2Te3. Courtesy: Chinese Physics Letters“> Crystal structure of Bi2Te3. Courtesy: Chinese Physics Letters In 2019, researchers discovered that two intrinsically magnetic materials, MnBi2Te4 and MnBi2Te7, can behave as topological insulators – materials that are electrically insulating in bulk, but conduct electricity well on the surface. A team led by Yangpeng Qi from ShanghaiTech University has
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If confirmed, Thompson will be the second four-star general in the U.S. Space Force under Gen. John “Jay” Raymond. WASHINGTON — President Trump on Aug. 7 nominated Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson for promotion to four-star general. If confirmed by the Senate, Thompson will become vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force.
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force announced Aug. 7 that United Launch Alliance and SpaceX have been selected to receive five-year contracts to launch national security satellites for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. United Launch Alliance received a $337 million contract and SpaceX received a $316 million contract for launches planned between between
[embedded content] Above is a video by the physicist, YouTuber and quantum cartographer Dominic Walliman, who describes a map of quantum physics that he has created. The map introduces quantum mechanics by providing bite-sized chunks of information that are organized in a way that gives an overview of the quantum world and the academic disciplines
Updated 7:30 p.m. Eastern with Blue Origin comment. WASHINGTON — Six years ago, SpaceX was the upstart launch company seeking to break United Launch Alliance’s monopoly on national security space launches. Now, it’s part of the establishment. When the U.S. Air Force announced Aug. 7 that SpaceX and ULA would split the National Security Space
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the latest set of the company’s Starlink satellites, along with two BlackSky imaging satellites, Aug. 7 after weeks of delays. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 1:12 a.m. Eastern. After a pair of burns, the upper stage deployed BlackSky’s
Close shave: electron microscope image of a razorblade cutting human hair. (Courtesy: Gianluca Roscioli/Tasan Group/MIT) New insights into why a hard steel razor blade is dulled by cutting soft hairs have been gained by a trio of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gianluca Roscioli, Seyedeh Mohadeseh Taheri-Mousavi and Cemal Cem Tasan did a
WASHINGTON — As small satellites become more powerful, manufacturers say they need better ways to manage excess heat generated by their electronics systems. Small satellites are increasingly handling more data, be it collecting remote sensing imagery or routing traffic for ground-based sensors and smart devices. Planet’s optical-imaging cubesats increased in onboard memory from 16 gigabytes
WASHINGTON — The percentage of small satellites that successfully complete their missions has improved in recent years even as the number of such satellites has dramatically increased. The Aerospace Corporation study, presented at the 34th Annual Small Satellite Conference, found that 87% of smallsats launched between 2009 and 2018 that had completed their missions had
Optical tweezers: Avinash Kumar, who built the Mpemba effect apparatus and carried out the experiments under the guidance of John Bechhoefer, at work in the lab. (Courtesy: Prithviraj Basak) In 1963, a Tanzanian schoolboy called Erasto Mpemba was making ice cream when he noticed something strange: hot water sometimes freezes faster than cold water. Though
SAN FRANCISCO – Revenues for Lithuanian Nanosatellite manufacturer NanoAvionics tripled in the last 12 months as the company signed contracts with startups and industry veterans. “As the market for nanosatellites and cubesats matures, NanoAvionics is very well placed with its price points and capability,” NanoAvionics US CEO Brent Abbott told SpaceNews. NanoAvionics, a spin-off from
WASHINGTON — Commercial satellite operator SES has selected SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to each launch two geostationary satellites designed to replace C-band capacity in the United States that the Federal Communications Commission is repurposing for 5G cellular networks. SpaceX’s agreement includes room to launch one additional “contingency satellite” that has not yet been ordered.
By Leah Poffenberger Artist’s representation of Pōniuāʻena. IMAGE CREDIT: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld Looking up at the night sky stars is a bit like going to a history museum: The light we see is giving us a glimpse into the past. When light is emitted from a star, it has to travel across the galaxy
Incoming: did a wayward star switch-off the X-ray corona of a distant supermassive black hole? (Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Over the course of just one year, the bright X-ray corona surrounding a supermassive black hole dipped dramatically in brightness, before steadily recovering its initial luminosity. The event was observed by an international team of astronomers, led by
SAN FRANCISCO – Satellite propulsion startup Benchmark Space Systems announced an agreement Aug. 4 to provide non-toxic chemical propulsion for rideshare provider Spaceflight Inc.’s next-generation orbital transfer vehicle, Sherpa-NG. At the same time, Burlington, Vermont-based Benchmark revealed a permanent licensing partnership with Tesseract Space, a California propulsion startup. Under the terms of the deal, Vermont-based
WASHINGTON — Amazon Web Services has slowed the rollout of its ground station network to accommodate customer feedback about the best locations to place its antennas. AWS has built ground stations at six locations instead of the 12 that were expected by the end of last year. Shayn Hawthorne, general manager of AWS’s ground station
Empty space: fewer commercial flights mean poorer weather forecasts. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Volodymyr-Goinyk) The grounding of commercial air flights during the COVID-19 pandemic has made weather forecasts less reliable. As well as affecting short-term forecasts, the reduction in aircraft weather observations has impacted longer-term forecasts and could handicap early warnings of extreme weather, warns Ying Chen, an
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic has pushed the beginning of commercial flights of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle to no earlier than the first quarter of 2021 while announcing plans to sell additional stock to raise money. The company, in its fiscal second quarter financial results released Aug. 3, said it expected to perform two more test