Purdue professor solves 140-year fluid mechanics enigma
West Lafayette IN (SPX) Oct 08, 2015 -
A Purdue University researcher has solved a 140-year-old enigma in fluid mechanics: Why does a simple formula describe the seemingly complex physics for the behavior of elliptical particles moving through fluid?
The findings have potential implications for research and industry because ellipsoid nanoparticles are encountered in various applications including those involving pharmaceuticals ...
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Caution: Shrinks when warm
Storrs CT (SPX) Oct 09, 2015 -
Most materials swell when they warm, and shrink when they cool. But UConn physicist Jason Hancock has been investigating a substance that responds in reverse: it shrinks when it warms. Although thermal expansion, and the cracking and warping that often result, are an everyday occurrence - in buildings, bridges, electronics, and almost anything else exposed to wide temperature swings - physicists ...
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Nanoscale photodetector could boost capacity of photonic circuits
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 07, 2015 -
Photonic circuits, which use light to transmit signals, are markedly faster than electronic circuits. Unfortunately, they're also bigger. It's difficult to localize visible light below its diffraction limit, about 200-300 nanometers, and as components in electronic semiconductors have shrunk to the nanometer scale, the photonic circuit size limitation has given electronic circuits a significant ...
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Liquid cooling moves onto the chip for denser electronics
Atlanta GA (SPX) Oct 07, 2015 -
Using microfluidic passages cut directly into the backsides of production field-programmable gate array (FPGA) devices, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers are putting liquid cooling right where it's needed the most - a few hundred microns away from where the transistors are operating.
Combined with connection technology that operates through structures in the cooling passages, the ...
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Poland seeks missiles for its MiG-29 fighters
Warsaw, Poland (UPI) Oct 9, 2015 -
Poland has reportedly begun the process to obtain 40 radar-guided R-27R1 missiles, the main armament on Poland 's Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters.
Polish news site Defence24 says the acquisition process is being conducted by the Ministry of National Defense's Armament Inspectorate.
The missiles obtained should be guaranteed by the manufacturer to be usable for at least 96 months if de ...
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U.S. State Dept. approves sale of MQ-9 Reapers to Spain
Washington (UPI) Oct 7, 2015 -
The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles to Spain's military, the department announced on Wednesday.
The sale covers four MQ-9 Block 5 Remotely Piloted Aircraft, and an additional 20 Embedded Global Position System/Inertial Guidance Units, two Mobile Ground Control Stations, five Multi-Spectral Targeting Systems, and five Synthetic Aperture ...
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Airbus DS ready to start testing exoplanet tracker CHEOPS
Paris, France (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
Airbus Defence and Space has finished building the structural model for ESA's CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), Europe's first mission to search for exoplanetary transits by performing ultra-high precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets.
Airbus Defence and Space, as prime contractor of CHEOPS, is preparing the first spacecraft test campaign in Spain. Th ...
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Listening to the Extragalactic Radio
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
CHANG-ES, the "Continuum Halos in Nearby Galaxies, an EVLA Survey" project, brings together scientists from all over the globe in order to investigate the occurrence and origin of radio halos, to probe the disk-halo interface, and to study in-disk emission as well as their magnetic fields and the cosmic rays illuminating these fields. The goal is to understand connections between radio halos and ...
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Planetary portrait captures new changes in Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter - the first in a series of annual portraits of the solar system's outer planets. Collecting these yearly images - essentially the planetary version of annual school picture days for children - will help current and future scientists see how these giant worlds change over time. The observations are designed to captur ...
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Iridium Certus delivers latest Broadband developer kits to manufacturers
McLean VA (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
Iridium Communications has announced the availability of its next-generation broadband technology to manufacturing partners, to assist in their development of the first Iridium Certus broadband terminals, which will operate over the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation.
Functional terminal prototypes using these Iridium broadband core transceiver (BCX) modules, are expected to begin end-to ...
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Ascent Trajectories and the Gravity Turn
Bethesda MD (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
Almost all space launch vehicles liftoff from the ground in the vertical direction and continue to orbit along an ascent trajectory that is usually optimized for the conditions in order to maximize performance while maintaining conservative safety margins. The actual shape of the path to orbit is influenced by a number of factors, including winds and the desired payload injection parameters.
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Cassini Begins Series of Flybys of Enceladus
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 14, 2015 -
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will wrap up its time in the region of Saturn's large, icy moons with a series of three close encounters with Enceladus starting Wednesday, Oct. 14. Images are expected to begin arriving one to two days after the flyby, which will provide the first opportunity for a close-up look at the north polar region of Enceladus.
Wednesday's flyby is considered a moderately ...
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U.S. Air Force expands drone training at Holloman
Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. (UPI) Oct 8, 2015 -
The U.S. Air Force is expanding its training program for remotely piloted aircraft at the Holloman Air Force Base, including the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper, officials announced Wednesday.
