Boston MA (SPX) Sep 11, 2024
Typically, electrons are free agents that can move through most metals in any direction. When they encounter an obstacle, the charged particles experience friction and scatter randomly like colliding billiard balls. But in certain exotic materials, electrons can appear to flow with single-minded purpose. In these materials, electrons may become locked to the material's edge and flow in one

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 12, 2024
NASA said Thursday its Space Communication and Navigation program is taking the lead on an effort to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time standard as humans prepare to return to the moon. The program, also known as SCaN, will coordinate with various stakeholders on a timekeeping effort to "enable a future lunar ecosystem" that could also be extended to Mars and other locations in solar sy

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 12, 2024
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft has successfully finished the rigorous series of environmental tests designed to ensure it can withstand the challenges of launch and space. With these tests complete, the spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, is now conducting software tests simulating key phases of the mission, including launch, orbital maneuvers, and its science o

Wurzburg, Germany (SPX) Sep 12, 2024
An enormous canyon stretches across Mars: Valles Marineris is 3,000 kilometres long, 600 kilometres wide and on average eight kilometres deep. Its Latin name goes back to the Mars orbiter "Mariner", which discovered the valley in the early 1970s. Since 2012, this largest known canyon in the solar system has received special attention from the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Cen

Week in images: 09-13 September 2024

Discover our week through the lens

Video: 00:04:11

ESA's Euclid mission is surveying the sky to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. But how can Euclid see the invisible? Watch this video to learn about the light-bending effect that enables scientists to trace how dark matter is distributed in the Universe.

By making use of Euclid’s flagship simulation, the video illustrates how dark-matter filaments subtly alter the shape of galaxies. Light travelling to us from vastly distant galaxies is bent and distorted by concentrations of matter along its way. The effect is called gravitational lensing because matter (both ‘normal’ and dark matter) acts

Video: 00:01:15

See Mercury in a whole new light, through the ‘eyes’ of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft, as it sped past Mercury during its latest encounter on 4 September 2024.

During the flyby, BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras (M-CAMs) captured detailed images of the planet’s cratered surface. Within these images, Mercury scientists identified various geological features that BepiColombo will study in more detail once in orbit around the planet.

One such feature, shown in this video, is the newly named Stoddart crater. The name ‘Stoddart’ – after artist Margaret Olrog Stoddart (1865–1934) – was recently assigned following a request from the M-CAM

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image captures algal bloom swirls in the north Adriatic Sea, along the coast of Italy.

Video: 00:01:25

Watch the closest flyby of a planet ever, as the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft sped past Mercury during its latest encounter on 4 September 2024.

This flyby marked BepiColombo’s closest approach to Mercury yet, and for the first time, the spacecraft had a clear view of Mercury’s south pole.

This timelapse is made up of 128 different images captured by all three of BepiColombo’s monitoring cameras, M-CAM 1, 2 and 3. We see the planet move in and out of the fields of view of M-CAM 2 and 3, before M-CAM 1 sees the planet receding into the distance at the end

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 11, 2024
BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has been chosen by NASA to supply high-frequency, time-diverse satellite imaging data for Earth observation projects under NASA's Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program (CSDAP). This contract, which could reach a total value of $476 million, will run through November 2028 for participating contractors. "Adding BlackSky's space-based intelligence