Boulder CO (SPX) Mar 03, 2022
Many coronal loops - ropey strands of plasma that scientists have long thought existed in the Sun's atmosphere - may actually be optical illusions, according to a new paper that challenges prevailing assumptions of what we know, and don't know, about the Sun. The research, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and published in The Astrophysical Journal, relied on a cut

Leuven, Belgium (SPX) Mar 03, 2022
In 2020 a team led by European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers reported the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1000 light-years away in the HR 6819 system. But the results of their study were contested by other researchers, including by an international team based at KU Leuven, Belgium. In a paper published this week these two teams have united to report that there is in fact no bl

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 3, 2021
SpaceX launched another cluster of 47 of its own Starlink Internet communications satellites from Florida on Thursday, as company founder and CEO Elon Musk has confirmed Starlink use by the government of Ukraine during the conflict with Russia. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as planned into a mostly sunny, blue sky at 9:25 a.m. EST from Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center. At 40 s

London (AFP) March 3, 2022
Global satellite communications company OneWeb announced on Thursday that its board had voted to suspend all launches from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russia's space agency Roscosmos has sought guarantees from OneWeb and Europe's Arianespace that satellites it plans to launch this year will not be used for military purposes. It also demanded the UK government give up its

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 04, 2022
NASA's On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1), a mission that will be the first to robotically refuel a satellite not designed to be serviced, and will also demonstrate assembly and manufacturing technologies and capabilities, has passed its mission critical design review (CDR). This is an important milestone that paves the way for the construction of the spacecraft, payloads

Washington (AFP) March 3, 2022
Helium is the second most-abundant element in the known universe, but to the semiconductor fabricators and doctors who rely on it for their businesses, it is better known as the latest raw material to grow scarce - and the war in Ukraine could make the shortage worse. Russia is expected to eventually begin producing the equivalent of a third of the world's current helium production from a m

Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 03, 2022
It was earlier claimed that a hacker group called "NB65" had "shut down" the control centre of Russia's space agency Roscosmos. Attempts by hackers to attack Russian satellites are "casus belli", said Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin. "I want to warn those who are trying to do this that this is a crime that should be very severely punished, because the removal of the space grouping of a

Washington DC (AFNS) Mar 04, 2022
Strategic competitors China and Russia have watched the Defense Department's way of projecting power for at least two decades, if not longer, the commander of U.S. Northern Command said. "They understand if we're allowed to project that force forward, that won't turn out well. So, they've developed capabilities below the nuclear threshold to hold us at risk with the idea that they can dela

Montgomery AL (The Conversation) Mar 03, 2022
The Earth exists in a dangerous environment. Cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, are constantly zooming through space and often crash into our planet. Most of these are too small to pose a threat, but some can be cause for concern. As a scholar who studies space and international security, it is my job to ask what the likelihood of an object crashing into the planet really is - and w

Washington (AFP) March 4, 2022
From a huge Russian military convoy snaking its way to Kyiv to missile strikes and refugee crossings, commercial satellite imagery of the Ukraine conflict is helping lift the fog of war, illuminating for the public what was previously the domain of spy agencies. Technologies that can pierce cloud cover and work at night are also coming to the fore, as a growing army of open-source intelligen