A pair of NASA astronauts, Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer, are preparing to complete the 200th spacewalk in support of the International Space Station. The spacewalk will be broadcast on NASA Television and streamed live online. During their time outside the station, Whitson and Fischer will replace an avionics box situated on the…
See the First Images from Cassini’s Dive Between Saturn and its Rings
Cassini is back in contact with Earth, having executed its first dive through a 1,500-mile-wide gap separating Saturn and its rings. The space probe emerged from the dark side of Saturn early Thursday morning. The Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif., fielded Cassini’s signal at approximately 3:00 a.m. EDT. At 3:01 a.m., Cassini began…
New 2D Materials Conduct Electricity at Nearly the Speed of Light
Researchers in China and the United States have developed a new class of 2D quantum materials capable of conducting electricity at nearly the speed of light. The materials could be used to build the next generation of quantum computers. The new materials feature data-carrying Dirac or Majorana fermions, particles without a charge and mass. The…
Researchers 3D-Print Glass Using New Method
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in Germany, have developed a method for 3D-printing with glass. The 3D printer is supplied with a novel mixture of high-purity quartz glass nanoparticles and a small amount of liquid polymer, which works as a binding agent. Scientists use stereolithography to cure the printed product with light, before…
Earth Makes Appearance Between Saturn’s Rings in New Cassini Image
Cassini’s days are numbered, but the probe is making the most if its waning mission. In a new photo, the craft offers a unique view of Earth — a view from between Saturn’s icy rings. Earth appears only as a speck of light in the dark space marking the gap between Saturn’s rings. When magnified, Earth’s…
Cygnus Resupply Mission to Space Station Lifts Off
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft safely blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday morning. The cargo ship was launched into space by Atlas V rocket. The launch occurred on time at 11:11 a.m. The rocket and spacecraft hit all the expected milestones during the flight’s initial stages. At 11:33 a.m., NASA confirmed Cygnus had…
Hubble Catches Starbursts in Virgo
The galaxy NGC 4536 is churning out new stars at a prodigious rate, as evidenced by new images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The images, shared online Friday, showcase what astronomers refer to as a starburst galaxy — a galaxy turning gas into newborn stars faster than it can replenish its gas supply. NGC…
NASA: Saturn’s Moon Boasts All the Ingredients for Life
All of the ingredients necessary for life are available Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Scientists were already certain Enceladus hosts liquid water. Now, NASA’s Cassini probe suggests the icy moon also features the right combination of chemicals — including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen — as well as a fuel source. Most importantly, Cassini detected the presence…
New Map Reveals Earth’s Magnetic Field in High Resolution
An international team of researchers have created a high-resolution map of Earth’s lithospheric magnetic field. Scientists created the map using a wealth of new data collected by the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites. “Magnetic fields have been measured in space by satellites for the last 50 years, but it is the measurement of magnetic ‘gradients’…
Earth-Sized Exoplanets with Two Suns Could Be Habitable
In “Star Wars,” the science-fiction planet Tatooine, birthplace of Luke Skywalker, is a dry, desert-like world illuminated by two suns. In the real universe, astronomers have only discovered gas giants orbiting binary star systems. But new research suggests an Earth-like planet orbiting a pair of stars could be habitable. Researchers built a model based on…
Citizen Scientist Photographs Space Station Space Debris from Earth
Marco Langbroek is a satellite tracker. But occasionally, his photographs spot chunks of space debris, too. This week, Langbroek’s camera spotted an especially large piece of space debris — a massive thermal shield. The shield was mishandled by NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson during a space station spacewalk mission last week. Kimbrough and Whitson successfully…
NASA’s Cassini Probe to Begin ‘Grand Finale’
Cassini is nearing its final days — and final orbits. On Wednesday, April 26, the probe will begin its “Grand Finale,” as it makes a succession of dives through the 1,500-mile-wide gap between Saturn’s atmosphere and its rings. “No spacecraft has ever gone through the unique region that we’ll attempt to boldly cross 22 times,”…
Researchers Find a Way to Scale Production of Printable Eectronics
Scientists have developed a new way to produce printable electronics. Researchers combined 3D and ink-jet printing to create an immensely scalable production method. The new memory device uses resistive memory. It’s called ReRAM. “In any kind of memory, the basic memory unit must be switchable between two states that represent one bit, or ‘0’ or…
