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WASHINGTON — SpaceX plans to test several upgrades to its Starship vehicle on its next test flight, scheduled for as soon as Jan. 10, as well as conduct the first payload deployments from it. SpaceX outlined its plans for the seventh test flight of the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle in a Jan. 3 statement. It confirmed

Artist’s impression of a group of Homo floresiensis with a freshly killed stegodon (Stegodon florensis insularis) MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Severe drought caused by climate change may have led to the decline of Indonesia’s pygmy elephants and the “hobbit”-like humans who hunted them. Until about 50,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis, standing about a metre tall,

Solar wind squashed Uranus’s magnetosphere during Voyager 2 flyby – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — NASA’s deputy administrator says there is nearly unanimous support for its low Earth orbit microgravity strategy that endorses keeping humans in orbit continuously during the transition to commercial space stations. NASA released Dec. 16 a final version of LEO Microgravity Strategy that backed a concept called “continuous heartbeat” by the agency, which calls

Air-conditioning units, which often use HFC gases, on a building in Shenyang, China Visual China Group via Getty Images Emissions of a powerful greenhouse gas released as a byproduct in the manufacture of refrigerants are much higher than reported by governments, suggesting a global agreement to stamp out such emissions is failing. Under the Kigali

Defying gravity: insights into hula hoop levitation – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat said Jan. 2 it has restored services across its low Earth orbit (LEO) OneWeb broadband network following a two-day outage. The French company, which also operates a fleet of 35 geostationary satellites, said in a brief news release the disruption was caused by a software issue within its ground segment. Delays

Refrigerators and freezers typically get their cooling power from environmentally harmful fluids Mint Images Limited/Alamy A new type of crystal could enable refrigerators and air conditioners to keep us cool without warming the planet. Refrigerators and air conditioners get their cooling power by circulating a liquid through the device, which absorbs heat and causes chilling

International Year of Quantum Science and Technology: our celebrations begin with a look at quantum networks and sensors – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — Florida’s Space Coast capped off a record-breaking year with 93 launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, up from 74 launches in 2023. Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, commander of the Eastern Range and Space Delta 45, credited the accelerated pace to innovations by both Space Launch Delta 45

It has been just over five years since the beginning of covid-19 The coronavirus behind covid-19 has infected most people in the world, killing around 15 million people and leaving about 400 million individuals with long-term health problems. It also caused the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Despite all this,

Picking winners: the 10 most popular physics stories of 2024 – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has formally allocated additional spectrum for launch applications, fulfilling a provision in a bill passed earlier this year. The FCC published Dec. 31 a report and order that allocated spectrum between 2360 and 2395 megahertz for use in communications to and from commercial launch and reentry vehicles on a

Blinking may do more than just keep our eyes healthy gaiamoments/Getty Images Blinking serves a crucial physiological function, by clearing debris from our eyes and keeping them lubricated. But now, scientists have found it may also have a cognitive role. In 1945, Arthur Hall at the University of Sheffield in the UK reported on the

The 10 quirkiest stories from the world of physics in 2024 – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

HELSINKI — India successfully launched spacecraft Monday designed to test docking technologies crucial to the country’s major space ambitions. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off at 11:30 a.m. Eastern (1630 UTC; 10 p.m. local time) Dec. 30 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, with the rocket climbing into the night sky.

Multiple copies of IBM’s quantum Flamingo chip can be connected together IBM IBM is planning to build the largest quantum computer so far, by linking together smaller machines to create one with a recording-breaking number of quantum bits, or qubits. The firm’s first steps on this path in 2025 should see it hit a new

Astronomy and space: highlights of 2024 – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here