Copernical Team
Europe’s Spaceport gains new radar
A new additional radar called Amazonie-I installed at Pariacabo, a high point in Kourou, French Guiana, was tested during the recent Ariane 5 launch from Europe’s Spaceport.
No 'eureka moment': the evolution of climate science
What if Earth's atmosphere was infused with extra carbon dioxide, mused amateur scientist Eunice Foote in an 1856 research paper that concluded the gas was very good at absorbing heat. "An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature," she wrote in the study, published in the American Journal of Science and Arts and then swiftly forgotten. The American scientist a
Decline in CO2 cooled earth's climate over 30 million years ago, scientists find
New research led by the University of Bristol demonstrates that a decline in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 played a major role in driving Earth's climate from a warm greenhouse into a cold icehouse world around 34 million years ago. This transition could be partly reversed in the next centuries due to the anthropogenic rise in CO2. Between 40 and 34 million years ago, Earth's climat
Water as a metal - detected at BESSY II
Under normal conditions, pure water is an almost perfect insulator. Water only develops metallic properties under extreme pressure, such as exists deep inside of large planets. Now, an international collaboration has used a completely different approach to produce metallic water and documented the phase transition at BESSY II. The study is published now in Nature. Every child knows that wa
DARPA Comb Technologies Yield Breakthroughs in Defense and Civilian Sectors
Revolutionary laser technologies pioneered in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office over the past decades are allowing Air Force researchers to precisely characterize combustion elements in next-generation jet engines and providing commercial gas and oil developers continuous, region-scale monitoring to rapidly detect methane leaks. The Spectral Combs from UV to THz (SCOUT) program, which began
Lucy boxed to go
NASA's first spacecraft to explore the Trojan asteroids arrived Friday, July 30, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. It is now in a cleanroom at nearby Astrotech, ready to begin final preparations for its October launch. The mission has a 23-day launch period beginning on October 16. Lucy will undergo final testing and fueling prior to being moved to its launch pad at Ca
Department of Energy to provide $100 million for high energy physics research
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science announced a plan to provide $100 million over the next four years for university-based research on a range of high energy physics topics through a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA). The objective of this funding is to advance knowledge of how the universe works at its most fundamental level. "High energy physics play
Boeing postpones Starliner capsule launch attempt over valve issue
Boeing postponed the launch of its Starliner spacecraft Tuesday due to problems detected with valves in the capsule's propulsion system and reset a potential launch for Wednesday midday. "We are off for today. Recycling for tomorrow," Tory Bruno, CEO of rocket company United Launch Alliance tweeted Tuesday morning. ULA had planned to launch an Atlas V rocket carrying the uncrewed
Finding the cause of a fatal problem in rocket engine combustors
Rocket engines contain confined combustion systems, which are, essentially, combustion chambers. In these chambers, nonlinear interactions among turbulent fuel and oxidizer flows, sound waves, and heat produced from chemical reactions, cause an unstable phenomenon called 'combustion oscillations.' The force of these oscillations on the body of the combustion chamber-the mechanical stress o
Iridium granted trio of regulatory approvals in Japan
Iridium Communications reports that Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has approved regulatory amendments necessary to allow for Japanese adoption of Iridium Certus broadband, Iridium Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) and other aeronautical services for aviation and Iridium's Global Maritime Distress and Safety System service (GMDSS). Over the pas