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Mars makes closest approach to Earth in 15 years![]() Los Angeles (AFP) July 31, 2018 Earth's neighboring planet, Mars, is closer than it has been in the past 15 years, offering unusually bright views of the Red Planet's auburn hues. "The Red Planet and Earth haven't been this close since 2003, and won't be again until 2035," NASA said. Astronomers around the world trained their telescopes on the sky on July 31, when the Red Planet was 35.8 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) away. One popular public viewing spot was the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, where Mars was ... read more |
Mars terraforming not possible using present-day technologyGreenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 31, 2018 Science fiction writers have long featured terraforming, the process of creating an Earth-like or habitable environment on another planet, in their stories. Scientists themselves have proposed terra ... more
MIDAS cameras spot pair of lunar flashes caused by meteoroid impactsWashington (UPI) Jul 30, 2018 New images from the European Space Agency showcased a pair of recent lunar flashes. ... more
Scientists looking for ways to grow crops on Red PlanetMoscow (Sputnik) Jul 31, 2018 While humans prepare to land on Mars and eventually colonize it, the question about what people will eat on the Red Planet looms large. Indeed, generating a stable supply of food poses a major ... more
Evidence of subsurface Martian liquid water bolsteredTucson AZ (SPX) Jul 30, 2018 The announcement of the presence of liquid water beneath the surface of Martian poles validates research published by PSI Senior Scientist Stephen Clifford back in 1987. A paper published in t ... more |
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| Previous Issues | Jul 31 | Jul 30 | Jul 28 | Jul 27 | Jul 26 |
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Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 01, 2018 China is expanding its presence in Latin America filling the gap left by the US, Argentinian foreign studies analyst Gustavo Cardozo told Sputnik. Besides solidifying its positions on the continent, ... more
US Army selects Lockheed Martin as integrated systems developer for autonomous convoy programDallas TX (SPX) Jul 31, 2018 Lockheed Martin was selected by the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) as the Integrated Systems Developer for its Expedient Leader Follower (ExLF) pro ... more
NASA Interns Develop and Release Navigation Software Simulating Star Tracker NavigationHuntsville AL (SPX) Jul 27, 2018 Interning at NASA puts students at the center of innovation and discovery. For two students at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, this meant having the incredible opportunit ... more
Millennium Space Systems ALTAIR Pathfinder Satellite Surpasses 10,000 Hours in OrbitEl Segundo CA (SPX) Jul 27, 2018 Millennium Space Systems announced Tuesday that on May 17, its ALTAIR Pathfinder satellite surpassed a full year of successful on-orbit operations. The satellite now has more than 10,000 hours of fl ... more West Lafayette IN (SPX) Aug 01, 2018 Replacing traditional computer chip components with light-based counterparts will eventually make electronic devices faster due to the wide bandwidth of light. A new protective metamaterial "c ... more |
![]() Optical fibers that can feel the materials around them
BepiColombo to target mid-October launchParis (ESA) Jul 27, 2018 Europe's first mission to Mercury will target the early morning of 19 October for launch, Arianespace and ESA have announced. The joint ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will launch on an Ariane 5 ... more |
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Is Mars' Soil Too Dry to Sustain Life?Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 25, 2018 Life as we know it needs water to thrive. Even so, we see life persist in the driest environments on Earth. But how dry is too dry? At what point is an environment too extreme for even microorganism ... more
Mars Express Detects Liquid Water Hidden Under Planet's South PoleNoordwijk, Netherlands (ESA) Jul 26, 2018 Evidence for the Red Planet's watery past is prevalent across its surface in the form of vast dried-out river valley networks and gigantic outflow channels clearly imaged by orbiting spacecraft. Orb ... more
Opportunity Continues in a Deep Sleep Beneath Raging Dust StormPasadena CA (JPL) Jul 25, 2018 The dust storm on Mars is continuing as a Planet-encircling Dust Event (PEDE). The storm has sustained high atmospheric opacity conditions over the Opportunity site for several weeks. The last ... more
Mars Passes Closest to Earth Since 2003 on July 31stBoston MA (SPX) Jul 26, 2018 After a slow crawl across the predawn darkness earlier this year, Mars is finally moving into the evening sky - just as it comes its closest to Earth in 15 years. According to Sky and Telescope maga ... more
Space experts worry US won't make it to Mars by 2030sTampa (AFP) July 26, 2018 The United States has vowed to send the first humans to Mars by the 2030s, but space experts and lawmakers on Wednesday expressed concern that poor planning and lack of funds will delay those plans. ... more |
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Scientists looking for ways to grow crops on Red Planet Moscow (Sputnik) Jul 31, 2018
While humans prepare to land on Mars and eventually colonize it, the question about what people will eat on the Red Planet looms large.
Indeed, generating a stable supply of food poses a major challenge given the exorbitant cost of sending resources from Earth, the scientific journal Universe wrote.
This means that colonizers will need a high level of self-sufficiency and sustainable ... more |
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MIDAS cameras spot pair of lunar flashes caused by meteoroid impacts Washington (UPI) Jul 30, 2018
New images from the European Space Agency showcased a pair of recent lunar flashes.
