News by Subject Space & Planetary

A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations. But across the planet, NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a 'planet-encircling' (or 'global') dust event.

A faint and mysterious stream of microwaves emanating from star systems far out in the Milky Way could be caused by tiny diamonds, new research has suggested.

NASA's Curiosity Rover discovered 'tough' organic molecules on Mars, increasing the chances that a record of potential life could have been preserved despite harsh conditions that can easily break down organics. Carnegie's Andrew Steele was a key member of the research team, whose work on this project built off his discovery six years ago of indigenous organic carbon in Martian meteorites. The organic molecules he found in 2012 are comparable to those found by Curiosity.

The new material is needful to develop instruments for the high-precise measuring of distances, terrestrial and space optical communications, pollution monitoring, implementation of new modes of laser processing, information recording and storage.

A centuries-old materials bonding process is being tested aboard the International Space Station in an experiment that could pave the way for more materials research of its kind aboard the orbiting laboratory. Sintering is the process of heating different materials to compress their particles together.

A group of researchers from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a smaller, faster and more sensitive laser power meter in the form of a folding mirror they call a 'smart mirror.'

NASA and private company SpaceX plan to send humans to Mars within the next 15 years--but need to figure out how to protect astronauts from the dangerous cosmic radiation of deep space. Now the lab of UCSF neuroscientist Susanna Rosi, PhD, has identified a potential treatment for the brain damage caused by cosmic rays--a drug that prevents memory impairment in mice exposed to simulated space radiation. The study was published May 18, 2018 in Scientific Reports.

NASA Satellites Reveal Major Shifts in Global Freshwater (NASA Headquarters). In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists have combined an array of NASA satellite observations of Earth with data on human activities to map locations where freshwater is changing around the globe and to determine why.