https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Five telescopes of the H.E.S.S.-collaboration in Namibia are used to study cosmic radiation, especially gamma radiation. With data from 10 years of observations, researchers have now been able to detect cosmic electrons and positrons with an unprecedented energy of more than 10 tera-electronvolts. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astronomers-cosmic-electrons-highest-energies.html Astronomy Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:54:46 EST news651772478 An experiment designed to answer questions about the radiation environment for manned space missions was launched from Kennedy Space Center today. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-national-lab-expertise-space.html Space Exploration Tue, 10 Sep 2024 17:05:03 EDT news645206701 NASA's Artemis program is scheduled to return astronauts to the moon and establish a permanent orbiting laboratory by the end of the decade. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-crimes-space-frontier-forensic-science.html Space Exploration Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:27:39 EST news629119656 When 17 people were in orbit around the Earth all at the same time on May 30, 2023, it set a record. With NASA and other federal space agencies planning more manned missions and commercial companies bringing people to space, opportunities for human space travel are rapidly expanding. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-space-human-body-scientists-mitigate.html Space Exploration Tue, 19 Sep 2023 14:13:04 EDT news614351581 Measurements by ESA's long-serving twin missions, Mars Express and Venus Express, have captured the dance between the intensity of high-energy cosmic rays and the influence of the sun's activity across our inner solar system. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-cosmic-ray-hidden-spacecraft-highlight.html Astronomy Mon, 05 Dec 2022 13:55:03 EST news589470901 Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft, which routinely sustain many impacts over the course of long and productive science missions in space. Between May 23 and 25, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope sustained an impact to one of its primary mirror segments. After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data.  https://phys.org/news/2022-06-nasa-webb-telescope-micrometeoroid-impacts.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jun 2022 16:36:03 EDT news573924962 Although no life has been detected on the Martian surface, a new study from astrophysicist and research scientist Dimitra Atri at the Center for Space Science at NYU Abu Dhabi finds that conditions below the surface could potentially support it. The subsurface—which is less harsh and has traces of water—has never been explored. According to Atri, the steady bombardment of penetrating galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) might provide the energy needed to catalyze organic activity there. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-astrophysicists-possibility-life-surface-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 28 Jul 2020 07:33:34 EDT news515140407 This test facility at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, was used to simulate the high-radiation environment surrounding Jupiter to prepare for ESA's JUICE mission to the largest planet in our Solar System. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-cern-simulating-jupiter.html Space Exploration Thu, 29 Aug 2019 08:01:29 EDT news486284480 In a small, square room walled by four feet of concrete, the air smells as if a lightning storm just passed through—crisp and acrid, like cleaning supplies. Outside, that's the smell of lightning ripping apart oxygen in the air, which readily reshuffles into ozone. But belowground in one of the rooms at NASA's Radiation Effects Facility, the smell of ozone lingers after high-energy radiation tests. The radiation that engineers use to test electronics for spaceflight is so powerful it shreds the oxygen in the room. https://phys.org/news/2019-06-nasa-spacecraft-harsh-space.html Space Exploration Tue, 11 Jun 2019 09:49:33 EDT news479465358 Astronauts on a mission to Mars would be exposed to at least 60% of the total radiation dose limit recommended for their career during the journey itself to and from the Red Planet, according to data from the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter being presented at the European Planetary Science Congress, EPSC, in Berlin, Germany, this week. https://phys.org/news/2018-09-exomars-highlights-mars-astronauts-storm.html Space Exploration Wed, 19 Sep 2018 08:04:54 EDT news456563087 It might sound like something from a science fiction plot – astronauts traveling into deep space being bombarded by cosmic rays – but radiation exposure is science fact. As future missions look to travel back to the moon or even to Mars, new research from the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center cautions that the exposure to radiation is much higher than previously thought and could have serious implications on both astronauts and satellite technology. https://phys.org/news/2018-03-space-increasingly-hazardous.html Space Exploration Thu, 15 Mar 2018 09:37:36 EDT news440325445 The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is targeted for launch August 14 from Kennedy Space Center for its twelfth commercial resupply (CRS-12) mission to the International Space Station. https://phys.org/news/2017-08-advance-disease-therapies-cosmic-rays.html Space Exploration Wed, 09 Aug 2017 17:34:08 EDT news421518840 Radiation is an invisible hazard of spaceflight, but a new monitoring system for ESA astronauts gives a realtime snapshot of their exposure. The results will guide researchers preparing for deep-space missions to come. https://phys.org/news/2016-07-tracking-astronaut-rad-exposures.