Space

Arianespace is set to launch its heaviest payload ever on June 17, sending 36 Amazon Leo broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit aboard an Ariane 64 rocket equipped for the first time with upgraded P160C solid rocket boosters. The mission, designated VA269 and known as Leo Europe 03 (LE-03) by Amazon, lifts off from […]

Researchers have shown that the world’s most sensitive dark matter detectors can be repurposed to hunt for a previously undetectable class of neutrinos from the Sun: thermal solar neutrinos with energies in the kiloelectronvolt range. While no detection has been made yet, the work establishes a new experimental pathway to probe the deepest, most elusive […]

A new study proposes using directional geoneutrino detection to resolve one of Earth science’s longest-standing debates: whether the deep mantle contains chemically distinct, radiogenically enriched reservoirs. The research, led by Zhihao Xu and collaborators including geochemist William F. McDonough, was published on the arXiv preprint server on June 14. Geoneutrinos are elusive subatomic particles produced […]

Astronomers have confirmed that the dense star cluster Terzan 5 is not a globular cluster at all, but a surviving fragment of the primordial clumps that merged to form the Milky Way’s bulge billions of years ago. The finding, presented at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, […]

Scientists have used a sensor no larger than a few cubic centimeters, built around a magnetically levitated particle, to detect the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun on the Earth’s crust, demonstrating a new class of compact gravimeters that could transform geophysics, hazard monitoring, and planetary science. The technique, known as diamagnetic levitation, uses […]

The world followed NASA’s Artemis 2 moon mission in near real-time thanks to a high-tech laser link between the Orion spacecraft and Earth that beamed back high-definition streaming video and images from lunar distance for the first time. Transmitting data optically using infrared light, a technique known as “lasercom,” was at the heart of what […]

Russia has agreed to permanently seal off the PrK module on the International Space Station, bringing an end to a six-year dispute between NASA and Roscosmos over persistent air leaks that NASA considered a “highest risk” safety issue. The PrK module is a narrow transfer tunnel attached to the aft end of the Zvezda service […]

A Chinese rocket upper stage broke into approximately 100-150 trackable pieces of debris just minutes after deploying two communications satellites on June 9, with the resulting cloud orbiting in a heavily trafficked corridor shared by SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, the U.S. Space Force confirmed. The debris was generated on June 9 at 08:47 UTC, roughly 24 […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new effort to develop technologies that could restore critical satellite capabilities within hours or weeks after an attack, a dramatic shift from the current paradigm where reconstitution of degraded space assets can take months or years. DARPA issued a Request for Information (RFI), designated DARPA-SN-26-42, on […]

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of the most ambitious astronomical facilities ever constructed, is in the final stages of commissioning its main camera ahead of the start of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), according to a new paper by Pierre-Francois Leget of the Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont. The paper, presented […]