First global antineutrino emission map highlights Earth's energy budget
College Park MD (SPX) Sep 02, 2015 -
The neutrino and its antimatter cousin, the antineutrino, are the tiniest subatomic particles known to science. These particles are byproducts of nuclear reactions within stars (including our sun), supernovae, black holes and human-made nuclear reactors. They also result from radioactive decay processes deep within the Earth, where radioactive heat and the heat left over from the planet's format ...
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TES Satellite Instrument Gives New Insight into Water Cycle
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 04, 2015 -
Research using NASA satellite measurements has given scientists a better understanding of what happens to rain and snow that falls on land - how much runs off into rivers, lakes and aquifers; how much plants use; and how much simply evaporates.
Among the new findings: plants around the world use less water than previous studies had indicated, and most freshwater passes more rapidly through ...
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SMAP ends radar operations
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 03, 2015 -
Mission managers for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory have determined that its radar, one of the satellite's two science instruments, can no longer return data. However, the mission, which was launched in January to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed, continues to produce high-quality science measurements supporting SMAP's objectives with ...
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Scientists describe new clam species from depths off Canada's Atlantic coast
Ottawa, Canada (SPX) Sep 02, 2015 -
Canadian scientists have described a new species of giant file clam, originally collected from deep waters off Newfoundland 30 years ago. The scientific paper, published in the journal Zootaxa, is co-authored by researchers with the Canadian Museum of Nature and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Bedford Institute of Oceanography).
"This is the culmination of a story that began decades ago when, ...
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Explaining crocodiles in Wyoming
Boston MA (SPX) Sep 03, 2015 -
Fifty million years ago, the Cowboy State was crawling with crocodiles. Fossil records show that crocs lounged in the shade of palm trees from southwestern Wyoming to southern Canada during the Cretaceous and Eocene. Exactly how the middle of the North American continent - far from the warming effects of the ocean - stayed so temperate even in winter months has long eluded scientists.
In r ...
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Could more intensive farming practices benefit tropical birds?
London, UK (SPX) Sep 07, 2015 -
The world is facing an extinction crisis as more and more forests are converted into farmland. But does it help when farms share the land with birds and other animals?
The short answer is "no," according to new evidence based on the diversity of bird species reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 3. If the goal is to preserve more bird species, representing a great ...
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China Interested in Russian Icebreaker Technology
Moscow (Sputnik) Sep 07, 2015 -
Alexey Rakhmanov, the head of Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation, said that there is 'a great desire' to start technological cooperation in the area of building and operating icebreaker ships between Russia and China.
China has shown an interest in acquiring Russian technology for building and operating icebreaker ships, the head of Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation said Frida ...
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Ice sheets may be more resilient than thought
Stanford CA (SPX) Sep 07, 2015 -
Sea level rise poses one of the biggest threats to human systems in a globally warming world, potentially causing trillions of dollars' worth of damages to flooded cities around the world. As surface temperatures rise, ice sheets are melting at record rates and sea levels are rising.
But there may be some good news amid the worry. Sea levels may not rise as high as assumed.
To predic ...
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Made from solar concentrate
Berkeley CA (SPX) Sep 03, 2015 -
By combining designer quantum dot light-emitters with spectrally matched photonic mirrors, a team of scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of Illinois created solar cells that collect blue photons at 30 times the concentration of conventional solar cells, the highest luminescent concentration factor ever recorded. This breakthrough paves the ...
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Mars Rovers and the Last Moonwalker to Invade Poland in September
Podzamcze, Poland (SPX) Aug 10, 2015 -
Poland will once again host the biggest Mars rover competition in Europe. This year, from Sept. 5 to 6, the second edition of the European Rover Challenge (ERC) is expected to get even more publicity as Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, a member of the Apollo 17 crew and the last man to walk on the Moon will be a special guest of the event. ERC will also give the participants a unique opportunity to talk ...
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Salt flat indicates some of the last vestiges of surface water on Mars
Boulder CO (SPX) Aug 10, 2015 -
Mars turned cold and dry long ago, but researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered evidence of an ancient lake that likely represents some of the last potentially habitable surface water ever to exist on the Red Planet.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Geology, examined an 18-square-mile chloride salt deposit (roughly the size of the city of Boulder) in th ...
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One Decade after Launch, Mars Orbiter Still Going Strong
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 12, 2015 -
Ten years after launch, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed the Red Planet's diversity and activity, returning more data about Mars every week than all six other missions currently active there. And its work is far from over.
The workhorse orbiter now plays a key role in NASA's Journey to Mars planning. Images from the orbiter, revealing details as small as a desk, aid th ...