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 Jul 2016 07:00:01 EDT news388216126 A satellite experiment to study cosmic rays and the solar wind that was devised by school students is now successfully collecting data in space. LUCID, the Langton Ultimate Cosmic ray Intensity Detector, uses particle detectors from CERN to study the radiation environment in low Earth orbit. 16-year old Cal Hewitt, from the Langton Star Centre, will present the first results from LUCID at the National Astronomy Meeting 2015 in Llandudno on Monday 6th July.  https://phys.org/news/2015-07-results-lucid-cosmic-rays-solar.html Space Exploration Mon, 06 Jul 2015 07:10:01 EDT news355384594 Although researchers have determined the ages of rocks from other planetary bodies, the actual experiments—like analyzing meteorites and moon rocks—have always been done on Earth. Now, for the first time, researchers have successfully determined the age of a Martian rock—with experiments performed on Mars. The work, led by geochemist Ken Farley of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), could not only help in understanding the geologic history of Mars but also aid in the search for evidence of ancient life on the planet. https://phys.org/news/2013-12-dating-mars.html Space Exploration Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:40:01 EST news305972732 Scientists from the University of New Hampshire and colleagues have published comprehensive findings on space-based radiation as measured by a UNH-led detector aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The data provide critical information on the radiation hazards that will be faced by astronauts on extended missions to deep space such as those to Mars. https://phys.org/news/2013-11-unh-scientists-document-quantify-deep-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:23:29 EST news304003396 On November 26, 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory began a 253-day, 560-million-kilometer journey to deliver the Curiosity rover to the Red Planet. En route, the Southwest Research Institute-led Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) made detailed measurements of the energetic particle radiation environment inside the spacecraft, providing important insights for future human missions to Mars. https://phys.org/news/2013-05-exposure-journey-mars.html Space Exploration Thu, 30 May 2013 14:00:14 EDT news289120378 The radiation environment near the Moon could be damaging to humans and electronics on future missions. To characterize this potentially hazardous environment, the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, which orbits at 50 kilometers (31 miles) above the Moon's surface, measures the radiation that would be absorbed by either electronic parts or human tissue behind the shielding of a spacecraft. https://phys.org/news/2013-04-characterizing-moon-environment.html Space Exploration Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:46:11 EDT news284744766 Metallic robots constructed by ingenious humans can survive on Mars. But what about future human astronauts? https://phys.org/news/2012-11-humans-mars.html Space Exploration Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:20:01 EST news272534198 (Phys.org)—The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey (CALIFA survey) has published a first set of data, offering views of one hundred galaxies in the local Universe at an unprecedented level of detail. The new data represent the first large-scale effort at "two plus one" mapping of galaxies: for every pixel within each two-dimensional image, a detailed ("spectral") analysis can be performed, providing information about dynamics and chemical composition. These, in turn, yield key information that will allow scientists to reconstruct the structure and dynamics of galaxies, as well as their evolution over time. https://phys.org/news/2012-11-califa-survey-publishes-intimate-galaxies.html Astronomy Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:11:43 EDT news271087869 (Phys.org) -- When Curiosity enters the Martian atmosphere on August 6th, setting in motion "the seven minutes of terror" that people around the world have anticipated since launch a year ago, the intrepid rover will actually be performing the mission's second daredevil stunt. https://phys.org/news/2012-08-curiosity-daredevil-stunt.html Space Exploration Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:30:01 EDT news263200453 Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures. In addition, the radiation process causes the lunar soil, or regolith, to darken over time, which is important in understanding the geologic history of the moon. https://phys.org/news/2012-03-cosmic-rays-chemistry-lunar-ice.html Space Exploration Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:51:52 EDT news251383901 NASA's current mission in orbit around the moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been providing crucial insights about our nearest celestial neighbor since its launch in June. At a scientific meeting today, researchers unveiled the latest findings from three instruments of the powerful suite of seven aboard the satellite. LRO is expected to return more data about the moon than all previous orbital missions combined. https://phys.org/news/2009-12-nasa-unveils-latest-results-lunar.html Space Exploration Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:20:03 EST news180125552 The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object and a fossil record of the kick. https://phys.org/news/2009-07-fossils-supermassive.html Astronomy Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:20:03 EDT news166374804