Science

LOGAN, Utah – In the future, small satellites are likely to operate in swarms thanks to advancements in autonomy, artificial intelligence, collaboration and networking, Steve Isakowitz, Aerospace Corp. president and CEO, said Aug. 5 during a keynote presentation at the Small Satellite Conference here. To demonstrate his point, Isakowitz began his keynote with a video

The magnificent step pyramid standing tall in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara is truly one of the wonders of the ancient world. Erected some 4,500 years ago, the tomb of the pharaoh Djoser is the earliest known example of Egypt’s colossal stone structures; a monument not just to the king but to the engineering

In 2004, scientists at the University of Manchester first isolated and investigated graphene, the supermaterial composed of single-layer carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. Since then, it has become a wonder, with properties that make it extremely useful in numerous applications. Among scientists, it is generally believed that about 1.9% of carbon in

July 21 was the hottest day ever registered globally, according to preliminary data published Tuesday by the EU’s climate monitor. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said the global average surface air temperature of 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday was the warmest in their record books, which go back to 1940. It

The Australian government this week announced it would spend A$18 million over four years on a new centre aimed at keeping safe the undersea cables that power the nation’s internet. The Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre is tasked with protecting the critical undersea telecommunications cables throughout the Indo-Pacific region from deliberate interference from malicious actors,

Updated 11:15 p.m. Eastern with Axiom Space comment. LOGAN, Utah — Two Indian astronauts will soon start training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, with one of them flying to the International Space Station on an upcoming private astronaut mission. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced Aug. 2 that two of the four members of

Ancient archaeological discoveries can be confusing, exciting, intriguing, educational – and occasionally just a little creepy, as a new excavation of a 2,500-year-old graveyard site in Norway has proved. Here’s the creepy part: the main cluster of graves, comprising 39 individual bodies, were all for children under the age of six – based on a

Every now and again, the night sky lights up with a spectacular explosion that blazes with the most energetic light our Universe can produce. Known as gamma-ray bursts, they can release in a few seconds what our Sun will emit over its lifetime. Now scientists have found a never-before-seen signal buried in the spectrum of

The punishing heat experienced around the Mediterranean in July would have been “virtually impossible” in a world without global warming, a group of climate scientists said Wednesday. A deadly heatwave brought temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) to southern Europe and North Africa, where such extreme summer spells are becoming more frequent. Scorching

LAS VEGAS — NASA is not reconsidering plans to select only one company to develop an Artemis lunar rover, despite a setback in another program procuring key elements of the lunar exploration effort as a service. NASA announced in April that it awarded feasibility study contracts to three companies — Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and

The face of an ancient Egyptian mummy set in a gaping rictus may be the result of a death so painful, her face may have become locked in a scream. Her name is unknown; but so striking is her grim facial expression that she is referred to as the Screaming Woman mummy. In spite of

The stars aren’t fixed and unchanging, unlike what many ancient people thought. Once in a while, a star appears where there wasn’t one before, and then it fades away in a matter of days or weeks. The earliest record of such a “guest star,” named so by ancient Chinese astronomers, is a star that suddenly

The warning signs are all there: record-breaking heat, failing health, vanishing ice sheets, and more unpredictable weather. And yet we’re still pumping increasing amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, threatening our very survival. A new study by an international team of experts highlights how global methane emissions have been rising rapidly since 2006, particularly

LAS VEGAS – Space domain awareness remains a priority for Japan’s Space Operations Group, Col. Yuka Nakazato, Japanese Embassy air and space attaché, said July 31 at the AIAA ASCEND conference here. Japan’s Space Operations Group is establishing a unit focused on space domain awareness under the command of a general. Japan’s first space domain

Humans have an incredible ability to guess a person’s name simply based on the appearance of their face. A new study has found it could be a case of self-fulfilling prophecy. When a photograph of an adult was shown to participants with four possible name choices, they choose the correct name at a rate well

