Osaka, Japan (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
Stars are formed by molecular gas and dust coalescing in space. These molecular gases are so dilute and cold that they are invisible to the human eye, but they do emit faint radio waves that can be observed by radio telescopes. Observing from Earth, a lot of matter lies ahead and behind these molecular clouds and these overlapping features make it difficult to determine their distance and

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 05, 2023
The Near Space Network provides missions within 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) of Earth with robust communications and navigation services. Using a blend of government and commercial assets, the network supports science, human spaceflight, and technology demonstration missions exploring our planet, the Moon, and beyond. In February 2023, NASA issued the Near Space Network Service

Beijing (XNA) Mar 06, 2023
The Chinese government has approved a plan to send a robotic spacecraft to collect samples from an asteroid, according to the China National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center. The mission, called Tianwen 2, is designed to launch a probe to obtain samples from the 2016 HO3, the smallest and closest "quasi-satellite" to Earth, and bring them back. After accomp

Oxford UK (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
Scientists have long been intrigued by X-ray binary star systems, where two stars orbit around each other with one of the two stars being either a black hole or a neutron star. Both black holes and neutron stars are created in supernova explosions and are very dense - giving them a massive gravitational pull. This makes them capable of capturing the outer layers of the normal star that orbits ar

Buenos Aires, Argentina (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
We have come a long way in understanding the universe around us, thanks to current technological advances, such as the construction of huge telescopes or satellites with increasingly powerful instruments. However, it is disturbing that most of the universe components (matter and energy) are still unknown to us. In the "recipe" to "build" a universe like ours, we have to put two ingredients that

La Laguna, Spain (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
X-ray binaries are systems formed by a compact object, a neutron star or a black hole, and a star of a similar size to the Sun. The compact object swallows matter from the companion star through a disk that emits large amounts of light, especially in X-rays. This process in which the compact object attracts matter, known as accretion, usually occurs in violent eruptions during which the system b

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
"We are living in an extraordinary moment in history," says Didier Queloz, who directs ETH Zurich's Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life and the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe at Cambridge. While still a doctoral student Queloz was the first to discover an exoplanet - a planet orbiting a solar-type star outside of Earth's solar system. A discovery for which he would later receive

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
On February 9, 2023, an ozone-measuring instrument on the recently launched NOAA-21 satellite opened its doors and, over the course of a week, gathered data for its first global image. The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) consists of three sensors that monitor Earth's ozone layer and track its recovery. The map above, created using OMPS data, shows total ozone concentrations in the

Boston MA (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
On Sept. 26, 2022, at precisely 6:14 p.m. ET, a box-shaped spacecraft no bigger than a loveseat smashed directly into an asteroid wider than a football field. The planned impact knocked the space rock off its orbit, showing for the first time that an asteroid can potentially be deflected away from Earth. The spacecraft was the key part of DART, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, whic

Tucson AZ (SPX) Mar 06, 2023
House hunting on Mars could soon become a thing, and researchers at the University of Arizona are already in the business of scouting real estate that future astronauts could use as habitats. Researchers in the UArizona College of Engineering have developed technology that would allow a flock of robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds. "Lava tubes and caves would make per