Graphene Sieve Makes Seawater Potable
Scientists have finally developed a graphene-oxide membrane capable of pulling salt molecules from seawater. The breakthrough could bring much-needed access to potable water for much of the developing world. Researchers have previously used graphene-oxide membranes to separate oil and water, but until now, scientists have struggled to make membranes with holes small enough to capture…
Scientists Recreate Space Particle Collisions Inside Large Hadron Collider
Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Italy are aiding the study of dark matter. Last week, researchers smashed protons against helium nuclei inside LHC’s chamber. Typically, LHC hosts proton-on-proton collisions. The latest collisions are meant to replicate the interactions between cosmic-ray particles and interstellar ‘dust’ particles. Cosmic-ray particles are high-energy particles originating from outside the…
Titan is Covered by Electrically Charged Sand Grains, Experiments Suggest
New research suggests the sand grains on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, behave similar to the packing peanuts used in shipping boxes. Lab experiments suggest the granules become electrically charged and clump together, resisting motion as they attach themselves to other hydrocarbons. The sand grains become charged as they’re excited by strong winds and hop along…
NASA Probes Yield Insights into Van Allen Radiation Belts
In the wake of a recent electromagnetic storm, NASA’s Van Allen Probes identified unique chemical reactions inside Earth’s magnetic field. The findings offered new insights into how particles flow through near-Earth space. The Van Allen radiation belts are a pair of giant rings populated by high energy charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field. The…
Scientists Aim to Create Self-Propelling Liquid, a New Kind of Matter
Researchers at Brandeis University in Massachusetts are inching close to the creation of a new kind of matter — a self-propelling liquid. Scientists at Brandeis’ Materials Research Science and Engineering Center are trying to develop a new class of materials and machines powered by unique biomechanical properties. They detailed their latest breakthrough — the discovery…
New Record-Breaking Brown Dwarf is ‘Purest’ and Most Massive
A record breaking brown dwarf, newly discovered by an international team of astronomers, is the most massive and ‘purest’ yet measured. SDSS J0104+1535 is located 750 light years away along the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy, a region known as the halo. The brown dwarf and its stellar neighbors are the oldest in the…
Scientists Find Out Where Laser Energy Goes When a Beam is Fired into Plasma
Researchers in Scotland have figured out what happens to laser energy when a beam is fired into plasma. Plasma is the most abundant form of matter in the universe. When it is fully ionized, and the positive and negative charged particles separate, plasma can host powerful electronic and magnetic fields. Researchers can create plasma particle…
Even Small Stars Can Sap the Planet-Forming Potential of Their Neighbors
New research shows small, fledgling stars can thwart nearby planet formation, too. Scientists knew the emissions of large stars can burn-off and evaporate the protoplanetary disk of stellar neighbors. But astronomers assumed the phenomenon was only powered by stars of considerable size. However, astronomers at Imperial College London have discovered a protoplanetary disk being burned…
Scientist Invents Wine Bottle That Doesn’t Drip
Anyone who has poured a glass of wine from a bottle has experienced the vexing drip that follows. The annoyance inspired biophysicist Daniel Perlman to seek out a solution. For three years, Perlman studied how wine flows across the rim of a wine bottle opening. He found he could thwart runaway wine by carving a…
Scientists Measure Earth’s Rotational Forces with Underground Laser Gyroscope
Scientists are preparing to measure the inertial rotation of Earth using an underground laser-based gyroscope. The goal is to reveal fluctuations in Earth’s rate of rotation and confirm a component of the theory of relativity known as the Lense-Thirring effect. “This effect is detectable as a small difference between Earth’s rotation rate value measured by…
Blue Origin Shares Video of New Glenn Rocket
Jeff Bezos introduced the latest concept from his company Blue Origin at the Satellite 2017 conference, the New Glenn rocket, which features a reusable first stage. Blue Origin released a video detailing the rocket’s specs. The rocket doesn’t exist yet, but it already has a customer. Satellite provider Eutelsat will be the rocket’s first client. “We…
Czech Scientists Build Non-Metal Magnet Out of Carbon
Scientists in the Czech Republic created magnetized carbon by treating graphene layers with non-metallic elements. Their invention, detailed in the journal Nature Communications, is the first non-metal magnet to maintain its magnetic properties at room temperature. Researchers say the discovery has a wide array of potential applications in the fields of biomedicine and electronics. “For several…