The announcement comes as the U.S. Air Force reports increased demand for its remotely piloted aircraft for surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence gathering operations. The Holloman Air ...
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SwRI-led study finds comet tail may shed light on solar wind heating
Boulder CO (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
We can't see the wind, but we can learn about it by observing things that are being blown about. And by studying changes in a comet's bright tail of gas and ions, scientists are on the trail to solving two big mysteries about the solar wind, the supersonic outflow of electrically charged gas from the Sun's million-degree upper atmosphere or corona.
A team of scientists led by the heliophys ...
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Russian Long-Range Cruise Missiles 'Particular Challenge' for US Defense
Moscow (Sputnik) Oct 09, 2015 -
US Commander of NORAD said that Russian long-range aviation and highly accurate long-range cruise missiles present a new challenge for US strategic homeland defense.
Russian long-range aviation and highly accurate long-range cruise missiles present a new challenge for US strategic homeland defense, US Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Adm. William Gortney said. ...
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Russian Defense Ministry Receives New Early Warning Network Satellites
Moscow (Sputnik) Oct 11, 2015 -
The Russian Defense Ministry has received two state of the art satellites as part of the country's new missile early warning network, Deputy Minister Yuri Borisov said Friday.
The Russian Aerospace Forces space command said this summer the network's first satellite was expected to be launched into high-elliptic orbit in November.
"In the interest of the Defense Ministry and Roscosmos ...
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US Spends $1Bln Annually Protecting Vulnerable Space-Based Assets
Moscow (Sputnik) Oct 11, 2015 -
A report by GAO reveals that the US government is devoting $1 billion per year to protect increasingly susceptible space-based assets.
The US government is devoting $1 billion per year to protect increasingly susceptible space-based assets, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Thursday stated.
"he government's planned budget for Space Situational Awareness ( ...
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James named new principal DOD space advisor
Washington DC (AFNS) Oct 09, 2015 -
On Oct. 5, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work re-designated the position of the Department of Defense executive agent for space (EA4S) to the principal DOD space advisor (PDSA). The Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, formerly the EA4S, will now assume the expanded responsibilities of the PDSA.
"We can no longer consider space a peaceful sanctuary," James said. "As the PDSA, ...
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Climate models used to explain formation of Mars valley networks
University Park PA (SPX) Oct 14, 2015 -
The extensive valley networks on the surface of Mars were probably created by running water billions of years ago, but the source of that water is unknown. Now, a team of Penn State and NASA researchers is using climate models to predict how greenhouse warming could be the source of the water.
"Everyone is looking for life on Mars, and if Mars was habitable early on as indicated by flowing ...
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Vanishing Acts: A Call for Disappearing Delivery Vehicles
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 12, 2015 -
It sounds like an engineering fantasy, or maybe an episode from Mission Impossible: A flock of small, single-use, unpowered delivery vehicles dropped from an aircraft, each of which literally vanishes after landing and delivering food or medical supplies to an isolated village during an epidemic or disaster. And it would be nothing more than a fantasy, were it not that the principle behind disap ...
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N. Korea showcases new 'nuclear' long-range missile: state TV
Seoul (AFP) Oct 10, 2015 -
North Korea on Saturday showed off what it said were long-range ballistic missiles carrying miniaturised nuclear warheads, its latest claim to the sophisticated technology which state television said could destroy enemies in a "sea of fire".
Rows of the intercontinental ballistic missiles known as KN-08, which some think could fly far enough to reach the continental US, were paraded through ...
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ULA launches spysat for NRO
Vandenberg AFB CA (SPX) Oct 12, 2015 -
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and 13 CubeSats lifted off from Space Launch Complex-3 Oct. 8 at 5:49 a.m. PDT. Designated NROL-55, the mission is in support of national defense. This is ULA's 10th launch in 2015 and the 101st successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.
"Congratulations on [t ...
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Iran tests new long-range missile
Tehran (AFP) Oct 11, 2015 -
Iran announced Sunday it had successfully tested a new domestically produced long-range missile, which it said was the first that could be guided all the way to targets.
The defence ministry posted pictures of the launch of the missile, named Imad, on its website but no details were given about its maximum range or other capabilities.
"This is Iran's first long-range missile that can be ...
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NASA, Israel ink space cooperation agreement
Jerusalem (AFP) Oct 13, 2015 -
NASA and the Israel Space Agency signed an agreement Tuesday to expand cooperation in civil space activities, the Israeli government said.
The deal was signed by NASA administrator Charles Bolden and ISA director Menachem Kidron on the sidelines of the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem.
Bolden said the agreement would enable the US space agency to tap Israeli innovation a ...
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Self-regulating corals protect their skeletons against ocean acidification
Perth, Australia (SPX) Oct 09, 2015 -
Scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) have found a species of coral living in a dynamic reef system, which is able to protect itself from the impact of ocean acidification. Ocean acidification, caused by rising CO2, is one of the greatest long-term challenges facing reefs. It reduces coral's ability to form their skeletons and build reef structures.
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