Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2024
A historic private mission to land on the Moon faced near-certain failure Monday after the spacecraft suffered a "critical loss" of fuel, dealing a major blow to America's hopes of placing its first robot on the lunar surface in five decades. Fixed to the top of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, which was making its first flight, Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander blasted off over

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The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) spacecraft Einstein Probe lifted off on a Chang Zheng (Long March) 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China at 15:03 CST / 07:03 GMT / 08:03 CET on 9 January 2024. With the successful launch, Einstein Probe began its mission to survey the sky and hunt for bursts of X-ray light from mysterious objects such as neutron stars and black holes.

Einstein Probe is a collaboration led by CAS with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany.

“I would like to

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 29, 2023
South Korea's superconducting fusion device and so-called artificial sun, KSTAR, has received upgrades that will allow it to run for longer periods of time. The Korea Institute of Fusion Energy said Friday it had successfully installed a new tungsten divertor for its magnetic fusion device, KSTAR, which will allow it to run high-temperature plasma at more than 100 million degrees Celsiu

Trieste, Italy (SPX) Jan 08, 2024
In a novel exploration of the cosmos' hidden aspects, a recent theoretical study from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) has proposed a fresh approach to understanding the origins of magnetic fields in the universe. Published in the esteemed journal "Physical Review Letters," the research delves into the interplay between dark matter and magnetic fields, potentially tracing ba

Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 08, 2024
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features a richness of spiral galaxies: the large, prominent spiral galaxy on the right side of the image is NGC 1356; the two apparently smaller spiral galaxies flanking it are LEDA 467699 (above it) and LEDA 95415 (very close at its left) respectively; and finally, IC 1947 sits along the left side of the image. This image is a really in

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Jan 08, 2024
A team of international scientists, armed with the powerful ALMA telescope array in Chile, has unravelled the cosmic mysteries surrounding a dying star, revealing an intricate celestial dance shaped by unusual chemistry. The ground-breaking study, published in Nature Astronomy, sheds light on the orbit of a cool red giant star, shedding its outer layers in a dramatic stellar wind during th

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 08, 2024
Titan's "magic islands" are likely floating chunks of porous, frozen organic solids, a new study finds, pivoting from previous work suggesting they were gas bubbles. The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters, AGU's journal for high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences. A hazy orange atmosphere 50% thicker than Earth's

Cambridge UK (SPX) Jan 08, 2024
What are the clouds of Venus made of? Scientists know it's mainly made of sulfuric acid droplets, with some water, chlorine, and iron. Their concentrations vary with height in the thick and hostile Venusian atmosphere. But until now they have been unable to identify the missing component that would explain the clouds' patches and streaks, only visible in the UV range. In a new study publis

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 08, 2024
Earth planning date: Friday, January 5, 2024: Coming back after the new year celebrations it was my first Curiosity planning as Geology Science Team Lead (GeoSTL) today. Of course, I hoped for an easy start... but somehow, everything seemed to have other ideas! First things first, we didn't have some of the usual images available on the system we use for planning. This was resolved swiftly by th

London, UK (SPX) Jan 08, 2024
Neptune is fondly known for being a rich blue and Uranus green - but a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are actually far closer in colour than typically thought. The correct shades of the planets have been confirmed with the help of research led by Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford, which has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical