In late July 1997, William Earl Moldt left a nightclub and was never seen again. Until last month, that is. After 22 years on missing persons lists, his last resting place was finally spotted – from space. By random chance, somebody noticed the vehicle Moldt was driving the night he disappeared – a white 1994
The science of climate change is more than 150 years old and it is probably the most tested area of modern science. However the energy industry, political lobbyists and others have spent the last 30 years sowing doubt about the science where none really exists. The latest estimate is that the world’s five largest publicly-owned
A rather pricey diamond at the New York Stock Exchange turns into an unnerving void when coated with a forest of carbon nanotubes. R. Capanna, A. Berlato, and A. Pinato The night is dark and full of terrors. Now, thanks to two engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
When you strike a bell with a hammer, it rings for some time after, as the vibrating metal continues to resonate. And, as it turns out, when you strike a black hole with another black hole, something similar occurs – only instead of sound waves, the newly formed black hole sends gravitational waves rippling out
Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin A colored vase found in the Valley of the Golden Mummies, Bahariya Oasis, Giza, Egypt. De Agostini via Getty Images Last month, a few lucky individuals got to taste history. Seamus Blackley shared on Twitter that he had baked bread with a 4,500-year-old microbial combination of
PARIS — The European Union’s equivalent of a foreign ministry is starting a new effort to promote the need for sustainable space operations, but that effort will not initially include any new regulation of European satellite operators. Carine Claeys, special envoy for space and head of the Space Task Force for the European External Action
On August 30, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov spotted a comet of extrasolar origin passing through our Solar System. This is the second time in as many years that an interstellar object has been observed (the last being ‘Oumuamua 2.0 in 2017). Thanks to the Gemini Observatory, we now have pictures of this comet, making it
Almost a third of American adults don’t have the math skills necessary to make effective decisions about their health and finances. These 73 million people can count, sort and do simple arithmetic. But they likely cannot select the health plan with the lowest cost based on annual premiums and deductibles, or figure out that they
Colombian rice farmer Campo Elias Urrutia, at the trial site of the EcoProMIS project, in Casanare, Colombia. Andrew J Wight Dust and noise from a passing rice harvester swirl around Colombian rice farmer Campo Elias Urrutia as he tells of a coming rice doomsday – easing of trade restrictions from a US trade deal means
Barrett voiced strong support for the Trump administration’s proposal to establish a Space Force. WASHINGTON — Former U.S. ambassador Barbara Barrett, the president’s nominee to be the next secretary of the Air Force, said the United States has to prepare to defend its assets in space and deter adversaries by investing in advanced space technology,
The team was gathered in a conference room last week, about 35 in all, ready to celebrate India’s triumph: the country’s first lunar landing. Like many watching the livestream broadcast from the control center in Bengaluru half a world away, John Thornton, the chief executive of Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh company that is developing a moon
Ynés Mexía also discovered the a genus of flowering plants called Mexianthus, which are in the sunflower family. Google Sunday’s Google Doodle celebrates the adventurous life of the ultimate late bloomer: botanist Ynés Mexía, who started studying botany in her 50s, never finished college — and discovered two new genera and several new species of
New FlexGround Service Delivers High-Speed Broadband to Forces in Remote Areas For more than five decades, Intelsat General has been providing the satellite capacity and the services needed by the U.S. and allied governments to support troops operating in the world’s hot spots. Satellite technology on the ground and in space has improved greatly in
Nature. Some see it as beautiful and some as red “in tooth and claw“. Of course nature is dynamic, it changes between both the beautiful and the dangerous as in Blake’s famous words: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? With the
Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole (SMBH) with an unusually regular feeding schedule. The behemoth is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at the heart of the Seyfert 2 galaxy GSN 069. The AGN is about 250 million light years from Earth, and contains about 400,000 times the mass of the Sun. The team of
Matt Barnard, chief executive officer and co-founder of Plenty Inc., speaks at the SoftBank World 2019 event in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday 2019. Barnard said the company’s high-tech approach to growing crops indoors results in plants that yield more without pesticides, use a fraction of water of their counterparts in the field and taste better,
