Durham NC (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
A group of scientists led by Duke University have engineered a new class of materials capable of producing tunable plasmonic properties while withstanding incredibly high temperatures. Plasmonics is a technology that essentially traps the energy of light within groups of electrons oscillating together on a metallic surface. This creates a powerful electromagnetic field that interacts with

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 17, 2022
The countdown has begun! Exactly one year from today, the first of two major solar eclipses just six months apart will occur over the Americas. On October 14, 2023, the Moon will pass directly between Earth and the Sun but will cover only 90% of the brilliant solar disk. The remaining 10% will appear as a blazing "ring of fire" around the Moon's dark silhouette. This annular (Latin for rin

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Launched on 17 October 2002, ESA’s Integral mission is a world-class mission which has been observing the Universe’s violent explosions and powerful phenomena for 20 years, achieving many scientific firsts. The mission's impressive lifetime is owed to responsibility and leadership on the side of ESA science and operations. This graphic highlights some of the mission’s impressive numbers to date.

Learn more about Integral

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 14, 2021
The National Science Foundation said Friday that it won't rebuild the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and instead pans to build a STEM-focused education center. The center would expand upon existing education and outreach opportunities, and is expected to open in 2023, the NSF said in a statement. The NSF is soliciting proposals to manage "the education, STEM research, and ou

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 17, 2022
Astronomers around the world are captivated by an unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation that swept over Earth Sunday, Oct. 9. The emission came from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) - the most powerful class of explosions in the universe - that ranks among the most luminous events known. On Sunday morning Eastern time, a wave of X-rays and gamma rays passed through the so

London, UK (SPX) Oct 17, 2022
Stars, including our own Sun, can release huge amounts of energy during outbursts called flares. The most intense ones pose a danger to modern society through disruption to electricity grids, satellite systems and the Earth's climate. Blue Skies Space's new satellite Mauve is designed to monitor the flaring activity of stars that are hosts to potentially habitable exoplanets (planets outside our

Munich, Germany (SPX) Oct 17, 2022
Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere - barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b - two exoplanets, planets which orbit stars outside our Solar System. This unexpected discovery

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 17, 2022
Using computer simulations, scientists based at NASA have pieced together the story of how the dwarf planet Haumea, found in the Kuiper Belt of icy worlds beyond the orbit of outermost planet Neptune, became one of the most unusual objects in the solar system. Nearly the size of Pluto, Haumea is strange in several ways. It spins faster, by far, than anything else of its size, whirling on i

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 17, 2022
You stand in Jezero crater, Mars, at a minute to midnight. By the light of the stars and Mars's two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, you can just make out the shape of the looming delta. Nothing moves; the wind tonight is too low to even push a sand grain over. All is peaceful and quiet. Then, out of nowhere, comes an alien, mechanical whirring noise... and a misshapen head rises up out of the dar

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 17, 2022
NASA's first asteroid sample return spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, fired its thrusters for 30 seconds on Sept. 21 and nudged its trajectory toward Earth. The resulting course correction keeps the vehicle on track to deliver a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, completing a seven-year mission. The delivery itself, however, is not a simple parcel drop on Earth's front doorstep: NA