UCI receives $580 million in research funding for fiscal 2021-22

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 25, 2022 — From monitoring sandy beaches to gauge the effects of sea-level rise to holding clinical trials for potentially lifesaving cancer treatments, scholars, scientists and physicians at the University of California, Irvine are blazing new paths to help change the world. And their impact keeps growing.

GW Experts Available to Discuss Russia Leaving the International Space Station

WASHINGTON (July 26, 2022) — Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, has announced Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024 to focus on building a Russian orbiting station. Experts from the George Washington University’s Space…

WVU scientist says NASA’s Webb Telescope will boost space research at University, Green Bank Observatory

The first photos from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have given researchers the deepest and clearest infrared look into space to date. West Virginia University researcher Maura McLaughlin, distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at the Eberly College of Arts…

Specific Environmental Exposures may Help Predict Increased Risk of Death from Cardiovascular Disease

A new study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai quantifies the cardiovascular risk posed by exposure to specific environmental factors, showing, for example, that air pollution heightens the risk of heart disease mortality by 17 percent.

NASA’s Webb to Uncover Riches of the Early Universe

Telescopes have spotted many distant galaxies – but none earlier than 400 million years after the big bang. What were galaxies that existed even earlier like? Two research teams using the James Webb Space Telescope will wield its state-of-the-art instruments to reveal an untold number of details about this early period in the universe for the first time – and revise what we know about some of the earliest chapters of galaxy evolution.

Nuclear rocket engine heat transfer research wins best student paper at NETS conference

A research paper about heat transfer inside the reactor of a conceptual liquid-fueled nuclear rocket engine by a University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) graduate student won best student paper at the American Nuclear Society’s recent Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS) conference

NASA-Cornell tool to give high-res view of atmospheric dust from space

Scientists on Earth will soon see our planet’s atmospheric dust sources in high-resolution, as a new state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer – developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Cornell University – aims to survey the land surface from 250 miles above us on the orbiting International Space Station.

NASA funds LLNL to demonstrate “Replicator” 3D printer to produce cartilage in space

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced April 15 it has awarded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and a private company with funding to develop LLNL’s revolutionary volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM) 3D printing technology to produce artificial cartilage tissue in space.

Alabama student satellite group shifts gears to ABEX mission to keep up with NASA

The Alabama Space Grant Consortium’s statewide, university student-built cube satellite project is shifting gears to ABEX, the Alabama Burst Energetics eXplorer, after its drive to be the first student-built Cubesat to leave low Earth orbit (LEO) was derailed when NASA dropped secondary payloads from the Artemis II flight.

Hubble Snapshot of ‘Molten Ring’ Galaxy Prompts New Research

In this image, a remote galaxy is greatly magnified and distorted by the effects of gravitationally warped space. After its public release, astronomers used the picture to measure the galaxy’s distance of 9.4 billion light-years. This places the galaxy at the peak epoch of star formation in cosmic evolution.

Sanford Burnham Prebys professor Karen Ocorr awarded $2 million from NASA to study flies in space

As part of their larger initiative to understand the effects of space conditions on different organisms, NASA has awarded $2 million to Sanford Burnham Prebys assistant professor Karen Ocorr. The grant will fund a three-year project to study the effects of low gravity on muscle and neuron function in fruit flies and nematode worms aboard the International Space Station.

Hubble Finds First Evidence of Water Vapor at Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede

Located ½-billion miles from the Sun, the water ice on Ganymede’s surface is frozen solid in frigid temperatures as low as minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes the ice as hard as rock. Still, a rain of charged particles from the Sun is enough to turn the ice into water vapor at high noon on Ganymede. This is the first time such evidence has been found, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope’s spectroscopic observations of aurora on Ganymede spanning two decades. The auroras are used to trace the presence of oxygen, which then is linked to the presence of water molecules sputtering off the surface. Ganymede has a deep ocean located an estimated 100 miles below the surface.

Space Race with China: expert talk & interview availability

A New Space Race? Rediscovering Star Wars and the new High Frontier Tuesday, July 13 at 4PM EDT. The Foreign Press Association is hosting a critical talk by space policy and business expert Professor Greg Autry on China’s advances in…

When the James Webb telescope launches, 25 years of UAH R&D involvement will soar

After a scheduled November launch, when NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) achieves orbit and unfurls the 18 gold-coated beryllium segments of its 6.5-meter primary mirror, over two decades of crucial UAH partnership in the project will also blossom.

FAU Lands $736,000 from NASA to Study the Coastal Carbon Budget from Space

If successful, this research in the Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxia region off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana may demonstrate not just the ability, but also the utility, of remote sensing as an observational technique for characterizing potentially critical but often neglected carbon cycle processes related to marine sediments. Researchers will use satellite images, hydrodynamic modeling and field work in seeking a better understanding of the ocean’s role in the Earth system.

Climate change is driving plant die-offs in Southern California, UCI study finds

Irvine, Calif., June 21, 2021 – A shift is happening in Southern California, and this time it has nothing to do with earthquakes. According to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, climate change is altering the number of plants populating the region’s deserts and mountains. Using data from the Landsat satellite mission and focusing on an area of nearly 5,000 square miles surrounding Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the research team found that between 1984 and 2017, vegetation cover in desert ecosystems decreased overall by about 35 percent, with mountains seeing a 13 percent vegetation decline.

Urban heat islands affect tree canopy temperatures and health, UAH study says

New research recently published in Scientific Reports on tree canopy temperatures in New York City by a University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) doctoral student offers new insights for urban forestry management.

36 Dwarf Galaxies Had Simultaneous “Baby Boom” of New Stars

Three dozen dwarf galaxies far from each other had a simultaneous “baby boom” of new stars, an unexpected discovery that challenges current theories on how galaxies grow and may enhance our understanding of the universe. Galaxies more than 1 million light-years apart should have completely independent lives in terms of when they give birth to new stars. But galaxies separated by up to 13 million light-years slowed down and then simultaneously accelerated their birth rate of stars, according to a Rutgers-led study published in the Astrophysical Journal.