Sheffield UK (SPX) Feb 09, 2023
Scientists have discovered a new ring system around a dwarf planet on the edge of the Solar System. The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems, calling into question current theories of how ring systems are formed. The ring system is around a dwarf planet, named Quaoar, which is approximately half the size of Pluto and orbits the Sun beyond Neptune.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 09, 2023
When NASA's Curiosity rover arrived at the "sulfate-bearing unit" last fall, scientists thought they'd seen the last evidence that lakes once covered this region of Mars. That's because the rock layers here formed in drier settings than regions explored earlier in the mission. The area's sulfates - salty minerals - are thought to have been left behind when water was drying to a trickle. So

Paris (AFP) Feb 8, 2023
Whether out-of-the-box thinking or a sign of desperation, scientists on Wednesday proposed the regular transport of moon dust to a gravity point between Earth and Sun to temper the ravages of global warming. Ideas for filtering solar radiation to keep Earth from overheating have been kicking around for decades, ranging from giant space-based screens to churning out reflective white clouds.

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Feb 09, 2023
Embarking on a bold new era to broaden affordable access to space, the inaugural United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket now stands assembled at its Florida launch site for pre-flight testing. ULA technicians successfully stacked the all-American rocket atop the Vulcan Launch Platform (VLP) in the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in preparation f

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 9, 2021
Russia successfully launched a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan on Thursday with a final destination of the International Space Station where it will deliver some 3 tons of supplies on the weekend. The three-stage Soyuz-2 rocket launched as scheduled at 1:15 a.m. EST from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was late morning in Baikonur when liftoff occurred, and the rocket soared through sun

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 8, 2021
SpaceX will embark on a monumental step toward launching Starship on Thursday when it test-fires all 33 of its first-stage boosters. President Gwynne Shotwell shared a modest goal for the day, stating that not blowing up the launch pad would be considered a success. She was a keynote speaker at the Federal Aviation Administration's Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Wa

Gerroa, Australia (SPX) Feb 09, 2023
SpaceDaily.com, a pioneer in the field of technology and science news for over 25 years, has announced the launch of a new AI/ML-centric Content Management System (CMS) that will take its newsroom operations to the next level. Building upon decades of automation process development, this innovative platform represents the future of SpaceDaily.com, leveraging the latest Large Language Model (LLM) software technology to enhance its news editorial and production capabilities.

During a break from looking at planets around other stars, ESA’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) mission has observed a dwarf planet in our own Solar System and made a decisive contribution to the discovery of a dense ring of material around it.

The dwarf planet is known as Quaoar. The presence of a ring at a distance of almost seven and a half times the radius of Quaoar, opens up a mystery for astronomers to solve: why has this material not coalesced into a small moon?

Trieste, Italy (SPX) Feb 08, 2023
A mysterious and very distant object, in a universe as it was 'just' two billion years after the Big Bang, that hides from even the most advanced instruments. Its features have finally been described by a team from SISSA in a recently published study reported in The Astrophysical Journal. An extremely remote celestial body in a still young Universe, one sixth the size of the present one. A

Bellingham WA (SPX) Feb 08, 2023
An exciting prospect in modern optics is to exploit patterns of light - how the light looks in its many degrees of freedom - often referred to as "structured light." Each distinct pattern could form an encoding alphabet for optical communication, or might be used in manufacturing to enhance performance and productivity. Unfortunately, patterns of light get distorted when they pass through noisy