Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 30, 2024
Researchers at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) recently participated in an international study of fragments from asteroid 162173 Ryugu, collected by a Japanese space mission. The APS, a light source facility operated by the Department of Energy, employed Mossbauer spectroscopy - a technique uniquely suited to studying small samples - on specks of dust from Ryugu. The results revealed that the a

Vilnius, Lithuania (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
Our MP42 satellite, which launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) two and a half years ago aboard the SpaceX Transporter-4 mission, recently took an unexpected hit from a small piece of space debris or micrometeoroid. The impact created a 6 mm hole, roughly the size of a chickpea, in one of its solar panels. Despite this damage, the satellite continued performing its mission without interruption, a

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has successfully completed its acquisition of Terran Orbital, a prominent provider of modular spacecraft and mission services for the aerospace and defense sectors. This acquisition, including subsidiary Tyvak International, builds on a long-standing collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Terran Orbital, which has previously spanned various projects, including Spac

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
In a remarkable discovery, researchers from DTU Space have identified one of the universe's fastest-spinning neutron stars using an X-ray telescope stationed on the International Space Station (ISS). This small yet massive object, part of an "X-ray binary star system" called 4U 1820-30, lies in the Sagittarius constellation near the center of the Milky Way. "We were studying thermonuclear

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
Since the first X-ray image of a comet was taken in 1996, researchers have intensely studied charge exchange in collisions between highly charged ions and atoms or molecules, a process critical for astrophysical modeling. In simulating observed X-ray spectra, astrophysicists depend on precise atomic data, where spin statistics are traditionally considered a fundamental guideline. A new stu

Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
Almost 14 billion years ago, at the very beginning of the Big Bang, a mysterious energy drove an exponential expansion of the infant universe and produced all known matter, according to the prevailing inflationary universe theory. That ancient energy shared key features of the current universe's dark energy, which is the largest mystery of our time by at least one objective standard: It ma

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
NASA's Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) is ready to launch to the International Space Station to reveal new details about the solar wind including its origin and its evolution. Launching in November 2024 aboard SpaceX's 31st commercial resupply services mission, CODEX will be robotically installed on the exterior of the space station. As a solar coronagraph, CODEX will block out the b

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
A recent study from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has mapped significant variations in temperature across the Local Hot Bubble (LHB), a low-density region surrounding our Solar System filled with hot gas emitting in soft X-rays. This discovery, based on the eROSITA All-Sky Survey data, suggests that ancient supernova events expanded and heated this bubble. Additiona

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
The European Space Agency's Ariel mission has officially entered its assembly phase at Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse, France. The structural model of the Ariel spacecraft, designed to advance our understanding of distant exoplanet atmospheres, is now under construction. This model will undergo intense tests that are critical to validating the spacecraft's readiness for the conditions it w