Today, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, and the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced an investment of $3.34 million in research to understand the health impacts of extended periods of inactivity and the effectiveness of preventative measures to mitigate the impact of inactivity on our health. This investment will support eight teams of researchers whose data collection will begin in spring 2021.
Tag: Space
Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss James Webb Space Telescope Science
New Brunswick, N.J. (Feb. 22, 2021) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor Kristen McQuinn is available for interviews on the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, its potential scientific impact and the leap forward it will provide in our understanding of the…
Experts Advisory: Perseverance on Target for Mars Landing
ALBANY, N.Y. (Feb. 17, 2021) – After having traveled nearly 292.5 million miles, NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft is just about set to touch down on Mars. The landing, scheduled for about 3 p.m. on Thursday, is the culmination of a seven-month…
Perseverance’s zoom cameras to take historic focus on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has been on a journey to Mars since its launch in July 2020 and is set to land on the red planet on Feb. 18. The rover will look for evidence of ancient life and collect soil…
Astronomers estimate Titan’s largest sea is 1,000-feet deep
Far below the gaseous atmospheric shroud on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, lies Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane. Cornell University astronomers have estimated that sea to be at least 1,000-feet deep near its center – enough room for a potential robotic submarine to explore.
MTU students win NASA’s BIG Idea Challenge
MTU students took home top honors — the Artemis Award — in NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. Eight university teams competed in the BIG Idea Challenge for 2020, called the Lunar PSR Challenge. The goal? Demonstrating different technologies and designs to study and explore the moon’s permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), which NASA officials note are a formidable challenge for space exploration.
Science for Space…and Space for Science
The Department of Energy is finding new ways to partner with NASA. Together, we are using research to enable space travel as well as conduct research that is only possible in space.
Expert: What is the Great Conjunction?
Contact: Kim Ward, University Communications: (517) 432-0117, [email protected], Zach Richardson, University Communications: (517) 281-5786, [email protected].
Dec. 16, 2020
Ask the Expert: The Great Conjunction
EAST LANSING, Mich. – As the world continues to turn during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are settling in for a holiday season unlike any other in recent memory. One that, on its face, seems to lack the usual magic of holidays in the past. That would be the case, if not for the once-in-a-lifetime Great Conjunction that will occur on Dec. 21. A Great Conjunction that many are calling the “Christmas Star.” Shannon Schmoll, director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, offers her insight on the astronomical event that will be sure to brighten the holidays.
What is a conjunction? Or what qualifies something as a conjunction?
A conjunction at its most basic is when two objects, such as planets, pass each other in the sky. The more specific answer, h
Device Mimics Life’s First Steps in Outer Space
A device developed by scientists at the CY Cergy Paris University and Paris Observatory promises insight into how the building blocks of life form in outer space. In Review of Scientific Instruments, the scientists detail how VENUS — an acronym of the French phrase “Vers de Nouvelles Syntheses,” which means “toward new syntheses” — mimics how molecules come together in the freezing darkness of interstellar space.
Ground broken in Chile for Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope
After more than a decade of design work and planning, groundbreaking for the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) has begun in earnest.
Space weather discovery puts ‘habitable planets’ at risk
A discovery that links stellar flares with radio-burst signatures will make it easier for astronomers to detect space weather around nearby stars outside the Solar System.
Fruit flies reveal new insights into space travel’s effect on the heart
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have shown that fruit flies that spent several weeks on the International Space Station (ISS)—about half of their lives—experienced profound structural and biochemical changes to their hearts.
Research finds new link between cell damage in astronauts and geriatric-type health problems observed during space missions
Damage caused to human cells during spaceflight appears to be the underlying cause of many health issues observed in astronauts, it has been discovered by researchers from the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) and School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast.
Working in partnership with an international team, their findings have been published today (25 November) in Cell.
Cornell-designed Arecibo telescope ‘an inestimable loss’
In the wake of two recent support-cable failures, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will decommission and dismantle the giant dish at Arecibo Observatory – the world-class radio telescope in Puerto Rico that was conceived by Cornell University faculty, built with federal funding and then managed by Cornell for its first five decades.
Famed Arecibo Observatory faces collapse, NSF to decommission telescope
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is famed for its key role in discovering the first planets outside our solar system, an ability to identify asteroids en route to Earth and even serving as the backdrop for a climactic action…
New Los Alamos National Laboratory spin-off aims to put nuclear reactors in space
A new agreement hopes to speed along a nuclear reactor technology that could be used to fuel deep-space exploration and possibly power human habitats on the Moon or Mars. Los Alamos National Laboratory has signed an agreement to license the “Kilopower” space reactor technology to Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes), also based in Los Alamos, NM.
Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss Habitats, Living on Moon’s Surface
New Brunswick, N.J. (Oct. 27, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor Haym Benaroya is available for interviews on placing habitats for long-term living on the moon’s surface in light of new evidence of water on Earth’s satellite. Benaroya, a Distinguished Professor in the…
Geologists simulate soil conditions to help grow plants on Mars
Humankind’s next giant step may be onto Mars. But before those missions can begin, scientists need to make scores of breakthrough advances, including learning how to grow crops on the red planet.
ALMA Shows Volcanic Impact on Io’s Atmosphere
New radio images from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) show for the first time the direct effect of volcanic activity on the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon Io.
Smile, wave: Some exoplanets may be able to see us, too
Three decades after Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that Voyager 1 snap Earth’s picture from billions of miles away – resulting in the iconic Pale Blue Dot photograph – two astronomers now offer another unique cosmic perspective: Some exoplanets – planets from beyond our own solar system – have a direct line of sight to observe Earth’s biological qualities from far, far away.
Blue Origin test launch marks step towards ‘sustainable space economy’
Aerospace company Blue Origin is expected to hold an uncrewed test flight of its reusable New Shepard spacecraft on Thursday. New Shepherd — designed to one day transport people and payloads to space and back — last launched in a…
Astrophysics students lead upgrades to Green Bank Telescope
A team of WVU astrophysics students helped create a new radio camera for the Green Bank Telescope, the first of its kind in the U.S.
Making space weather forecasts faster and better
To improve the ability to forecast space weather, a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including Professor Boris Kramer at the University of California San Diego, received $3.1 million from the National Science Foundation. The researchers, led by Professor Richard Linares at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will also work on speeding up the forecasting abilities that are currently available.
What it takes to shoot a laser on Mars
For the better part of a decade, an extraordinary tool aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover has been investigating the chemical building blocks of life and making exciting discoveries about Mars’ habitability.
Breakthrough telescope in Chile renamed for benefactor Cornell alum
The powerful new telescope being built for an exceptional high-elevation site in Chile by a consortium of U.S., German and Canadian academic institutions, led by Cornell University, has a new name: the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST).
Can life survive a star’s death? Webb telescope can reveal the answer
When stars like our sun die, all that remains is an exposed core – a white dwarf. A planet orbiting a white dwarf presents a promising opportunity to determine if life can survive the death of its star, according to Cornell University researchers.
Ancient ocean, meteorites could have seeded life in Venusian clouds
An international team of researchers has discovered the presence of the chemical compound phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus — a discovery that could indicate some form of life on the hot planet. They describe their findings in the journal…
What could desert rocks tell us about life on Mars?
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., September 3, 2020—The dark, hard coating found on rocks and cliff faces in the desert Southwest could tell us something about life on Mars, explains a new episode of the Mars Technica podcast. This desert varnish, which…
Life after landing on Mars
When NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars in February after its seven-month-long journey, the mission will only just be beginning.
Galaxy Simulations Could Help Reveal Origins of Milky Way
Rutgers astronomers have produced the most advanced galaxy simulations of their kind, which could help reveal the origins of the Milky Way and dozens of small neighboring dwarf galaxies. Their research also could aid the decades-old search for dark matter, which fills an estimated 27 percent of the universe. And the computer simulations of “ultra-faint” dwarf galaxies could help shed light on how the first stars formed in the universe.
Searching Mars for signatures of life
Today, Mars is an arid, dusty, and frigid landscape with an average temperature of minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit—inhospitable to life as we know it. But it wasn’t always that way.
The Cold Case of Carbon Monoxide
Fifty years ago, astronomers discovered carbon monoxide in space. It allowed us to see dark regions of the universe, and helped us understand it more clearly.
Cornell Arts and Sciences dean awarded Carl Sagan Medal
Ray Jayawardhana, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences and professor of astronomy at Cornell University, has been awarded the 2020 Carl Sagan Medal by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society for excellence in public communication in planetary science.
Podcast explains how plutonium powers Mars exploration
To have dependable power to explore the the frigid surface of Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is equipped with a type of power system called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)—which is what the latest episode of Mars Technica will tell listeners all about.
Take a guided ‘tour’ of SuperCam on the new Mars rover
NASA’s new Perseverance rover, which just started its seven-month journey to Mars, carries on board what is likely the most versatile instrument ever created to understand the planet’s past habitability: SuperCam—and a new podcast will tell listeners all about it.