PARIS — A space insurance executive confirmed Sept. 11 that a spate of recent claims is increasing rates and leading some insurers to reconsider their place in the market. In a presentation at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week here, Dominique Rora, senior space underwriter at AXA XL, said the underlying problem was not the claims
It all started earlier this month. Veterinarians in Oslo, Norway were reportedly flummoxed by a rising number of sick dogs being brought to their practices. The pets appeared to be suffering from some sort of mysterious bowel disease, with similar signs of vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. What had started in the capital city soon spread
The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is usually relatively quiet. It’s not an active nucleus, spewing light and heat into the space around it; most of the time, the black hole’s activity is low key, with minimal fluctuations in its brightness. Most of the time. Recently, astronomers caught
After Asteroid 2006 QQ23 zipped by Earth last month and Asteroid 2010 CO1 flew past just a few hours ago, another asteroid is set to safely pass our planet this weekend. NASA has confirmed that the Asteroid 2000 QW7, will zip by Earth at 7:54pm EDT on September 14 (5:24am IST on September 15). The
ESO’s VISTA telescope reveals a remarkable image of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our nearest galactic neighbours. VISTA has been surveying this galaxy and its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud, as well as their surroundings, in unprecedented detail. This survey allows astronomers to observe a large number of stars, opening up new opportunities to
The $22 million for Tactically Responsive Space Launch was added to the Air Force’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation account. WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced the defense subcommittee’s spending proposal for fiscal year 2020 that provides $622.5 billion in base defense funding, $70.7 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations and $1.7 billion
You might think you already know black – even super-black Vantablack, previously the blackest material known to science – but researchers just came up with a material that takes black to a new level of blackness. The new, as-yet-unnamed ultra-black material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs), microscopic carbon strings that are a
Advances in astronomical observation over the past century have allowed scientists to construct a remarkably successful model of how the cosmos works. It makes sense – the better we can measure something, the more we learn. But when it comes to the question of how fast our Universe is expanding, some new cosmological measurements are
Neuroscientists think they have found a key area in our brains that helps us assess and respond to what we find beautiful, also known as aesthetic appeal. And that appeal could be more linked to our sense of self than you might expect. When something pleases us visually – whether it’s a fine piece of
Tight end for the New England Patriots Rob Gronkowski (C) runs with the ball past cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams Marcus Peters (L) during Super Bowl LIII between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in AFP/Getty Images Rob Gronkowski, who recently retired after nine seasons as a tight
PARIS – Kepler Communications is reviewing the architecture for its internet-of-things constellation in response to SpaceX’s plan to revise the architecture of its Starlink constellation.“There is definitely an impact purely from a conjunction basis,” said Kepler CEO Mina Mitry. If there are more satellites at more altitudes, spacecraft nearby “are more likely to encounter an interference
SpaceX just posted dramatic footage of its commercial space taxi Crew Dragon undergoing rigorous tests of its emergency abort system. The idea is that if something goes wrong with the rocket carrying the Crew Dragon to orbit, the module can engage its own thrusters to quickly escape the danger – and then coast down safely
3D Illustration of a heart shaped asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Getty Two asteroids, each the size of a skyscraper, are set to fly by Earth this weekend, sending sensational tabloid headline writers into overdrive, despite the lack of any real risk to our planet. The reality is that asteroids 2010 CO1 and
The Space Force cannot be insular, aloof, or detached from clear and present security challenges and joint needs in the terrestrial domains. Our armed forces stand on the brink of historic change – the standup of a United States Space Force. The inception of a new armed service will be followed by an extensive discussion
Prepare yourself for a shock of the record-breaking variety – scientists have identified two new electric eel species, and one of them can put out a zap that’s stronger than any other animal we know about. The supercharged species is Electrophorus voltai, and it can discharge 860 V of electricity in a single shock, some
A new discovery relating to a rogue star may have just given astronomers a clue towards one of the weirdest mysteries associated with black holes: Where are the middle-sized ones? We know that stellar-mass black holes exist at up to 100 times the mass of the Sun, and supermassive black holes exist that are over 100,000
