Copernical Team
Small, cool and sulfurous exoplanet may help write recipe for planetary formation
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A surprising yellow haze of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas "dwarf" exoplanet about 96 light years away from our own solar system makes the planet a prime target for scientists trying to understand how worlds are formed.
Astronomers discovered the planet, GJ 3470 b, in 2012 when the planet's shadow crossed the star it orbits. GJ 3470 b is located in the constellation Cancer and i Clemson grad student's study sheds light on planet formation in infant stars
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A little over three decades ago, we didn't know any planets existed in the universe except those that orbit our sun.
But the advent of more powerful ground-based telescopes and new space-based observatories since then has led to the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, or planets that orbit around stars other than our sun.
The vast majority of the exoplanets that have been found orb Frost discovered on top of giant Mars volcanoes
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Early morning frost has been detected on the peaks of massive volcanoes on Mars, an unexpected discovery about the dispersal of water on Mars that could one day prove essential for human exploration, scientists said.
The early morning frost was spotted in images taken by the European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday. NASA's Gateway space station Halo module moves closer to launch
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NASA's Gateway space station is moving closer to a launch after welding recently was completed on a module in Turin, Italy, the agency said Monday.
The Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO, is one of four modules in which astronauts will live, conduct science and prepare for lunar surface missions.
The launch of Gateway is scheduled no earlier than 2025. In 2021, NASA awarde Water frost discovered on Mars' tallest volcanoes
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Water frost has been detected on Mars' colossal volcanoes, marking the first observation of this phenomenon on the largest mountains in the Solar System. The international team, led by the University of Bern, utilized high-resolution color images from the Bernese Mars camera, CaSSIS, onboard the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Understanding water distribution and transport is In new experiment, scientists record Earth's radio waves from the moon
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On Feb. 22, a lunar lander named Odysseus touched down near the moon's South Pole and popped out four antennas to record radio waves around the surface-a moment CU Boulder astrophysicist Jack Burns hails as the "dawn of radio astronomy from the moon."
It was a major achievement for the tenacious lander, which was built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and had to overcome a s NASA Observes Mars Illuminated During Major Solar Storm
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In addition to producing auroras, a recent extreme storm provided more detail on how much radiation future astronauts could encounter on the Red Planet.
Mars scientists have been anticipating significant solar storms since the Sun entered a period of peak activity earlier this year called solar maximum. Over the past month, NASA's Mars rovers and orbiters have provided researchers with dir NASA and Boeing Advance Starliner Tests with Crew at Space Station
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NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are testing Boeing's Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station. This mission aims to collect data for NASA certification of the Starliner for regular crewed missions to the station.
As part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test, Wilmore and Williams, with ground teams, are completing various objectives since Starliner arrived at the st Using the moon's soil to support life, energy generation and construction
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Imagine the moon as a hub of manufacturing, construction and even human life. It's no longer a far-fetched idea baked in science fiction lore—increased interest and investment in space exploration are pushing efforts to develop the technologies needed to make the moon a viable home for humans.
Developing lunar infrastructure requires building materials, and shuttling these over from Earth would be costly and inefficient. This has fueled research into the in-situ processing and use of raw materials naturally found on the moon's surface. However, one major challenge with this approach will be the immense amount of power the lunar resource processing will need.
A research team from the University of Waterloo's Laboratory for Emerging Energy Research (LEER) is looking into processing lunar regolith, the moon's top layer of soil and dust, into usable materials for life support, energy generation and construction. This includes investigating the use of defunct satellite material as a fuel source when mixed with lunar regolith.
NOAA's hurricane hunting GOES-U satellite nears SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch
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Hurricanes Michael, Dorian, Ian, Nicole and Idalia have all been stared down by one of the NOAA's most powerful satellites since it took its place in geostationary orbit in late 2017. Its replacement is gearing up for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy later this month.
The GOES-U satellite is the 19th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite in the NOAA and NASA partnership since the first one launched in 1975. It's the fourth and final of the latest version of the satellites. The first three are already parked at more than 22,000 miles altitude and have their wide-view sites set to track tropical weather, fires, lightning and other dangerous weather on Earth.
The final satellite sits in a stark, white clean room at Astrotech Space Operations' payload processing facility just across the river from Kennedy Space Center. It's already fueled and awaits encapsulation in a SpaceX fairing before heading to KSC for launch. Liftoff is slated for June 25 at 5:16 p.m. during a two-hour window atop what will be the first Falcon Heavy launch of the year.
All four satellites are part of what NOAA calls the GOES-R series, the most powerful satellites for weather forecasting.
