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Category: space – Page 51

WASHINGTON — Impulse Space has purchased three Falcon 9 launches for its Helios transfer vehicle for missions starting in 2026, including one for the Space Force.

Impulse Space announced Nov. 14 that it signed a contract with SpaceX for the Falcon 9 launches. Each launch will carry the company’s Helios transfer vehicle, a high-energy kick stage the company introduced in January to transport payloads quickly between orbits.

The first launch, planned for mid-2026, will be the first flight of Helios. The transfer vehicle will transport the company’s smaller Mira vehicle, carrying a commercial optical payload, from low Earth orbit to geostationary transfer orbit on the Victus Surgo mission for the Space Force and Defense Innovation Unit. Impulse Space received a $34.5 million contract for Victus Surgo and another mission, Victus Salo, Oct. 3. Impulse Space said the schedule and payloads for the other two Helios launches will be determined later.

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Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery of a neutron star in the Milky Way that rotates at an astonishing 716 times per second, placing it among the fastest-spinning stars ever observed.

The neutron star was identified using NASAs NICER X-ray telescope, which captured extreme thermonuclear bursts resembling atomic explosions. These bursts shine up to 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, providing insights into neutron stars’ life cycles and the creation of elements in the universe.

Discovering a Fast-Spinning Neutron Star.

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In an epic story of survival witnessed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, one of our nearest galactic neighbours has crashed through the Milky Way galaxy’s gaseous halo and lived to tell the tale. But in the process, this dwarf galaxy, called the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), has been stripped of most of its own surrounding halo of gas. Researchers were surprised to find such an extremely small gaseous halo remaining — one around 10 times smaller than halos of other galaxies of similar mass. Still, the LMC has held onto enough of its gas to keep forming new stars. A smaller galaxy wouldn’t have survived such an encounter. This is the first time astronomers have been able to measure the size of the LMC’s halo — something they could do only with Hubble.

The Large Magellanic Cloud, also called the LMC, is one of the Milky Way galaxy’s nearest neighbours. This dwarf galaxy looms large in the southern nighttime sky at 20 times the apparent diameter of the full Moon.

Many researchers theorise that the LMC is not in orbit around our galaxy, but is just passing by. Those scientists think that the LMC has just completed its closest approach to the much more massive Milky Way. This passage has blown away most of the spherical halo of gas that surrounds the LMC.

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The Department of Defense (DoD), alongside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), delivered its 2024 Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) to Congress this week, fulfilling requirements outlined in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, with amendments from the FY 2023 NDAA. The report, produced by the DoD’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), presents a comprehensive update on UAP sightings and analyses, covering incidents reported from May 2023 through June 2024.

According to the report, AARO received a total of 757 UAP reports during this period. Out of these, 485 incidents occurred within the last year, while the remaining 272 involved sightings from 2021 and 2022 that had not been previously cataloged. These new additions bring the total number of UAP cases reviewed by AARO to over 1,600 as of June 1, 2024.

The DoD emphasizes that UAP reports are critical to national security. Every incursion into designated air, sea, or space zones is taken seriously, with each sighting undergoing a systematic, data-driven analysis. AARO’s mandate includes examining these sightings for potential threats to service members, U.S. facilities, and sensitive operations.

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Akash Systems has signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms with the U.S. Department of Commerce for $18.2 million in direct funding and $50 million in federal and state tax credits through the CHIPS Act. Although this isn’t yet a binding contract that will give the company the promised funds, it’s an important first step in the negotiation process for the Oakland-based startup, which shows that both the company and the U.S. government are gradually moving towards a formal agreement. According to Akash Systems (h/t Axios), it will use the funds to ramp up its operations for producing diamond-cooled semiconductors for AI, data centers, space applications, and defense markets.

Diamond-cooling technology goes deeper than just thermal paste with nano-diamond technology. For example, some use synthetic diamonds as the chip substrate, utilizing the material’s thermal conductivity to more efficiently move heat away from the processor. So, let’s look closer at Akash’s solution.

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The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon’s far side is one of the most remarkable regions in our Solar System. Spanning approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) in diameter, it’s among the largest known craters, with research interest from multiple space agencies. Among recent discoveries, planetary scientists uncovered an enormous mass anomaly beneath this basin, which could be key to understanding the Moon’s geological history. This mass anomaly, first revealed in 2019, has implications for future lunar missions and provides a window into the Moon’s formation.

Discovery of a Giant Mass Anomaly

Scientists detected the buried mass using data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, which monitors changes in the Moon’s gravitational field. This unique technique enabled researchers to identify the anomaly and measure its incredible weight, estimated at around 2.18 billion billion kilograms. The mass was so dense that it caused the basin floor to dip by nearly a kilometer (more than half a mile), an indication of its massive gravitational pull. To visualize this, Peter B. James, the lead scientist from Baylor University, compared it to burying a metal structure five times the size of Hawaii underground.

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NASA and ISRO’s NISAR satellite aims to revolutionize our understanding of Earth’s surface movements with frequent global scans.

By detecting minute motions in land and ice, the satellite will enhance predictions for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and monitor infrastructure stability in ways previously not possible, saving significant time and resources in disaster management.

Monitoring Earth’s Movements

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