Science

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To catch an interstellar visitor, use a solar-powered space slingshot

MIT research proposal for rendezvous missions with interstellar objects selected for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program.

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To ensure the best coverage of our solar system, MIT Assistant Professor Richard Linares envisions a constellation of "statites" that communicate and work together, only activating the statite in the optimum position to fly by or rendezvous with an interstellar object successfully. Other statites in the constellation can continue to wait for the next ISO to appear.

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Introducing a New Isotope: Mendelevium-244

Berkeley Lab-led team creates a new, lighter form of the element mendelevium in experiments at the 88-Inch Cyclotron

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A model showing the 101 electrons orbiting the element mendelevium.

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This Enigmatic Protein Sculpts DNA to Repair Harmful Damage

Scientists have determined how a protein called XPG binds to and reshapes damaged DNA, illuminating its role in averting genetic disease and cancer

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Sometimes, when something is broken, the first step to fixing it is to break it even more.

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Young Giant Planet Offers Clues to Formation of Exotic Worlds

Jupiter-size planets orbiting close to their stars have upended ideas about how giant planets form. Finding young members of this planet class could help answer key questions.

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This animation shows a type of gas giant planet known as a hot Jupiter that orbits very close to its star. Finding more of these youthful planets could help astronomers understand how they formed and if they migrate from cooler climes during their lifetimes.

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Satellites Have Drastically Changed How We Forecast Hurricanes

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Satellites Have Drastically Changed How We Forecast Hurricanes

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NASA Observes Large Saharan Dust Plume Over Atlantic Ocean

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On June 18, 2020, NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured this visible image of the large light brown plume of Saharan dust over the North Atlantic Ocean. The image showed that the dust from Africa’s west coast extended almost to the Lesser Antilles in the western North Atlantic Ocean.

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Quasar jets are particle accelerators thousands of light-years long

An international collaboration bringing together over 200 scientists from 13 countries has shown that the very high-energy gamma-ray emission from quasars, galaxies with a highly energetic nucleus, is not concentrated in the region close to their central black hole but in fact extends over several thousand light-years along jets of plasma. This discovery shakes up current scenarios for the behaviour of such plasma jets. The work, published in the journal Nature on June 18th, 2020, was carried out as part of the H.E.S.S collaboration, involving in particular the CNRS and CEA in France, and the Max Planck society and a group of research institutions and universities in Germany.

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Composite image of Centaurus A, showing the jets emerging from the galaxy’s central black hole, together with the associated gamma radiation.

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Astronomers Discover a Mysterious Cosmic Clock

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lasts of radiation detected every 16 days, which could help explain mysterious bursts of energy from space.

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Are Planets with Oceans Common in the Galaxy? It’s Likely, NASA Scientists Find

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This illustration shows NASA's Cassini spacecraft flying through plumes on Enceladus in October 2015.

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Stunning New Hubble Images Reveal Stars Gone Haywire

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Stunning New Hubble Images Reveal Stars Gone Haywire