It’s mission over for a robot called Fedor that Russia blasted to the International Space Station, the developers said Wednesday, admitting he could not replace astronauts on space walks. “He won’t fly there any more. There’s nothing more for him to do there, he’s completed his mission,” Yevgeny Dudorov, executive director of robot developers Androidnaya
Last week, behavioural scientist Magnus Söderlund posed a controversial question at a seminar in Sweden: Can you imagine eating human flesh? As global temperatures continue to rise, Söderlund said in a talk at the Gastro Summit in Stockholm, the consequences for agriculture could cause food to become more scarce, which might force humans to consider
Should the ‘habitable zone’ be thought about not just as a distance from a star, but also as the sizes of planets? This illustration shows HD 189733b, a huge gas giant that orbits very close to its host star. Research redefines lower limit for planet size habitability Does the “habitable zone” need a mini-makeover? Yesterday,
PARIS — Earth imaging startup Satellogic has signed an agreement with a Chinese company that will give it access to its fleet of satellites for imaging a Chinese province. The agreement with ABDAS, a Chinese data science company, gives that company exclusive access to Satellogic’s constellation of imaging satellites for imaging sites within China’s Henan
Komodo dragons – the biggest, fiercest, most impressive lizards on our planet – just got that much more amazing. A new discovery shows that under their scaly skin, these animals are completely covered in mail-like armour built out of tiny bones, from nose to tail-tip. Why would something as formidable as a Komodo dragon (Varanus
Hubble has captured a new image of Saturn that makes you wonder if it’s even real. The image is so crisp it makes it look like Saturn is just floating in space. Which it is. This image of the ringed-planet was captured when Saturn was at its closest to Earth, some 1.36 billion km away
Two years ago, one freezing December night on a California rooftop, a tiny light shone weakly with a little help from the freezing night air. It wasn’t a very bright glow. But it was enough to demonstrate the possibility of generating renewable power after the Sun goes down. Working with Stanford University engineers Wei Li and
(Reuters) – A newly discovered comet hurtling toward the orbit of Mars has scientists scurrying to confirm whether it came from outside the solar system, a likely prospect that would make it the second such interstellar object observed in our planetary neighborhood. The trajectory of the comet, first detected by Crimean astronomer Gennady Borisov, follows a
Quarterback Sam Darnold #14 of the New York Jets, played against the Buffalo Bills on September 8, 2019, but will now be out indefinitely. (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images) Getty Should you kiss the New York Jets’ season goodbye? After all, Jets starting quarterback Sam Darnold is now sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with what’s
PARIS — As operators of Earth observation satellites prepare to update their fleets, with an emphasis on both improved resolution and revisit time, they disagree on how much demand there is for existing and new data. Four companies that currently operate Earth observation satellites, from high-resolution optical spacecraft to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, discussed
Entsorga uses a ladybug in its logo. Entsorga Burning coal to generate energy pollutes the air. Burying trash in landfills doesn’t improve water quality, either. But what if you could turn trash into an alternative or supplement to coal? Entsorga says it has an answer, although testing is ongoing. Entsorga West Virginia is a first-of-its-kind
PARIS — Thales Alenia Space is shedding around 6% of its workforce while rolling out a new line of reprogrammable satellites it says will benefit from an Iridium Next-style production. Some 500 employees out of 8,000 total will be leaving the Franco-Italian satellite builder, many through transfers to other parts of its majority shareholder Thales
A fifty-year-old hypothesis predicting the existence of bodies dubbed Generic Objects of Dark Energy (GEODEs) is getting a second look in light of a proposed correction to assumptions we use to model the way our Universe expands. If this new version of a classic cosmological model is correct, some black holes could hide cores of pure
Astronomers may have spotted the second object ever to visit our Solar System from another star system. The object may even fly near Mars later this year, though it’s still far away. The scientists’ hunch is strong but not yet certain: Right now, the chances are much higher that the object, known as comet “C/2019
In the dim, red light of an alien sun, scientists have found the first evidence for water in the atmosphere of a rocky planet – offering a tantalizing new target in the search for life in the universe. The intriguing world, which goes by the impersonal designation K2-18b, lies 110 light-years away in the constellation
It’s not as if the world needed another symbol for the climate crisis, but now Sweden has one all to itself. After years of rising temperatures and back-to-back summer heatwaves, the southern peak of Kebnekaise, Sweden’s former tallest mountain, has melted into subservience. For decades, the glacier atop this iconic summit has been in retreat, and
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