Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
Is our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, a special place? A team of scientists started a journey to answer this question more than a decade ago. Commenced in 2013, the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey studies galaxy systems like the Milky Way. Now, the SAGA Survey just published three new research articles that provide us with new insights into the uniqueness of our own Milky Wa

Boston MA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
Mars wasn't always the cold desert we see today. There's increasing evidence that water once flowed on the Red Planet's surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freezing. But sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide, dramatically thinned, leaving only

New York (AFP) Sept 26, 2024
In the single week that world leaders convened for high-level UN talks in New York, nearly 100,000 water bottles' worth of microplastics swirled through the city's air, posing known and still unknown risks to human health. "We talk a lot about plastic in the marine environment, but it's all around," Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, the Norwegian international development minister who is helping lead

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 25, 2024
NASA has chosen Firefly Aerospace, Inc., based in Cedar Park, Texas, to provide launch services for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) QuickSounder mission. This selection falls under NASA's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. The VADR contract offers fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards over

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 25, 2024
NASA and the Republic of Korea's newly established Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) have signed a joint statement of intent aimed at expanding cooperation in space exploration, science, and aeronautics. The signing ceremony took place at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., marking KASA's first official visit since its creation in May 2024. "Building on years of work together both o

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Sep 25, 2024
China is preparing to offer a broader variety of food for astronauts in future deep-space exploration missions, as discussed at the Second Frontier Forum of Space Medicine in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, East China. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, a holiday celebrating family unity, the crew of Shenzhou XVIII aboard China's space station had a special treat of "space mooncakes" filled with

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 25, 2024
A new mystery in space is leading to a groundbreaking planetary defense mission aimed at making Earth safer. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera mission is now preparing to follow up on a critical experiment that began in 2022. On September 26, 2022, NASA's DART spacecraft impacted the Dimorphos asteroid at 6.1 km/s. This event altered Dimorphos's orbit around its larger companion, Didy

Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Sept 25, 2024
Elon Musk's X is in hot water with the EU for allegedly breaking new content rules - and the world's richest man risks multibillion-dollar fines even he might find prohibitive. The European Union could decide within months to take action against X, including possible fines, as part of a probe into whether the social platform is breaching a landmark content moderation law, the Digital Servic

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 25, 2024
New findings about the "popcorn planet" WASP-107b have emerged, thanks to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This gas giant, previously noted for its exceptionally low density and puffed-up atmosphere, has provided scientists with even more unexpected details through advanced atmospheric observations. WASP-107b, a gas planet roughly the size of Jupiter but only one-tenth as massive,

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 25, 2024
A study led by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), with contributions from Radboud University's Marijke Haverkorn, has provided critical new insights into the Milky Way. The research reveals a magnetic halo surrounding our galaxy, challenging existing models of its structure and evolution. The discovery highlights magnetised structures extending over 16,000 light-years (150 qua