The new fibre-free optical WiFi antenna. Credit: Andrew Traverso, Duke University Physicist and engineers at Duke University in the US have developed a new metamaterial that could substantially increase the speed of wireless optical communications. The material, which consists of an array of “nanoantennas” made from cubes of silver just 60 nm wide, can capture
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By Allison Kubo Hutchison Parke Radio Telescope detected unnatural signals from the region around Proxima Centauri on April 29 2019. Photo by Stephen West. Scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) have detected a narrow band of radio signals coming from a narrow area around Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighbor star at 4.2465 light-years
WASHINGTON — Astra has won a NASA contract to launch a small constellation of Earth science cubesats, while General Atomics selected Rocket Lab for the launch of a small satellite with a NOAA hosted payload. NASA announced Feb. 26 that it awarded a $7.95 million contract to Astra for three launches of the company’s Rocket
HELSINKI — Chinese private automaker Geely has got the green light to begin manufacturing satellites for navigation, connectivity and communications needed for self-driving cars. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) approved a license for a new facility Taizhou, Zhejiang province, in which Geely is based, to begin manufacturing earlier in February. Geely announced plans
The researchers used ultrashort laser pulse excitation to optically stimulate specific atomic vibrations of the magnet’s crystal lattice. Credit: Lancaster University Intense laser pulses can turn an antiferromagnetic material into a ferromagnetic one within just a few picoseconds (10-12 s) – a time scale that matches the fundamental limit for magnetization switching and vastly exceeds
Eric Brown said on-orbit logistics and servicing technologies are driving the industry to think of new ways of designing satellites. WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin is redesigning the bus used for Global Positioning System satellites so they can be upgraded with new hardware on orbit, a company executive said Feb. 25. Eric Brown, senior director of
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic says it is delaying the next test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle by more than two months to address technical issues, part of a revamped flight test program that will postpone flights of space tourists to 2022. In an earnings call Feb. 25 timed to the release of its fourth
The famous no-hair theorem says that black holes can only be defined in terms of three properties: mass, charge and spin. It has held up pretty well for about 50 years, but now some physicists are hoping to find evidence of violations of the theorem in gravitational waves from merging black holes. In this episode
VALETTA, Malta — On the heels of raising $24 million in December, Orbex announced Feb. 24 that it has commissioned AMCM to build a large-volume 3D printer for manufacturing its rocket engines. The Scottish microlauncher startup is currently developing Prime, a two-stage launch vehicle powered by six first-stage and one second-stage biopropane engines. The maiden
The Space Force is considering future investments to improve weather monitoring in the Arctic. WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month directed the Pentagon to develop plans to prepare for the impact of climate change and extreme weather. The new guidance is intended to shape policies and budgets over the next several years, including
Asteroid dust: Sean Gulick of the University of Texas at Austin (right), and Joanna Morgan at Imperial College London examine cores retrieved from the crater during the 2016 research mission led by the International Ocean Discovery Program. (Courtesy: The University of Texas at Austin/Jackson School of Geosciences) Strong evidence that the dinosaurs were killed-off 66
By: Hannah Pell With instantaneous communication and access to far more information than any of us could ever know or need, it’s important that there are people we trust to clearly explain the messiness of the world around us. The COVID-19 pandemic has especially demonstrated the challenges of disseminating complex scientific research to the general
Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt said U.S. diplomats and military leaders are drafting language in support of an international effort to adopt rules of behavior in space. WASHINGTON — The United States and allies are drafting language in support of an international effort to adopt rules of behavior in space, U.S. Space Command’s Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt
WASHINGTON — The White House said Feb. 23 has no schedule for nominating a NASA administrator as a new round of rumors swirl about who might be selected to lead the agency. The topic arose at a press conference when a reporter asked press secretary Jen Psaki about rumors that the Biden administration was considering
Taken from the February 2021 issue of Physics World, where it appeared under the headline “Improving nuclear fuel safety”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. A decade after the Fukushima disaster, Michael Allen investigates claims from academia and industry that the next generation of nuclear
WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 booster failed to land after its most recent launch Feb. 15 because of “heat damage” it sustained, but a SpaceX official said he was confident that the boosters can be reused 10 or more times. During a session of the 47th Spaceport Summit Feb. 23, Hans Koenigsmann, senior adviser for
WASHINGTON — Just days after NASA said it was ready to perform a second static-fire test of the Space Launch System core stage, the agency announced Feb. 22 that the test would be delayed because of a valve problem. NASA said it was postponing the Green Run static-fire test, which had been scheduled for Feb.
Shipping containers: scientists in Italy and the US have used cosmic muons to peer inside the steel boxes. (Courtesy: Patrick Denker/CC BY 2.0) A full-scale prototype muon tomograph that can peer inside cargo containers has been created by researchers in Italy and the US. The team, led by Francesco Riggi at the University of Catania,