Radio frequency (RF) and microwave power measurements are widely used to support applications across space, defense, and communication. These precise measurements enable engineers to accurately characterize waveforms, components, circuits, and systems.
A Chinese rover has found new evidence to support the theory that Mars was once home to a vast ocean, including tracing some ancient coastline where water may once have lapped, a study said Thursday.
J1407b, has the largest ring system yet seen – around 200 times larger than Jupiter’s (the largest in our solar system). Its host planet is likewise massive: we don’t know whether it’s a gas giant or a brown dwarf. So far, it’s been classified as a super-Jupiter stellar body.
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New research in our Milky Way has revealed a neutron star that rotates around its axis at an extremely high speed. It spins 716 times per second, making it one of the fastest-spinning objects ever observed. Photo: NASA.
Scientists have finally proven the existence of “supersolids,” a bizarre state of matter that behaves like both a liquid and a solid.
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(This story has been updated with the latest launch information.)
Three SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch windows are scheduled to open back-to-back-to-back on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday from Florida’s Space Coast, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory indicates.
SpaceX has yet to officially announce this trio of missions — which would become the unparalleled 77th, 78th and 79th orbital rocket launches during a single calendar year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The OSIRIS-REx project made history last year as the first U.S. mission to bring back an asteroid sample from space—and with it came a treasure trove of data. An international collaboration, led by Sandia National Laboratories and including researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has published a study in The Planetary Science Journal that reveals the preliminary findings from the capsule’s reentry.
The return of the OSIRIS-REx capsule was the largest geophysical observation campaign of its kind. “This project was a unique opportunity for us to observe the geophysical signals produced by a meter-sized object traveling at hypersonic speeds,” said Chris Carr, the lead author at Los Alamos National Lab. “There are few chances for scientists to be prepared to collect this type of data that we need to propel scientific inquiry for years to come.”
The campaign involved over 400 sensors, many of which were stationed near Eureka, Nevada along the “loneliest road in America.” Given the size of the project, there were many objectives among the more than 80 collaborators. One team of Los Alamos scientists focused on distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), and the paper as a whole encompasses many methods to obtain data during the capsule’s return.
The composition of the products varies depending on the starting materials. Pure methane reacts—with very low yield—to give ethane, propane and hydrogen. The addition of oxygen increases the conversion, resulting mainly in CO2 as well as CO, ethylene, and water.
In the presence of water, aqueous methane reacts to give acetone and tertiary butyl alcohol; in the gas phase, it gives ethane and propane. When both water and oxygen are added, the reactions are strongly accelerated. In the aqueous phase, formaldehyde, acetic acid, and acetone are formed. If ammonia is also added, acetic acid forms glycine, an amino acid also found in space.
“Under gamma radiation, glycine can be made from methane, oxygen, water, and ammonia, molecules that are found in large amounts in space,” says Huang. The team developed a reaction scheme that explains the routes by which the individual products are formed. Oxygen (∙O2−) and ∙OH radicals play an important role in this. The rates of these radical reaction mechanisms are not temperature-dependent and could thus also take place in space.
