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Category: satellites

NASA’s AWE instrument completes mission to study Earth’s effect on space weather

On May 21, ground controllers powered down NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) instrument, bringing the data collection phase of the mission to a successful and scheduled end, surpassing its planned two-year mission.

Installed on the exterior of the International Space Station since November 2023, AWE studied atmospheric gravity waves, which are giant ripples in the atmosphere caused by strong winds flowing over tall mountains or by violent weather events, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hurricanes.

The AWE instrument looked for these waves in colorful bands of light in Earth’s atmosphere, called airglow. AWE investigated how atmospheric gravity waves propagate upward to space and contribute to space weather—conditions in space that can disrupt satellites, as well as navigation and communications signals.

A success for the launch of the Smile satellite to study how the Earth’s magnetosphere responds to the solar wind

A few hours ago, the Smile satellite was launched from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Vega-C rocket. After about 56 minutes, the Smile satellite separated from the rocket’s last stage and began maneuvers that are scheduled to last approximately 25 days. Eleven burns of the spacecraft’s engines will lengthen its orbit, initially circular at an altitude of approximately 700 kilometers, to approximately 121,000 kilometers above the North Pole and approximately 5,000 kilometers above the South Pole.

The Smile (Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission is a joint project between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision program, which aims to improve our understanding of the solar system. In this case, the focus is on the solar wind and how Earth responds to it. Geomagnetic storms and auroras show, in sometimes spectacular ways, the effects of charged particles from the Sun on the Earth’s magnetosphere.

The Smile satellite is equipped with four instruments designed to study the effects of the solar wind in various ways. It’s not the first mission designed to study the magnetosphere and its interactions with the solar wind, and each new satellite offers new insights. The Smile mission is the first to focus on the mechanisms that lead to the transfer of energy from the solar wind to the Earth’s atmosphere to observe them fully on a global scale.

How Many Satellites are There in Space?

A satellite is any object that orbits another body in space. Earth’s only natural satellite is the Moon. Every other satellite around Earth, more than 14,000 of them as of early 2026, is artificial. The first one was launched in October 1957 by the Soviet Union; recent ones are reaching orbit at a rate of roughly 60 per week, almost all of them part of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. The orbital environment around Earth has changed more in the last six years than in the previous sixty, and the trajectory of that change is what makes the satellite question worth revisiting in 2026.

Anthropic to consider using SpaceX orbital data center satellites

WASHINGTON — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic will study use of orbital data centers being developed by SpaceX.

The two companies announced agreements May 6 giving Anthropic, developer of a line of AI products known as Claude, access to both terrestrial data centers as well as potential use of SpaceX’s orbital data center.

In the near term, Anthropic will purchase all the capacity of a SpaceX terrestrial data center, Colossus 1, with more than 300 megawatts of computing capacity. Anthropic said that capacity will allow it to raise limits on usage of Claude products for its customers.

Quantum Entangles the Heavens

As the United States, Europe, and China compete to shape the future of the Earth-Moon corridor, strategic advantage will depend not only on launch capacity or lunar infrastructure, but also on advances in quantum technologies. Just as secure systems are critical on Earth, satellites and space-based systems underpin high-value, high-impact operations from financial transactions and navigation to scientific discovery and classified military missions.

Quantum technologies, which enable new levels of speed, sensitivity, and security, are emerging as critical tools to improve existing extraterrestrial systems. Modern digital communications are secured by encryption built on math problems that are extremely difficult for regular computers to solve, but that sufficiently advanced quantum computers could eventually crack. Quantum communications technologies could add a new layer of protection by making it easier to detect when someone is trying to intercept sensitive information. Quantum sensors can measure position and time with an accuracy that GPS only approximates. Lastly, quantum computers could unlock new capabilities beyond current computational limits, from designing advanced materials to optimizing increasingly complex satellite networks.

Countries are racing to match their space and quantum ambitions with national strategies. The White House is reportedly drafting an executive order to strengthen US competitiveness in quantum technologies. The rumored draft directs multiple US government bodies, including NASA, to develop a five-year roadmap to expand quantum sensing and networking capabilities. The EU’s 2025 Quantum Europe Strategy highlights “Space and Dual-Use Quantum Technologies” as one of its five strategic focuses, and China’s 15th Five-Year Plan has called for expanding the country’s ground-to-space quantum communications network.

