A method for estimating the source properties of gravitational-wave events shows a speed-up of six orders of magnitude over established approaches. This is a promising tool for follow-up observations of electromagnetic counterparts.
The James Webb Space Telescope is finally on the launchpad. The space observatory, safely tucked inside an Ariane 5 rocket, is expected to launch on December 25.
The rocket and its precious cargo rolled out to the Arianespace ELA-3 launch complex at Europe’s Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana on Wednesday.
The rollout took about two hours to complete, according to NASA.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL)and Northrop Grumman’s Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) Project announced that they are one step closer to collecting solar energy in space and transmitting it to Earth using radio frequency (RF). The team has successfully conducted the first end-to-end demonstration of key hardware for the Arachne flight experiment.
A ground demonstration of novel components for the “sandwich tile” was used to successfully convert solar energy to radiofrequency (RF) – a fundamental step required to pave the way for a large-scale solar power collection system in space. For this to work, it is necessary to use receiving antennas on Earth to convert RF energy into usable power.
Space solar power is a key focus of AFRL, which awarded Northrop Grumman a $100 million contract in 2018 for the development of a payload to demonstrate the key components of a prototype space solar power system. The sandwich tile is currently under development as an essential payload component for Arachne and as a building block for a large-scale operational system.
Mercury is a most unusual planet. The smallest planet in the solar system, and the closest planet to the sun, it is in a 3:2 spin resonance, slowly turning and experiencing scorching heat up to 430 degrees Celsius, and the night side frigid, down to-170 degrees Celsius. Due to its much larger iron-rich core compared to Earth, it has the second-highest average density in the solar system, just 1.5 percent below Earth’s. Despite its proximity to the sun, the surface of Mercury was, surprisingly, found to be rich in volatile elements such as sodium and sulfur.
Notably, the planet’s separation into an iron-rich core and rocky mantle (the geological region between the core and the crust) suggests Mercury had a magma ocean early in its formation. Like any liquid, this ocean would have evaporated, but in the case of Mercury, the temperatures were likely to have been so high that the vapor was not composed of water, but rock. In a new study published in The Planetary Science Journal, Noah Jäggi and colleagues modeled how the evaporation of the surface of this magma ocean would form an atmosphere and determined whether losses from the atmosphere could alter Mercury’s composition, addressing an open question of why moderately volatile elements like sodium have accumulated on Mercury’s surface. Their results were surprising, Jäggi, a graduate student at the University of Bern, told Phys.org.
Early planetary magma oceans aren’t unusual, explained Lindy Elkins-Tanton, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. “We think all rocky planets have one or more—maybe several—magma oceans as they form. The impacts of accretion toward the end of planet formation are just that energetic; they will melt the planets to some depth.”
An energetic eruptive filament on EK Draconis most probably launched a coronal mass ejection with a mass ten times larger than the largest solar coronal mass ejection. Studying such ejections provides insight into stellar angular momentum loss and the habitability of orbiting planets.
An energetic eruptive filament on EK Draconis most probably launched a coronal mass ejection with a mass ten times larger than the largest solar coronal mass ejection. Studying such ejections provides insight into stellar angular momentum loss and the habitability of orbiting planets.
The telescope will point its massive eyes on these cosmic objects.
The James Webb Space Telescope will explore transiting exoplanets, Kuiper Belt objects and the Solar System’s strangest phenomena.
Even as commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space prepares to launch the first fully private crew to the International Space Station early next year, its engineers are also developing in-house spacesuits.
Texas-based Axiom teased the spacesuits in a tweet posted on Nov. 23. While the suits fit into Axiom’s own long-term plans of creating private space stations that can host paid research missions, the company also hopes to provide the suits to NASA as the space agency prepares for crewed Artemis program launches to the moon.
It’s the stuff of science fiction but it’s real.
Although it may sound like science fiction, space-based solar power has started making headway with several projects underway. In February, we brought you news of technology firm Redwire acquiring Deployable Space Systems (DSS), a leading supplier of deployable solar arrays capable of enabling space missions with the intention of using them to deploy space-based solar power.
Meanwhile, last August we brought you further news, of Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) that collected solar power in space to be transmitted wirelessly to Earth offering energy unaffected by weather or time of day. The project promised to make solar power that could be continuously available anywhere on earth.
At least 70 free-floating planets were found in a nearby star-forming region.
Astronomers discover 70 free-floating planets, the largest group of rogue planets ever found. The planets may have formed on their own or been ejected by a star.
