Bigger antennas are better, at least according to researchers interested in geospatial monitoring. That’s because higher resolution in monitoring applications requires larger apertures. So imagine the excitement in the remote sensing community when a researcher from Leidos, a government consulting firm, developed an idea that dramatically increased the effective aperture size of a remote radio-frequency monitoring system simply by tying a rotating antenna to a flat “sparse” array. That’s exactly what Dr. John Kendra did, and it has garnered him not only two NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grants to advance the technology but also a prize paper award at a technical conference on remote sensing. In other words, if implemented correctly, the Rotary-Motion Extended Array Synthesis (R-MXAS) technology could be a game changer for remote sensing applications.
Space News & Blog Articles
August Podcast: Nova Watch in the Northern Crown
Let’s go on a night-sky tour of the stars and planets that you’ll see overhead during August. Find a good seat for some great “shooting stars,” watch Saturn climb in the eastern sky in early evening, check out the summer's brightest stars, and start looking for a once-in-your-lifetime star blast.
Why is the Sun’s Corona So Hot? One Hypothesis Down, Many to Go
The temperature of the Sun’s corona is a minimum of 100 times hotter than the Sun’s surface, despite the corona being far less dense and extending millions of miles from the Sun’s surface, as well. But why is this? Now, a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal could eliminate a longstanding hypothesis regarding the processes responsible for the corona’s extreme heat, which could help them better understand the Sun’s internal processes. This study holds the potential to help scientists gain greater insight into the formation and evolution of our Sun, which could lead to better understanding stars throughout the universe, as well.
A New Study Shows How our Sun Could Permantly Capture Rogue Planets!
Interest in interstellar objects (ISOs) was ignited in 2017 when ‘Oumuamua flew through our Solar System and made a flyby of Earth. Roughly two years later, another ISO passed through our Solar System – the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. These encounters confirmed that ISOs are not only very common, but pass through our Solar System regularly – something that astronomers have suspected for a long time. Even more intriguing is that some of these objects are captured and can still be found orbiting our Sun.
This Binary Asteroid is Messed Up. It’s Probably Earth’s Fault
Space is big, really big! Finding new asteroids which are usually dark against the inky blackness of space is harder than looking for a needle in a cosmic haystack. Back in 1991 an astronomer discovered a kilometre wide asteroid which was subsequently found to have a smaller moon half its size. It was given the snappy name of 1991 VH which , after follow up observations was revealed to have a tumbling, chaotic rotation. This was the first binary asteroid that has been seen to exhibit this behaviour. A paper just published suggests that a close encounter with Earth as recently as 12,000 years ago could have started its tumbling motion.
Starliner Successfully Fires its Thrusters, Preparing to Return to Earth
Being trapped in space sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Astronauts on board the International Space Station have on occasion, had their return delayed by weather or equipment malfunction. We find ourselves again, watching and waiting as two astronauts; Juni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck for months instead of their week long mission. The delays came as the Starliner system required fixes to be implemented. NASA successfully fired up 27 of its 28 thrusters in a hot-firing test and now, ground teams are preparing finally, to bring them home.
Hubble Telescope spots a stunning spiral galaxy shining in the 'Little Lion' (image)
A new Hubble Telescope image shines a spotlight on a classic spiral galaxy named NGC 3430.
Reading the Tea Leaves: The Future of the Hubble and Chandra Space Telescopes
Future funding for NASA's remaining Great Observatories — Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope — is still up in the air.
Magnetic fields on the sun could solve longstanding solar heating mystery
A new study reveals waves of magnetism within the sun could help explain why the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface.
Can the moon help preserve Earth's endangered species?
The moon may soon be home to frozen samples of Earth's endangered creatures. New research proposes a lunar biorepository to preserve animal skin samples with cells from the world's endangered species.
Moon robots could build stone walls to protect lunar bases from rocket exhaust
A robotic excavator could build a dry stone wall to act as a blast shield around a launch pad on the moon, a new study suggests.
Astronomers Uncover New Details in the Brightest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Detected
In October 2022, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory detected an extraordinarily powerful Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). It still stands as the Brightest Of All Time (BOAT), and astronomers have been curious about it ever since.
Ghostly 'zodiacal light' glows above the Very Large Telescope in Chile (photo)
A new photo shows the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope beneath a star-studded sky at sunset, illuminated by a phenomenon known as the zodiacal light.
'A Quiet Place: Day One' VFX chief on the Death Angels' sensitive side (exclusive)
An exclusive interview with Michael Humphreys, the VFX supervisor for "A Quiet Place: Day One."
We used 1,000 historical photos to reconstruct Antarctic glaciers before a dramatic collapse
Although Antarctica is far away, and changing conditions there may seem distant, the changes can have a profound effect for us all.
Predicting Solar Storms Before They Leave the Sun
When giant solar storms hit Earth, they trigger beautiful auroral displays high in Earth’s atmosphere. There’s a dark side to this solar activity, though. The “space weather” it sets off also threatens our technology. The potential for damage is why we need highly accurate predictions of just when these storms will impact our planet’s magnetosphere.
Renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe's lab is home to a centuries-old chemical mystery
A chemical mystery lurks in the laboratory of Tycho Brahe, one of the most famous astronomers of all time. Scientists found tungsten in Brahe's lab, and they're not sure how it got there.
Glimpses of Hera’s target asteroids inspire new science
As ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence completes its pre-launch testing, its target asteroids have come into focus as tiny worldlets of their own. A special issue of Nature Communications published this week presents studies of the Didymos asteroid and its Dimorphos moon, based on the roughly five and a half minutes of close-range footage returned by NASA’s DART spacecraft before it impacted the latter body – along with post-impact images from the Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube.
Northern lights delight as 'cannibal' solar storm triggers auroras across US and Canada (photos)
A cannibal coronal mass ejection triggered impressive northern lights displays across the US and Canada. We've rounded up some of the best photos here.
Venus returns to the night sky as an 'Evening Star,' and its going to be brilliant
As we make the transition from July into August, Venus has finally begun climbing up out of the sunset glow in earnest and is now about to reclaim its role as the brilliant Evening Star.
Space-junk scout captures amazing fly-around footage of discarded rocket in orbit (video)
Astroscale's ADRAS-J space debris inspecting mission completed a series of fly-around maneuvers of its target space junk, capturing stunning footage of a dead rocket stage in orbit.
