Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 27, 2023
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission offers the first taste of the detailed perspectives of Earth's surface water that its cutting-edge instruments will be able to capture. The international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission - led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) - has sent back some of its first glimpses of water on th

Milan, Italy (SPX) Mar 27, 2023
Stonehenge is an astonishingly complex monument, which attracts attention mostly for its spectacular megalithic circle and "horseshoe", built around 2600 BC. Over the years, several theories have been put forward about Stonehenge's meaning and function. Today, however, archaeologists have a rather clear picture of this monument as a "place for the ancestors", located within a complex ancie

Toulouse, France (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
The growing number of satellite constellations is opening exciting new opportunities for everything from improved connectivity and communications to enhanced observation and security - with Airbus taking a lead enabler role through its small, capable spacecraft that are made on a digitised production line. In fact, Airbus has redefined how satellites are built - streamlining the traditiona

Toulouse, France (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
The Airbus-built Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F satellite has reached its geostationary orbit, 36,000km away after five months of Electric Orbit Raising (EOR). It has completed comprehensive testing at its orbital position ahead of entering full service. For this purpose, it was equipped with a camera at the tip of one of the robotic arms hosting the electric propulsion thrusters, allowing us to share thi

Wurenlingen, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
For a long time it has been suspected that fullerene and its derivatives could form naturally in the universe. These are large carbon molecules shaped like a football, salad bowl or nanotube. An international team of researchers using the Swiss SLS synchrotron light source at PSI has shown how this reaction works. The results have just been published in the journal Nature Communications. "

Ithaca NY (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
An international team of astronomers has found the atmospheric compositions of giant planets out in the galaxy do not fit our own solar system trend. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the researchers discovered that the atmosphere of exoplanet HD149026b, a 'hot Jupiter' orbiting a star comparable to our sun, is super-abundant in the heavier elements carbon and oxygen - far ab

Boston MA (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
George Ricker built his first telescope when he was in third grade. Growing up in rural Florida, with its abundance of dark night skies, facilitated his natural propensity for stargazing. But it was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during his undergraduate days at the Institute that his fascination became a calling. "I was a physics major at MIT, but I took enough astronomy courses to decide that th

San Antonio TX (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
Southwest Research Institute recently delivered the Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) to Firefly Aerospace in Cedar Park, Texas, for integration into the Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander scheduled to arrive at the Moon in 2024. The sounder will determine the electrical conductivity of the interior of the Moon by measuring low-frequency electric and magnetic fields. "For more than 50 years, scie

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 24, 2023
Curiosity is ten and a half years into operating in Gale cater, a concept that before and even a few years after landing seemed to be an impossible dream. When we landed, my daughter - then 6 - asked me how long the rover would last. I remember telling her "By the time you get to high school, we'll be just about out of power to do much." I am pleased to report to you today how wrong I was,

Indianapolis IN (SPX) Mar 28, 2023
If you've ever seen a shooting star, you might have actually seen a meteor on its way to Earth. Those that land here are called meteorites and can be used to peek back in time, into the far corners of outer space or at the earliest building blocks of life. Today, scientists report some of the most detailed analyses yet of the organic material of two meteorites. They've identified tens of thousan