Tag: science
OSIRIS-REx used a Tesla-esque navigation system to capture 4.5 billion-year-old regolith
NASA's pioneering OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully returned from its journey to the asteroid Bennu. The robotic spacecraft briefly set down on the celestial body in a first-of-its-kind attempt (by an American space agency) to collect pristine rock samples, before alighting and heading back to Earth on a three-year roundtrip journey.…
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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx successfully delivers asteroid samples back to Earth
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx seven-year mission to collect rocks and dust from a near-Earth asteroid is complete. The capsule containing the final samples returned to Earth on the morning of September 24th, touching down in the desert at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range at 10:52 am ET. The…
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Stanford’s upgraded X-ray laser is up and running
The newly upgraded particle accelerator at the DoE’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has produced its first X-rays. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) upgrade, LCLS-II, can emit up to a million X-ray pulses per second (8,000 times more than the original) and an almost continuous beam 10,000 times brighter…
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Sir Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep, has died
Sir Ian Wilmut, the scientist who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, has died at 79. The University of Edinburgh, where he served as a professor before his 2012 retirement, announced his passing today. Dolly was the first successful cloning of a mammal from an adult…
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Scientists may have a solution to the International Space Station’s fungus problem
Clogs in water recovery systems on the international space station have been so backed up that hoses have had to be sent back to Earth for cleaning and refurbishing. This is thanks to the build up of biofilms: a consortium of microorganisms that stick to each other, and often also…
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NASA reveals pollution maps gathered by the TEMPO space instrument
NASA has published the first maps from its new space-based pollution instrument, TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Although you won’t be shocked to learn it reveals higher pollution rates in metropolitan areas, the tool can help scientists better study North American air quality on an hourly basis. “Neighborhoods and…
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