In a first for any satellite navigation system, Galileo has achieved a positioning fix based on open-service navigation signals carrying authenticated data. Intended as a way to combat malicious ‘spoofing’ of satnav signals, this authentication testing began at ESA’s Navigation Laboratory – the same site where the very first Galileo positioning fix took place back in 2013.

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Mar 09, 2021
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have found and studied the most distant cosmic jet discovered so far - a jet of material propelled to nearly the speed of light by the supermassive black hole in a quasar some 13 billion light-years from Earth. The quasar is seen as it was when the universe was only 780 m

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Mar 09, 2021
What is the origin of black holes and how is that question connected with another mystery, the nature of dark matter? Dark matter comprises the majority of matter in the Universe, but its nature remains unknown. Multiple gravitational wave detections of merging black holes have been identified within the last few years by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), comm

Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2021
Determining how rapidly the universe is expanding is key to understanding our cosmic fate, but with more precise data has come a conundrum: Estimates based on measurements within our local universe don't agree with extrapolations from the era shortly after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. A new estimate of the local expansion rate - the Hubble constant, or H0 (H-naught) - reinforces th

St Andrews, Scotland (SPX) Mar 09, 2021
Earth will not be able to support and sustain life forever. Our oxygen-rich atmosphere may only last another billion years, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience. As our Sun ages, it is becoming more luminous, meaning that in the future Earth will receive more solar energy. This increased energy will affect the surface of the planet, speeding up the weathering of silicate rocks suc

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 9, 2021
Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to launch 60 Starlink broadband Internet satellites from Florida on Tuesday, while the company seeks federal approval to beam the service to trucks, boats and aircraft around the world. The launch is planned for 9:50 p.m. EST aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The weather is expected to be nearly perfect for la

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Mar 10, 2021
Stacking is complete for the twin Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters for NASA's Artemis I mission. Over several weeks, workers used one of five massive cranes to place 10 booster segments and nose assemblies on the mobile launcher inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers with Exploration Ground Systems placed the first seg

Orlando Fl (UPI) Mar 09, 2021
A San Francisco company with about 100 satellites in orbit for weather and transportation monitoring has plans to expand after listing its stock for public trading this summer. Spire Global is confident it can use its existing satellites to produce much more data and attract new customers with $475 million in cash it expects to raise by going public, CEO Peter Platzer said in an interview

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 10, 2021
RUAG International shall become "beyond gravity" - an agile leading-edge technology provider for space. The company is withdrawing completely from the remaining military-related business and will continue to develop the... From a state-owned enterprise to a startup - CEO Andre Wall has set his sights on nothing less than this transformation, in the future RUAG International with solely foc

Oldenburg, Germany (SPX) Mar 10, 2021
Wormholes play a key role in many science fiction films - often as a shortcut between two distant points in space. In physics, however, these tunnels in spacetime have remained purely hypothetical. An international team led by Dr. Jose Luis Blazquez-Salcedo of the University of Oldenburg has now presented a new theoretical model in the science journal Physical Review Letters that makes microscop