The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved plans to build the world’s first space telescope dedicated to studying the atmosphere of exoplanets. The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (Ariel) will be used to investigate the relationship between exoplanet chemistry and environment, collecting data from approximately 1,000 known exoplanets. Around 4,000 planets outside our solar system … Read more
A British firm has won a European Space Agency (ESA) contract to develop methods to process Moon dust into its constituent elements of oxygen and metal alloys. With plans afoot to build a base on the Moon (possibly powered by nuclear fission) as a jumping-off point for a mission to Mars, work is being undertaken to … Read more
Astronomers in Australia have discovered a new way to see the elusive dark matter haloes that surround galaxies. The new technique, created by researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, draws on the effect called weak gravitational lensing – a feature of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Scientists estimate that up to 85 per cent … Read more
The origin of mysterious fast radio bursts (FRB) emanating from our own galaxy has been solved by Nasa scientists. FRBs are intermittent radio waves emanating from a distant object in space and are often so bright that they can be visible across much of the nearby universe. Their unique nature has led scientists to speculate on the … Read more
Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia has been selected by Nasa to deploy a “space-hardened” 4G network on the surface of the Moon, as part of its plans to establish a sustainable human presence on Earth’s planetary satellite by 2028. Nasa’s ambitious ‘Artemis’ project aims to return humans to the Moon; to set up a long-term human … Read more
After months of extensive upgrades to its Deep Space Network dish in Australia, Nasa has made contact once more with the Voyager 2 probe, which had been flying solo since March. The Voyager 2 probe, which last year became only the second man-made object to leave the solar system after its sibling Voyager 1, can now only … Read more
Astronauts will soon be able to send high-speed data transmissions from space with the construction of a new optical communications station in Western Australia. The ground station has the potential to receive high-definition video footage in real time and will probably be how video from Nasa’s next Artemis mission to the Moon in 2024 is beamed back down … Read more
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the Moon in 2024, according to a senior official. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, announced the news, which follows the launch of a Mars probe earlier this year by the UAE. “It will be an Emirati-made lunar rover … Read more
A smart fibre, funded by the US Army, is being tested on the International Space Station (ISS). The material could be used to develop space dust telescopes and allow astronauts to ‘feel’ through their pressurised suits. Researchers at the Army’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT have developed an acoustic fabric so sensitive to vibrations that it can … Read more