSTP), an initiative

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 03, 2023
Future missions will be able to find signatures of violating the parity-symmetry in the cosmic microwave background polarization more accurately after a pair of researchers has managed to take into account the gravitational lensing effect, reports a new study in Physical Review D, selected as an Editors' Suggestion. How far does the universe extend? When and how did the universe begin? Cos