Photographs of the flashes were captured using CCD cameras at a trio of observatories in Spain, which make up the MIDAS project. CCD stands for "charge coupled device."
Lunar flashes occur when space rocks collide with parts of the moon facing away from the sun. Because these parts of the moon are ... more |
High-Altitude Jovian Clouds Washington DC (SPX) Jul 30, 2018
his image captures a high-altitude cloud formation surrounded by swirling patterns in the atmosphere of Jupiter's North North Temperate Belt region.
The North North Temperate Belt is one of Jupiter's many colorful, swirling cloud bands. Scientists have wondered for decades how deep these bands extend. Gravity measurements collected by Juno during its close flybys of the planet have now pro ... more |
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NASA's TESS spacecraft starts science operations Washington DC (SPX) Jul 30, 2018
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has started its search for planets around nearby stars, officially beginning science operations on July 25, 2018.
TESS is expected to transmit its first series of science data back to Earth in August, and thereafter periodically every 13.5 days, once per orbit, as the spacecraft makes it closest approach to Earth. The TESS Science Team will begi ... more |
NASA Selects US Firms to Provide Commercial Suborbital Flight Services Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Aug 01, 2018
NASA's Flight Opportunities Program has selected four companies to integrate and fly technology payloads on commercial suborbital reusable platforms that carry payloads near the boundary of space.
The selection is part of NASA's continuing effort to foster a viable market for American commercial reusable suborbital platforms that allow testing of new space technologies within Earth's atmos ... more |
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Growing US unease with China's new deep space facility in Argentina Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 01, 2018 |
What Looks Like Ceres on Earth Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 30, 2018
With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is also far smaller than Earth (in both mass and diameter). With its frigid temperature and lack of atmosphere, we're pretty sure Ceres can't support life as w ... more |
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Raytheon contracted to develop laser for U.S. Army Washington (UPI) Jul 6, 2018
Raytheon has a received a $10 million contract to develop the US Army's High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstration program.
The program is part of the Army's Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 initiative designed to counter incoming aerial threats such as drones, cruise missiles, artillery rounds and rockets.
The system will mount a 100 kilowatt laser, making i ... more |
Japan to spend $4.2 bn over 30 years on missile defence system radar Tokyo (AFP) July 30, 2018
Japan said Monday it would spend some $4.2 billion over the next 30 years on installing and operating US radar systems to protect itself against North Korean missile threats.
The move, announced by Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera, is the latest step by Tokyo to upgrade its military. Japan says the North's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles pose a direct threat.
US firm Lockheed Mar ... more |
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Cassini data yields super sharp infrared images of Titan Washington (UPI) Jul 19, 2018
Cassini disappeared into Saturn's atmosphere late last year. But the spacecraft continues to yield impressive images.
This week, NASA shared a series of super sharp infrared images of Saturn's moon Titan, compiled using 13 years of data collected by the probe's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS instrument.
The moon's hazy atmosphere prevents clear observations of ... more |
Researchers use nanotechnology to improve the accuracy of measuring devices Moscow (SPX) Jul 30, 2018
Scientists from Higher school of economics and the Federal Scientific Research Centre 'Crystallography and Photonics' have synthesized multi-layered nanowires in order to study their magnetoresistance properties.
Improving this effect will allow scientists to increase the accuracy of indicators of various measuring instruments, such as compasses and radiation monitors. The results of the s ... more |
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GRAVITY Confirms Predictions of General Relativity Near Galactic Center Paris, France (SPX) Jul 27, 2018
Observations made with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have, for the first time, detected the effects of general relativity predicted by Einstein, in the movement of a star passing into the intense gravitational field of Sagittarius A*, a massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
These results were obtained by the GRAVITY consortium, led b ... more |
X-ray technology reveals never-before-seen matter around black hole Hiroshima, Japan (SPX) Jul 30, 2018
In an international collaboration between Japan and Sweden, scientists clarified how gravity affects the shape of matter near the black hole in binary system Cygnus X-1. Their findings, which were published in Nature Astronomy this month, may help scientists further understand the physics of strong gravity and the evolution of black holes and galaxies.
Near the center of the constellation ... more |
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US Army selects Lockheed Martin as integrated systems developer for autonomous convoy program Dallas TX (SPX) Jul 31, 2018
Lockheed Martin was selected by the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) as the Integrated Systems Developer for its Expedient Leader Follower (ExLF) program.
In this role, Lockheed Martin will lead a three-year effort to develop, integrate and test unmanned prototype systems for supporting leader/follower convoy activities within an asymmetric ... more |
An insect-inspired drone deforms upon impact Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 26, 2018
In recent years, robotics experts have taken a page from the traditional Japanese practice of origami and come up with light and flexible - and highly innovative - robots and drones. Two types of origami-inspired structures have emerged: rigid structures that have a certain weight-bearing capacity but that break if that capacity is exceeded, and flexible yet resilient structures that cannot carr ... more |
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