El Observatorio Rubin impulsará una nueva era en misiones espaciales sin salir de la tierra

El Observatorio Vera C. Rubin ayudará a los científicos a identificar objetivos intrigantes para dar prioridad a futuras misiones espaciales, mediante la detección de millones de nuevos objetos en el Sistema Solar y revelar, con el mayor detalle jamás visto, el contexto más amplio en el que existen.

Rubin Observatory will Inspire a New Era in Space Missions without Ever Leaving the Ground

Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help scientists identify intriguing targets to prioritize for future space missions by detecting millions of new Solar System objects, and by revealing — in more detail than we’ve ever seen — the broader context in which these objects exist.

UAH researchers closing in on helping to solve 60-year-old solar mystery

Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, have supported a ground-breaking measurement that is helping solve a 60-year-old cosmic mystery that involves the question of why the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, is so much hotter than the surface of the Sun itself.

UAH to feature AI, cybersecurity, directed energy, aerial systems and more at 2023 Space & Missile Defense Symposium

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, will highlight its extensive capabilities in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, directed energy, information systems, rotorcraft systems, supply chain management and hypersonics during the Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala.

When the First Stars Turned On: The Origins of the Universe

All stories start somewhere – even the incomprehensibly vast expanse above us has a beginning. Scientists have long studied the cosmos, searching for answers to the “how’s” and “why’s” of life, and that effort continues to this day.  From concepts such as ‘Cosmic Dawn’ and ‘redshift,’ UNLV astronomer and computer scientist Paul La Plante focuses on topics that improve our understanding of where it all began.

UAH doctoral candidate designs rotating detonation engine aimed to boost lunar and Mars missions

Michaela Hemming, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), is using a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) fellowship to make advances in propulsion under the guidance of NASA engineers.Hemming has designed a small-scale rotating detonation engine (RDE) manufactured by NASA as part of a joint research effort.

UAH team Charger Rocket Works competes in 2023 NASA Student Launch

A team consisting of mechanical and aerospace engineering majors at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) competed in the 2023 NASA Student Launch, hosted by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Supported by the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and U.S. aerospace industry, the event is a NASA-conducted engineering design challenge that involves the design, documentation, fabrication and testing of a rocket and payload in support of a particular NASA mission.

UAH research programs achieve record high $169.5M in R&D funding for FY22

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) notched a record $169.5 million in research and development expenditures for fiscal year (FY) 2022, a 13% increase over FY21. This announcement accompanies the National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey findings which cover FY21 and mark the 10th year in a row UAH has had five or more research programs ranked in the top 25 nationally for federal research funding.

UAH team takes first in 2023 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

A team from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) placed first in the 2023 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) this year. The competition, held April 20-22 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) Aviation Challenge area, tasks college and high school teams from around the nation and the world to design, develop, build and test human-powered rovers capable of negotiating difficult terrain, as well as a task tool for completion of various mission tasks.

In support of coming Artemis missions to the moon and beyond, HERC encourages research and development of new technology for future mission planning and crewed space missions to other worlds. The UAH rover is nicknamed ‘HERCules,’ and was guided by a two-person crew, competing with 49 teams from 20 states and eight countries.

Inaugural Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award Goes to JWST Contributors

The AAAS’s inaugural Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award honors recognizes Maj. Gen. Charles Frank Bolden Jr., USMC (Ret), a former administrator of NASA; John Mather, senior project scientist of the JWST since 1995; and Bill Ochs, JWST project manager from 2011 through the telescope’s launch. The award selection committee seeks to acknowledge not only the winners’ individual contributions, but also the teams they inspired, whose collective work has given us all a completely different view of the universe.

50 years after NASA’s Apollo mission, moon rocks still have secrets to reveal

NASA scientists are using neutrons at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study moon rocks collected from the Apollo space missions. The samples are made of dust and rock fragments that combined and struck the moon’s surface possibly billions of years ago. As plans to travel to Mars progress, insights into the rocks could reveal more about the formation of the solar system and where water might be found on the moon.

Department of Energy and NASA Join Forces on Innovative Lunar Experiment

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working together to develop a science instrument that will survive the harsh and unforgiving environment of the nighttime lunar surface on the far side of the Moon to attempt first-of-its-kind measurements of the so-called Dark Ages of the Universe.

Hubble Captures Movie of DART Asteroid Impact Debris

A time-lapse movie from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the impact of asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA’s DART spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022. The movie shows three overlapping stages of the impact aftermath: the formation of an ejecta cone; the spiral swirl of debris caught up along the asteroid’s orbit about its companion asteroid; and the tail swept behind the asteroid by the pressure of sunlight. Later on, Hubble records the tail splitting in two.