Was there life on Mars? New podcast explores instruments aboard Mars rover
Could Jezero Crater hold the keys to unlocking an ancient and hidden past when life might have existed on the Martian surface?
Milky Way neutron star pair illuminate cosmic cataclysms
A pair of binary neutron stars in the Milky Way galaxy – discovered eight years ago by a pulsar survey developed at Cornell University – is giving researchers a front-row seat at what they believe will be the stars’ eventual cataclysmic merger.
Looking Up to the Stars Can Reveal What’s Deep Below
Using a new technique originally designed to explore the cosmos, scientists have unveiled structures deep inside the Earth, paving the way towards a new map revealing what Earth’s interior looks like.
UNH Space Science Center Offers Out of This World Experience
Scientists from the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center will use a $4.6 million grant from NASA to create the Student Collaboration Project that will offer a diverse group of college students from across the country hands-on research experience designing and building small satellites that will be launched into outer space and collect data for one of NASA’s space missions.
Upcoming Trimble Lecture with Elizabeth Kessler Highlights the Impacts of Hubble Imagery on May 7
The American Institute of Physics, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is delighted to host a virtual presentation by Stanford University’s Elizabeth Kessler in an upcoming Lyne Starling Trimble Science Heritage Public Lecture. The lecture series is presented by AIP and features science historians and writers who study the role of science and technology in modern society and culture. “Hubble Space Telescope Images and the Astronomical Sublime” will be hosted virtually, Thursday, May 7 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern (U.S.).
Astronomers could spot life signs orbiting long-dead stars
To help future scientists make sense of what their telescopes are showing them, Cornell University astronomers have developed a spectral field guide for rocky worlds orbiting white dwarf stars.
Upcoming Trimble Lecture Highlights Hubble’s 30th with Jennifer Wiseman of NASA on April 29
The American Institute of Physics is delighted to host a virtual lecture by Hubble Space Telescope senior project scientist Jennifer Wiseman in an upcoming Lyne Starling Trimble Science Heritage public lecture to celebrate Hubble’s 30th anniversary. The lecture series is hosted by AIP and highlights experts who study the role of science and technology throughout human history and modern society. “The Hubble Space Telescope: 30 Years of Discovery and Awe” will be hosted virtually, April 29 at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
ALMA Reveals Unusual Composition of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov
A galactic visitor entered our solar system last year – interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. When astronomers pointed the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) toward the comet on 15 and 16 December 2019, for the first time they directly observed the chemicals stored inside an object from a planetary system other than our own. This research is published online on 20 April 2020 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
New research helps explain why the solar wind is hotter than expected
When the sun expels plasma, the solar wind cools as it expands through space — but not as much as the laws of physics would predict. UW–Madison physicists now know the reason.
Celebrating 30 Years of Hubble: Discoveries Continue to Wow Scientists, Public
Peering into the darkness to see what we could not previously see, the Hubble Space Telescope has been delighting scientists and the general public with revealing details and images of galaxies and celestial phenomena. The American Institute of Physics recognizes and celebrates the momentous occasion of the 30th anniversary of its launch and Physics Today is highlighting the anniversary in its April issue with a look back at the history of the telescope and analysis of Hubble’s discoveries over the past 30 years.
Paired with super telescopes, model Earths guide hunt for life
– Cornell University astronomers have created five models representing key points from our planet’s evolution, like chemical snapshots through Earth’s own geologic epochs. The models will be spectral templates for astronomers to use in the approaching new era of powerful telescopes, and in the hunt for Earth-like planets in distant solar systems.
The Strange Orbits of ‘Tatooine’ Planetary Disks
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found striking orbital geometries in protoplanetary disks around binary stars. While disks orbiting the most compact binary star systems share very nearly the same plane, disks encircling wide binaries have orbital planes that are severely tilted. These systems can teach us about planet formation in complex environments.
Study: Organic molecules discovered by Curiosity Rover consistent with early life on Mars
Organic compounds called thiophenes are found on Earth in coal, crude oil and oddly enough, in white truffles, the mushroom beloved by epicureans and wild pigs.
Little Tissue, Big Mission: Beating Heart Tissues to Ride Aboard The ISS
Launching no earlier than March 6 at 11:50 PM EST, the Johns Hopkins University will send heart muscle tissues, contained in a specially-designed tissue chip the size of a small cellphone, up to the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS) for one month of observation.
Space weather model gives earlier warning of satellite-killing radiation storms
A new machine-learning computer model accurately predicts damaging radiation storms caused by the Van Allen belts two days prior to the storm, the most advanced notice to date, according to a new paper in the journal Space Weather.