Aerospace & Defence
ESA's Jupiter mission will examine its turbulent atmosphere
Demanding electric, magnetic and power requirements, harsh radiation, and strict planetary protection rules are some of the critical issues that had to be tackled in order to move ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – Juice – from the drawing board and into construction. Scheduled for launch in 2022, with arrival in the Jovian system in 2029, Juice will spend three-and-a-half years examining the giant planet's turbulent atmosphere, ...
The deathbed of a red giant star
An international team of astronomers has observed a striking spiral pattern in the gas surrounding a red giant star named LL Pegasi and its companion star 3,400 light-years from Earth, using a powerful telescope in northern Chile called Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA.
Scientists fight for Pluto's planethood
Johns Hopkins University scientist Kirby Runyon wants to make one thing clear: Regardless of what one prestigious scientific organisation says to the contrary, Pluto is a planet. So is Europa, commonly known as a moon of Jupiter, and the Earth's moon, and more than 100 other celestial bodies in our solar system that are denied this status under a prevailing definition of "planet."
A light-bulb moment for the early Universe
The discovery of glowing stardust in a distant galaxy could shed more light for astronomers on the characteristics of our early Universe. Cosmic dust is forged inside stars and then scattered across the cosmos when they die, most spectacularly in supernova explosions. This dust is the key building block in the formation of new stars and planets. In the early Universe however — before the first generations of stars died out —...
Radiation helped fuel first supermassive black holes
The appearance of supermassive black holes at the dawn of the universe has puzzled astronomers since their discovery more than a decade ago. A supermassive black hole is thought to form over billions of years, but more than two dozen of these behemoths have been sighted within 800 million years of the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.
LSI features high radiation tolerance for use in space
The development of an NB-FPGA that incorporates NanoBridge metal atom migration-type switch technology has been announced by NEC and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), which utilises TIA, an open innovation hub operated by five institutes in Tsukuba and Tokyo. This original NEC product featuring high radiation tolerance is expected to contribute to the use of LSIs in space.
NASA radar technique finds lost lunar spacecraft
Finding derelict spacecraft and space debris in Earth's orbit can be a technological challenge. Detecting these objects in orbit around Earth's moon is even more difficult. Optical telescopes are unable to search for small objects hidden in the bright glare of the moon. However, a new technological application of interplanetary radar pioneered by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has successfully located spac...
Dark matter detection receives 10-ton upgrade
In an abandoned gold mine one mile beneath Lead, South Dakota, the cosmos quiets down enough to potentially hear the faint whispers of the universe’s most elusive material — dark matter. Shielded from the deluge of cosmic rays constantly showering the Earth’s surface, and scrubbed of noisy radioactive metals and gasses, the mine, scientists think, will be the ideal setting for the most sensitive dark matter e...
Kepler provides another peek at ultra-cool neighbour
Astronomers announced that the ultra-cool dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, hosts a total of seven Earth-size planets that are likely rocky, a discovery made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in combination with ground-based telescopes. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope also has been observing this star since December 2016. Today these additional data about TRAPPIST-1 from Kepler are available to the scientific community.
Ancient stardust sheds light on first stars
A huge mass of glowing stardust in a galaxy seen shortly after the Universe's formation has been detected by a UCL-led team of astronomers, providing new insights into the birth and explosive deaths of the very first stars. The galaxy is the most distant object ever observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and was seen when the Universe was only 4% of its present age, at about 600 million years old, when the first ...