How did the Red Planet get all of its clouds? CU Boulder researchers may have discovered the secret: just add meteors. Astronomers have long observed clouds in Mars’ middle atmosphere, which begins about 18 miles (30 kilometers) above the surface, but have struggled to explain how they formed. Now, a new study, which will be published on…
MAVEN Selfie Marks Four Years in Orbit Around Mars
Today, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft celebrates four years in orbit studying the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet and how it interacts with the sun and the solar wind. To mark the occasion, the MAVEN team has released a selfie image of the spacecraft at Mars. “MAVEN has been a tremendous…
Laser-Based Sensing System Can Detect Methane Leaks From Miles Away
A new field instrument developed by a collaborative team of CU Boulder researchers can detect and quantify methane leaks as tiny as one-quarter of a human exhalation from nearly a mile away. The revamped and “ruggedized” laser technology–based on Nobel Prize-winning science developed at CU Boulder–turns a complex, room-sized collection of instruments into a sleek,…
Laser-Based Sensing System Can Detect Methane Leaks From Miles Away
A new field instrument developed by a collaborative team of CU Boulder researchers can detect and quantify methane leaks as tiny as one-quarter of a human exhalation from nearly a mile away. The revamped and “ruggedized” laser technology–based on Nobel Prize-winning science developed at CU Boulder–turns a complex, room-sized collection of instruments into a sleek,…
Consumer and Industrial Products Now a Dominant Urban Air Pollution Source
Chemical products that contain compounds refined from petroleum, like household cleaners, pesticides, paints and perfumes, now rival motor vehicle emissions as the top source of urban air pollution, according to a surprising NOAA-led study. People use a lot more fuel than they do petroleum-based compounds in chemical products–about 15 times more by weight, according to…
Research Team Detects An Acceleration In The 25-Year Satellite Sea Level Record
Global sea level rise is not cruising along at a steady 3 mm per year, it’s accelerating a little every year, like a driver merging onto a highway, according to a powerful new assessment led by CIRES Fellow Steve Nerem. He and his colleagues harnessed 25 years of satellite data to calculate that the rate…
NOAA Satellite Data Illuminate Oil Production Trends In Iraq And Syria
Between 2014 and 2016, it was taxation and extortion—not oil—that filled the coffers of the militant Islamic group ISIS, according to a new assessment that relied on NOAA satellite data. The publication also describes how anyone can use rapidly updated NOAA data to quickly assess the production status of oil wells around the world. Quy-Toan…
Lightbulb Moment Leads To Wearable Technology For Performance Dance
Fascinated by innovations in wearable technology and driven by a passion for dance, undergraduate Emily Daub developed integrated, responsive lighting systems for costumes that expand the creative possibilities for performance dance. With responsive wearables, Daub creates dance performances that are fun, expressive, active and entertaining experiences that tell relatable stories about personal relationships.
Engineers Transform Brewery Wastewater Into Energy Storage
University of Colorado Boulder engineers have developed an innovative bio-manufacturing process that uses a biological organism cultivated in brewery wastewater to create the carbon-based materials needed to make energy storage cells. This unique pairing of breweries and batteries could set up a win-win opportunity by reducing expensive wastewater treatment costs for beer makers while providing…
Milky Way Now Hidden from One-Third of Humanity
The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans, according to a new global atlas of light pollution produced by Italian and American scientists. Light pollution is one of…
‘Wasteful’ Galaxies Launch Heavy Elements into Surrounding Halos and Deep Space
Galaxies “waste” large amounts of heavy elements generated by star formation by ejecting them up to a million light years away into their surrounding halos and deep space, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The research, which was recently published online in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,…
Early Mars Bombardment Likely Enhanced Life-supporting Habitat
Comets and asteroids as large as West Virginia smacking into Mars some 4 billion years ago could have created a haven for life there not so long after the birth of the solar system. The ancient impacts some 4 billion years ago could have melted subsurface ice on a cold and barren Mars, producing regional…
Dust Counter Got Few ‘Hits’ on Pluto Flyby
A student-built University of Colorado Boulder instrument riding on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft found only a handful of dust grains, the building blocks of planets, when it whipped by Pluto at 31,000 miles per hour last July. Data downloaded and analyzed by the New Horizons team indicated the space environment around Pluto and its moons…
Robotic Materials Change with World Around Them
Prosthetics with a realistic sense of touch. Bridges that detect and repair their own damage. Vehicles with camouflaging capabilities. Advances in materials science, distributed algorithms and manufacturing processes are bringing all of these things closer to reality every day, says a review published today in the journal Science by Nikolaus Correll, assistant professor of computer…
CU-Boulder Hardware on NASA-Contracted Resupply Mission
A University of Colorado Boulder space center is providing hardware and technical support for scientific experiments aboard the first-ever NASA-contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station. BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA-funded center in CU-Boulder’s aerospace engineering sciences department, has provided an automated, suitcase-sized incubator carrying fluid-processing devices for use by Montana State University researchers…