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NASA selects contractor to prepare launch structure for SLS
Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 13, 2015 -
NASA has selected J. P. Donovan Construction, Inc., of Rockledge, Florida to begin work at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the ground structures that will launch NASA's next generation rocket and spacecraft on the journey to Mars and other deep space destinations.
The Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Mobile Launcher Ground Support Equipment Installation cont ...
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One Decade after Launch, Mars Orbiter Still Going Strong
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 13, 2015 -
Ten years after launch, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed the Red Planet's diversity and activity, returning more data about Mars every week than the weekly total from all six other active Mars missions. And its work is far from over.
The workhorse orbiter now plays a key role in NASA's Journey to Mars planning. Images from the orbiter, revealing details as small as a d ...
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How Much Contamination is Okay on Mars 2020 Rover?
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Aug 18, 2015 -
When the Mars 2020 rover arrives on the Red Planet, one of its primary mission goals will be to select and preserve samples that would eventually make it back to Earth for scientific study. Rather than seeking to eliminate contamination of these samples completely, essentially an impossible task, a panel of scientists and engineers met to assess the levels at which significant science could stil ...
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Russia to Send First Ever Robot-Cosmonaut to ISS
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 18, 2015 -
A team of experts at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute are working on the prototype of a robot cosmonaut to help ISS crews during spacewalks.
Russia is a world leader where it comes to designing all kinds of space innovations. Including the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument mounted on the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover.
It is a pulsed seal ...
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NASA can send your name to Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 19, 2015 -
Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA's journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA's InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year.
"Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "By participat ...
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Mars Rover Moves Onward After 'Marias Pass' Studies
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 20, 2015 -
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is driving toward the southwest after departing a region where for several weeks it investigated a geological contact zone and rocks that are unexpectedly high in silica and hydrogen content. The hydrogen indicates water bound to minerals in the ground.
In this "Marias Pass" region, Curiosity successfully used its drill to sample a rock target called "Buckskin" ...
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What's for Dinner? BioFood!
Washington (Sputnik) Aug 24, 2015 -
While Mars and other planets await the arrival of humans, the question of how to maintain astronauts' food supplies remains a major obstacle for such missions. NASA is granting $200,000 per year to find a way to turn human excrement into nourishment.
Biology teachers tell their students the joke about a rabbit eating a carrot for the second time. Well, anyone who has ever owned a rabbit kn ...
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Opportunity gives clay-mineral rocks get closer inspection
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 25, 2015 -
Opportunity is in 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater exploring for phyllosilicate clay minerals.
The rover is operating in persistent RAM mode (not using Flash for data storage). Winter power levels have been constraining some rover activities. The rover is conducting both an in-situ (contact) science investigation of a surface target within the central unit of the valle ...
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Nine Real NASA Technologies in 'The Martian'
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 25, 2015 -
Mars has held a central place in human imagination and culture for millennia. Ancients marveled at its red color and the brightness that waxed and waned in cycles over the years. Early observations through telescopes led some to speculate that the planet was covered with canals that its inhabitants used for transportation and commerce. In "The War of the Worlds", the writer H.G. Wells posited a ...
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Destination Red Planet: Will Billionaires Fund a Private Mars Colony
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 27, 2015 -
With over 1,800 billionaires in the world, a sizeable investment from at least one of them could provide a major push to colonize the Red Planet. For nonprofit organization Mars One, the right wealthy investor could help with their ambitious plan to put man on Mars by 2027.
Mars One was founded with the goal of eventually colonizing the fourth planet from the Sun. Bas Lansdorp, one of the ...
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One year and counting: Mars isolation experiment begins
Miami (AFP) Aug 29, 2015 -
Six people shut themselves inside a dome for a year in Hawaii on Friday, in the longest US isolation experiment aimed at helping NASA prepare for a pioneering journey to Mars.
The crew includes a French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans - a pilot, an architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist.
They are based on a barren, northern slope of Mauna Loa, living i ...
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HI-SEAS launches year-long isolation experiment to mimic life on Mars
Mauna Loa, Hawaii (UPI) Aug 29, 2015 -
Six scientists have begun a yearlong isolation experiment from within a small dome to mimic life on Mars.
The latest Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) mission commenced Friday, Aug. 28, and is part of ongoing research at University of HawaiÊ»i at MÄ noa, funded by NASA, to test the limits of long-duration space exploration. The team, including Sheyna Gifford, Tri ...
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Opportunity brushes a rock and conducts in-situ studies
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 01, 2015 -
Opportunity is in 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater exploring for phyllosilicate clay minerals. The rover is operating in persistent RAM mode (not using Flash for data storage). The rover is in the midst of a grind campaign on the surface target, 'Pvt. Robert Frazer.'
On Sol 4114 (Aug. 20, 2015), Opportunity ground about 2.5 millimeters into the surface to expose fresh ...
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