Dust Traps Twice as Much Heat as Climate Models Estimate

Atmospheric desert dust absorbs roughly twice the heat previously estimated by climate models, representing about 10% of total global warming. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/earth-and-the-environment/…estimate-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/earth-and-the-environment/…estimate-2)

What role does dust play in climate change? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated how desert dust could be used to constrain climate models. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand new methods for understanding the various environmental factors that contribute to climate change.

For the study, the researchers used a combination of observational data and computer models with the goal of filling a knowledge gap regarding how desert dust influences solar radiation distribution within Earth’s atmosphere. The observational data was obtained from satellites and aircraft measurements while the climate models obtained new data for computing the results. In the end, the researchers found that while dust cools the planet, it is also prone to trap double the heat as climate models have estimated, or 10 percent of the total heat retention for the planet.

“Atmospheric dust traps about a quarter of a watt per square meter of heat by absorbing and scattering the heat radiation emitted by the Earth, comparable to roughly one-tenth of the warming effect produced by the carbon dioxide emitted from all human activities,” said Dr. Jasper Kok, who is a professor in atmospheric and ocean sciences at UCLA and lead author of the study. “Current climate models undercount the heating effect of dust by about half. The climate models remain effective and useful, and this will make them even more precise.”

Airborne desert dust may warm climate far more than expected, new analysis shows

Atmospheric dust plays a dual role in Earth’s climate: it reflects some sunlight back into space while also absorbing and retaining the planet’s heat like an insulating blanket. But while dust likely cools the planet overall, that’s not the whole story. New UCLA research shows that the heat-trapping effect of airborne desert dust in the atmosphere is about twice as big as previously believed.

Although researchers emphasized that current climate models are performing well, the new findings will further increase precision. Updating climate and weather models to account for the larger heat-trapping power of dust could improve both short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate projections, said lead researcher and UCLA atmospheric scientist Jasper Kok.

Using data from satellites, aircraft measurements and new climate simulations, combined with meteorological data related to temperature, UCLA-led researchers developed a global estimate, shared in a study published in Nature Communications.

Catching distant gamma-ray explosions with precisely aligned X-ray optics

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rank among the most powerful explosions in the universe, releasing immense energy in intense flashes of gamma rays. The most distant GRBs originate from the era when the first stars and galaxies formed. Detecting them allows astronomers to probe the early universe and understand how the first heavy elements formed and how the earliest stellar populations lived and died. Missions like HiZ-GUNDAM, a satellite planned for launch in the 2030s by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aim to detect these distant explosions in real time.

However, detecting GRBs presents a major challenge. These explosions appear unpredictably across the sky, and their afterglows fade rapidly. Astronomers must therefore detect each burst quickly and determine its position immediately so that other telescopes can observe it. Wide-field X-ray monitors provide one solution, as they can observe large regions of the sky and determine the direction of incoming signals.

Some designs use lobster-eye X-ray optics, inspired by the way lobsters’ compound eyes collect light from many directions simultaneously. Yet building a single optical system from multiple lobster-eye segments and aligning them precisely remains a difficult technical task.

Scientists May Have Found the Key to Jupiter and Saturn’s Moon Mystery

Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in our Solar System, also host the most extensive systems of moons. Jupiter is currently known to have more than 100 moons, while Saturn, along with its prominent ring system, has more than 280.

Despite these large numbers, their moon systems are very different. Jupiter has four major moons, including Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System. Saturn, on the other hand, is dominated by a single standout moon, Titan, which ranks as the second largest.

Because both planets are gas giants, scientists have long tried to understand why their satellite systems developed so differently. Existing theories of moon formation offer some explanations, but recent research on stellar magnetic fields suggests those ideas may need revision. One key question involves magnetic accretion and whether an inner cavity can form in Jupiter’s circumplanetary disk, the accumulation of material orbiting a planet from which satellites may form.

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