Heating up: dark matter could be boosting the temperatures of exoplanets such as GJ 504b, which is depicted in this artistic impression. (Courtesy: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/S Wiessinger) Dark matter has a warming effect on exoplanets that could be observed – according to astronomers Rebecca Leane at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Juri Smirnov
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Earlier this month, atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a daily average of 421 parts per million, 50% higher than levels measured before the industrial revolution, according to data gathered at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory. That information came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Systems Research Laboratory which tracks atmospheric gases and other climate change
The United States is expected to play a supporting role in an international campaign to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from space. Through the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, nations are coordinating efforts for space-based monitoring of air quality, greenhouse gases, the ozone layer and natural climate drivers like solar energy. China, Europe and Japan are
Uplifting research: physicists have calculated when your elevator will arrive. (Courtesy: Another Believer/CC BY-SA 3.0) If you are like me, you probably haven’t spent much time in lifts or elevators recently. But as life slowly returns to normal, I could soon be rocking up at Physics World HQ, jabbing my finger at the call button
Latest HELSINKI — China’s foreign ministry acknowledged the imminent uncontrolled reentry of the Long March 5B Friday as the orbit of the first stage continued to lose altitude. At a Foreign Ministry regular press conference May 7 spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded to a question from Bloomberg stating that it is “common practice across the world
Big Data is boosting Earth Observation demand, creating new applications and changing traditional business models. As a disruptive innovation, it keeps changing the way EO data is being used. Technologies are no longer the only driver of innovation; this is about how, with innovations being combined, the ecosystem is rapidly maturing — and so are
By Allison Kubo Hutchison Stack of papers on a black background. ISTOCK.COM/PURPLEANVIL How does work become a scientific consensus? Nowadays, it has to go through a process called peer-review. Science is conducted by researchers at universities, NGOs, national labs, observatories, and private entities. Then this work is compiled into a paper or journal article which
Join the audience for a live webinar at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. EDT on 26 May 2021 exploring the MRID3D Geometric Distortion Analysis System Want to take part in this webinar? With the increasing interest in MRI-guided interventions, treatment accuracy requires more advanced QA tools to measure distortion and establish accepted thresholds. The QUASARTM MRID3D
WASHINGTON — NASA and Boeing have scheduled a second uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft for July 30. In separate statements, the agency and the company said they were planning to launch the Starliner on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 at 2:53 p.m. Eastern July 30 on the Orbital Flight
The Space Force wants its members to learn programming languages, machine learning and data analysis. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force on May 6 released a vision document that calls on its military and civilian workforce to embrace a “digital culture.” The Space Force’s “Vision for a Digital Service” says the service will need people
Patrick Hopkins, left, and Ash Giri, UVA mechanical and aerospace engineering alumni and former UVA senior scientist. Photo credit Tom Cogill, for UVA Engineering A polymer-based insulator that conducts heat well and has an ultra-low dielectric constant – two properties seldom seen in the same structure – could help dissipate waste heat in computer chips.
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Starship prototype successfully carried out a brief suborbital flight May 5 after four previous vehicles were destroyed during or shortly after landing. The Starship SN15 vehicle lifted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site at 6:24 p.m. Eastern. The vehicle flew to an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers before descending
Col. Rob Bongiovi said a design validation of the booster that will launch GPS 3 SV05 will be completed this month WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force this month will complete a design review of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster that flew a military GPS satellite to orbit last summer. The booster is expected to
By: Hannah Pell In 2005, future projections for emissions published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in their Annual Energy Outlook were bleak; business-as-usual for the power sector meant that carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels could reach up to 3,000 million metric tons by 2020 (equivalent to CO2 emissions from roughly 544 million homes’ electricity
Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “Judge, jury and AI-xecutioner”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Achintya Rao reviews A Citizen’s Guide to AI by John Zerilli and co-authors
HELSINKI — A large rocket stage which launched China’s first space station last week is likely to reenter the atmosphere around May 8 according to early space tracking predictions. U.S. Department of Defense Spokesperson Mike Howard in a statement May 4 said that “U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the
WASHINGTON — Firefly Aerospace, nearing the first launch of its Alpha rocket, announced May 4 it raised $75 million in a Series A round that values the company at more than $1 billion. The company said the Series A round was led by DADA Holdings, with participating from Astera Institute, Canon Ball LLC, Reuben Brothers
Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Leonard Wossnig, chief executive of quantum drug-discovery company Rahko, describes the powerful capabilities of artificial intelligence and quantum computing when combined