Monitoring fluctuating forest carbon from space

Beijing (XNA) May 11, 2023
The Tianzhou 6 robotic cargo ship connected with the Tiangong space station early Thursday morning, according to the China Manned Space Agency. In a brief news release, the agency said the cargo craft docked with the Tiangong station's rear hatch at 5:16 am and began to fly with the station in a low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above Earth. Crew members of the Shenzhou XV mission

Tokyo (AFP) May 11, 2023
Fiery streaks of light across the night sky over southern Japan may have been caused by space debris from a rocket launched by China, Japanese officials said Thursday. Video of the apparent fireballs lit up social media on Wednesday night, with residents and users speculating on what might have caused the unusual display. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)'s Ishigaki b

Beijing, China (SPX) May 11, 2023
China's Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory, one of the world's most advanced cosmic ray observatories, passed national appraisal on Wednesday. The facility will help scientists uncover the origins of high-energy cosmic rays and expand humanity's knowledge of the universe. Cosmic rays are high-energy particles consisting mainly of protons and atomic nuclei that travel through space

University Park PA (SPX) May 11, 2023
More than a hundred blazars - distant and active galaxies with a central supermassive black hole that drives powerful jets - have been newly characterized by Penn State researchers from a catalog of previously unclassified high-energy cosmic emissions. The new blazars, which are dim relative to more typical blazars, have allowed the researchers to test a controversial theory of blazar emissions,

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 11, 2023
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has observed a distant planet outside our solar system - and unlike anything in it - to reveal what is likely a highly reflective world with a steamy atmosphere. It's the closest look yet at the mysterious world, a "mini-Neptune" that was largely impenetrable to previous observations. And while the planet, called GJ 1214 b, is too hot to harbor liquid-wate

College Park MD (SPX) May 11, 2023
For more than a decade, astronomers have been trying to get a closer look at GJ 1214b, an exoplanet 40 light-years away from Earth. Their biggest obstacle is a thick layer of haze that blankets the planet, shielding it from the probing eyes of space telescopes and stymying efforts to study its atmosphere. NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) solved that issue. The telescope's infra

Beijing (XNA) May 11, 2023
The Beijing Institute of Technology recently received 500 milligrams of the lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e 5 mission. BIT's research team will study the material characteristics of these samples and related manufacturing technology, with the building of a future lunar research station in mind. Shen Jun, a professor with the School of Mechanical Engineering at BIT, noted th

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 11, 2023
When it comes to searching for clues about Mars' geologic past and present, SHERLOC and WATSON are on the case! SHERLOC stands for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals, and WATSON stands for Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering. SHERLOC and WATSON both sit at the end of Perseverance's robotic arm, and their names pay homag