Happy Wanderer? Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Breaks Its Own Orbital Record

Happy Wanderer? Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Breaks Its Own Orbital Record Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 27, 2017 - The US Air Force's super-secret Boeing X-37B mini space shuttle just broke its own orbital record of 674 days in space. The landing date for the apparatus remains undetermined. The X-37B robotic space plane's current machine incarnation, OTV-4, just broke its own record by staying in orbit for 675 days, at least one day longer than its predecessor, OTV-3. The fourth of the X-37B unmanned s ... more

SBIRS satellite successfully transmitting first images Sunnyvale CA (SPX) Mar 27, 2017 - From its final orbit location 22,000 miles above the equator, the third Lockheed Martin-built Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite recently sent its first images back down to Earth, a milestone known as "first light." The satellite was launched on Jan. 20 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and is the third in a series of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites that ... more

Russia Hopes India to Join Initiative on Non-Deploying Weapons in Space New Delhi (XNA) Mar 27, 2017 - Russia hopes India will join the Russian initiative on non-deployment of weapons in outer space, Russian Foreign Ministry's Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department Director Mikhail Ulyanov said on Thursday. Ulyanov reminded that in 2004, Russia took a unilateral decision not to be the first to place weapons in outer space, setting a good example for other countries to follow suit. ... more

Where does laser energy go after being fired into plasma? Glasgow, Scotland (SPX) Mar 27, 2017 - An outstanding conundrum on what happens to the laser energy after beams are fired into plasma has been solved in newly-published research at the University of Strathclyde. The study discovered that the same forces that produce a bubble in plasma in the laser-plasma wakefield accelerator produce two additional low-energy but high-charge electron beams simultaneously with a low charge high energy ... more

Scientists find out where laser energy goes when a beam is fired into plasma Washington (UPI) Mar 23, 2017 - Researchers in Scotland have figured out what happens to laser energy when a beam is fired into plasma. Plasma is the most abundant form of matter in the universe. When it is fully ionized, and the positive and negative charged particles separate, plasma can host powerful electronic and magnetic fields. Researchers can create plasma particle separation by hitting it with a laser ... more

Astronomers Observe Early Stages of Milky Way-like Galaxies Santa Cruz CA (SPX) Mar 28, 2017 - For decades, astronomers have found distant galaxies by detecting the characteristic way their gas absorbs light from a bright quasar in the background. But efforts to observe the light emitted by these same galaxies have mostly been unsuccessful. Now, a team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile has observed emissions from two distant galaxies initially detecte ... more

German scientists focus radiation of 10,000 suns with new light array Washington (UPI) Mar 23, 2017 - Researchers in Germany are trying to use a massive light array to generate clean energy. This week, the scientists switched on their Synlight experiment, a collection of 149 film projector spotlights on steroids. Together the lights can generate the radiation of 10,000 suns, making the world's biggest solar simulator. When concentrated on a single point, the lights can produce temperatu ... more

Tech world debate on robots and jobs heats up Washington (AFP) March 26, 2017 - Are robots coming for your job? Although technology has long affected the labor force, recent advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations, including highly skilled or "knowledge-based" jobs. Just a few examples: self-driving technology may eliminate the need for taxi, Uber and truck drivers, algorith ... more

Titan is covered by electrically charged sand grains, experiments suggest Washington (UPI) Mar 27, 2017 - New research suggests the sand grains on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, behave similar to the packing peanuts used in shipping boxes. Lab experiments suggest the granules become electrically charged and clump together, resisting motion as they attach themselves to other hydrocarbons. The sand grains become charged as they're excited by strong winds and hop along the surface - a p ... more

Large-scale planetary waves found on the sun Washington (UPI) Mar 27, 2017 - Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have discovered Rossby waves on the sun. The large-scale planetary waves were first discovered on Earth. On Earth, Rossby waves are correlated with local weather events. On the sun, scientists suggest the waves could influence solar activity and related phenomena, like sunspots and solar flares. "The discovery of magnetiz ... more