Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 12, 2023
NASA's pioneering Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment will be the first demonstration of laser, or optical, communications from as far away as Mars. Launching with NASA's Psyche mission to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name on Thursday, Oct. 12, DSOC will test key technologies designed to enable future missions to transmit denser science data and even stream video from the Re

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
Relativity Space has signed a multi-year, multi-launch Launch Services Agreement (LSA) with Intelsat, operator of the largest integrated space and terrestrial network in the world. Under the agreement, Relativity will launch Intelsat satellites on Terran R as early as 2026. As a medium-to-heavy-lift, reusable launch vehicle made for growing satellite launch demand and eventually multiplane

Manila, Philippines (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the Philippines has successfully collaborated with internet service provider Stellarsat Solutions Inc. and its partner Kacific Broadband Satellites to achieve a key milestone in its effort to provide equitable broadband connectivity across the country, under a National Broadband Plan. This transformative project, integra

Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
Quantum computers of the future hold promise in solving all sorts of problems. For example, they could lead to more sustainable materials, new medicines, and even crack the hardest problems in fundamental physics. But compared to classical computers in use today, rudimentary quantum computers are more prone to errors. Wouldn't it be nice if researchers could just take out a special quantum erase

Paris (ESA) Oct 12, 2023
Nestled between the colossal martian 'Grand Canyon' (Valles Marineris) and the tallest volcanoes in the Solar System (the Tharsis region) lies Noctis Labyrinthus - a vast system of deep and steep valleys that stretches out for around 1190 km (roughly the length of Italy here on Earth). This video visualises a flight over the eastern part of Noctis Labyrinthus as seen by Mars Express's High

Stanford CA (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
For decades, scientists have pondered the mystery of the moon's ancient magnetism. Based on analyses of lunar samples, its now-deceased magnetic field may have been active for more than 1.5 billion years - give or take a billion years. Scientists believe it was generated like the Earth's via a dynamo process, whereby the spinning and churning of conductive liquid metal within a rocky planet's co

Beijing (XNA) Oct 12, 2023
China has announced plans to build the world's largest deep-sea neutrino telescope in the western Pacific Ocean. The project, called "Trident", is expected to be completed in 2030 and will be used to study the universe's most extreme phenomena, such as supernova explosions and black hole eruptions. Neutrinos are tiny particles that have no electrical charge and very little mass. They

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are an astronomical mystery, with their exact cause and origins still unconfirmed. These intense bursts of radio energy are invisible to the human eye, but show up brightly on radio telescopes. Previous studies have noted broad similarities between the energy distribution of repeat FRBs, and that of earthquakes and solar flares. However, new research at the Univ

Bristol UK (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
The study, published in Nature, reports the sighting of two ice giant exoplanets colliding around a sun-like star, creating a blaze of light and plumes of dust. Its findings show the bright heat afterglow and resulting dust cloud, which moved in front of the parent star dimming it over time. The international team of astronomers was formed after an enthusiast viewed the light curve of the

Beijing, China (SPX) Oct 12, 2023
As the nearest celestial body to Earth, Moon's space environment is distinctive to Earth's mainly because of lack of a significant atmosphere/ionosphere and a global magnetic field. From a global perspective, solar wind can bombard its surface, and the solar wind materials cumulated in the soil record the evolution of the Solar System. Many small-scale remanent magnetic fields are scattere