Newly discovered form of salty ice could exist on surface of extraterrestrial moons

Scientists suspect that the red streaks crossing the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa is a frozen mixture of water and salts, but its chemical signature matches no known substance on Earth. Now researchers have discovered a new type of solid crystal that forms when water and table salt combine in cold, pressurized conditions. Researchers believe the new substance created in a lab on Earth could form at the surface and bottom of these worlds’ deep oceans.

HUBBLE FINDS THAT GHOST LIGHT AMONG GALAXIES STRETCHES FAR BACK IN TIME

These are Hubble Space Telescope images of two massive clusters of galaxies. The artificially added blue color is translated from Hubble data that captured a phenomenon called intracluster light. This extremely faint glow traces a smooth distribution of light from wandering stars scattered across the cluster. Billions of years ago, the stars were shed from their parent galaxies and now drift through intergalactic space alone.

Live From Space: USU Alumnus Astronaut Frank Rubio Takes Questions, Talks with Students

Uniformed Services University (USU) alumnus Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Frank Rubio, a NASA astronaut, will answer a series of thought-provoking questions from students and military personnel live from the International Space Station as part of a NASA Downlink on Nov. 21.

NASA’s Artemis launch gets America back in ‘Space Race’ shape. UNLV professor and former NASA scientist Jason Steffen can talk about the significance of returning to the moon.

NASA’s Artemis launch is attempting to return America to ‘Space Race’ form, paving the way for humans on the moon for the first time since the 1970s. UNLV professor Jason Steffen — a former NASA scientist who worked on the…

UCI-led astronomers capitalize on early access to James Webb Space Telescope data

First in line to receive data transmissions from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions is using the unprecedentedly clear observations to reveal the secret inner workings of galaxies. In a paper published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers describe their examination of the nearby galaxy NGC 7469 with the JWST’s ultrasensitive mid-infrared detection instruments.

Polarized X-rays reveal shape, orientation of extremely hot matter around black hole

Researchers’ recent observations of a stellar-mass black hole called Cygnus X-1 reveal new details about the configuration of extremely hot matter in the region immediately surrounding the black hole. Matter is heated to millions of degrees as it is pulled toward a black hole. This hot matter glows in X-rays. Researchers are using measurements of the polarization of these X-rays to test and refine models that describe how black holes swallow matter, becoming some of the most luminous sources of light — including X-rays — in the universe.

Starshade Competition Challenges Students to Block Starlight for Observing Exoplanets

The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets proposes pairing the newest and largest ground-based telescopes with a starshade orbiting Earth to obstruct the light from a host star to identify and characterize an exoplanet. AIP, with NASA and SPS, is organizing a competition for undergraduate students in the physical sciences to design such a starshade.

Hubble Detects Protective Shield Defending a Pair of Dwarf Galaxies

Researchers have used Hubble and FUSE observations of ultraviolet light from quasars to detect and map the Magellanic Corona, a diffuse halo of hot, supercharged gas surrounding the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. Shown in purple, the corona stretches more than 100,000 light-years from the main mass of stars, gas, and dust that make up the Magellanic Clouds, intermingling with the hotter and more extensive Milky Way Corona, shown in blue. The corona is thought to act as a buffer protecting the dwarf galaxies’ vital star-forming gas from the gravitational pull of the much larger Milky Way.

FAU Lands $478,699 NASA Grant to Inspire Local High School Students in STEM

FAU was one of only eight institutions in the nation to be awarded NASA’s Minority University Research and Education (MUREP) award for the MUREP Aerospace Academy (MAA). Through cooperative agreement awards, MAA funding affords minority-serving institutions the opportunity to develop exciting new avenues to inspire local high school students in the STEM (science-technology-engineering-mathematics) fields.

ESA Solar Orbiter confirms solar switchback origin theory by UAH’s Dr. Gary Zank

For the first time a solar switchback has been directly observed that confirms 2020 models by astrophysicist Dr. Gary Zank at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) that theorized how these surprising structures in the solar wind originate.

Seeds in space: plant research on Artemis I mission

How will we grow food in space? That’s one question Michigan State University’s Federica Brandizzi has been particularly interested in solving.

Brandizzi, an MSU Foundation Professor in the College of Natural Science and the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, will be sending seeds on the Artemis I mission to better understand how to grow food during space travel.