Astronomers have recently spotted signs of an extended disk of dust and gas, whirling in orbit around a distant star. While this phenomenon is a normal stage in the development of a star and its planetary system, what makes this find so spectacular is that it’s the first one we’ve seen around a star in

Earth withered through a second-straight day of record-breaking temperatures on July 22, the EU’s climate monitor said Wednesday, as parts of the world suffer devastating heatwaves and wildfires. Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the warmest day

LAS VEGAS – Methane-emissions data from GHGSat will be shared for scientific research through NASA’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program. Montreal-based GHGSat announced July 31 that the company’s data “successfully completed” NASA’s “rigorous evaluation process.” “GHGSat is proud to contribute to NASA’s efforts to monitor and better understand greenhouse gas emissions worldwide,” Stéphane Germain, GHGSat

Two meteor showers – the Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids – are scheduled to peak around the same time Tuesday evening. And one is known for its spectacularly bright fireballs. The best time to see any meteor shower – including this double event – is between 2 am and 4 am local time, Nick

We have a problem with sucralose. Found in many zero-calorie foods and drinks, the artificial sweetener doesn’t get broken down by the body, and as a new study shows that means it’s potentially damaging the microorganisms at the very bottom of aquatic food webs. “We can’t break down sucralose, and a lot of microorganisms can’t

At the mere flick of a magnetic field, mice engineered with nanoparticle-activated ‘switches’ inside their brains were driven to feed, socialize, and act like clucky new mothers in an experiment designed to test an innovative research tool. While ‘mind control’ animal experiments are far from new, they have generally relied on cumbersome electrodes tethering the

This is a customer submitted press release. Submit your press release. Agile, space-qualified optical payloads enable customers to enter booming space economy quickly with low risk. Ontario, N.Y. — The commercialization of space is creating unprecedented opportunities for the space economy. Starris: Optimax Space Systems is entering the new space race to swiftly lift customer

Olympic gold is awarded to bodies of all shapes and sizes, all perfectly tuned to meet the high standards demanded of their field. Virtually every system is primed to push the physical limits of speed, precision, strength, and endurance. The question of what makes an elite performer’s brain different to ours has received no small

It’s the iris in the great eyeball of Jupiter, revolving to gaze balefully out upon the cosmos: the Great Red Spot, the single largest, longest-lived storm in the entire Solar System. Humanity has been observing it for centuries, a colossal anticyclone currently a little bit larger than Earth, with winds that howl around in an

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is an unpredictable shift in winds and currents over tropical Pacific waters that significantly affects climates far and wide across the planet. It now appears it might have a secret sibling. Dubbed the ‘new El Niño’, the Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber-4 Pattern emerges further south in the southwestern subtropical Pacific towards

WASHINGTON — SpaceX will move Dragon spacecraft splashdowns from off the coast of Florida to the West Coast starting in 2025, a move the company says is intended to reduce risks from reentering debris from the spacecraft’s trunk section. In a July 26 statement, SpaceX announced that it would shift the splashdown locations for Dragon

As a species, humans like to think that we are fully in control of our decisions and behavior. But just below the surface, forces beyond our conscious control influence how we think and behave: our genes. Since the 1950s, scientists have been studying the influences genes have on human health. This has led medical professionals,

When considering human settlements on the Moon, Mars and further afield, much attention is given to the travel times, food and radiation risk. We’ll undoubtedly face a harsh environment in deep space, and some thinkers have been pointing to genome editing as a way to ensure that humans can tolerate the severe conditions as they

Tree bark in the world’s forests absorbs the greenhouse gas methane, my colleagues and I have demonstrated for the first time on a global scale – a discovery that could have big implications for tackling climate change. As trees photosynthesise, their leaves take up carbon dioxide (CO₂) and lock it away as biomass in their

This is a customer submitted press release. Submit your press release. Clara Swan Denver, CO – SpaceNews is thrilled to announce the appointment of Clara Swan as our new Sales and Business Development Manager. Clara will manage advertising and sponsorship sales for clients, working closely with SpaceNews Director of Global Sales, Kamal Flucker, to drive