Science

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ESO Telescope Sees Signs of Planet Birth

The Twist Marks the Spot

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SPHERE image of the disc around AB Aurigae.

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Ultra-thin sail could speed journey to other star systems

A tiny sail made of the thinnest material known – one carbon-atom-thick graphene – has passed initial tests designed to show that it could be a viable material to make solar sails for spacecraft.

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Graphene sail in microgravity.

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Clues to Chilly Ancient Mars Buried in Rocks

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Filled with briny lakes, the Quisquiro salt flat in South America's Altiplano represents the kind of landscape that scientists think may have existed in Gale Crater on Mars.

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X-ray Experiments Zero in on COVID-19 Antibodies

Scientists reveal potential coronavirus therapy using structural biology and the Advanced Light Source

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This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – isolated from a patient in the U.S. The protrusions visible on the outside are the spike proteins that the virus particles use to fuse with and gain entry to host cells.

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Czech Republic drought visible from space

The prolonged period of dry weather in the Czech Republic has resulted in what experts are calling the ‘worst drought in 500 years.’ Scientists are using ESA satellite data to monitor the drought that’s gripped the country.

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Average soil moisture in Czech Republic.

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How Engineers at NASA-JPL Persevered to Develop a Ventilator

As coronavirus hit, JPL engineers teamed up to make a ventilator prototype that could be mass produced to fill a massive need. It's not rocket science; it's something more.

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Clockwise from bottom left: Brandon Metz, Shaunessy Grant, Michael Johnson, Dave Van Buren, Michelle Easter and Patrick Degrosse are among dozens of engineers at JPL involved in creating VITAL, a ventilator prototype specially targeted to coronavirus disease patients.

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Europlanet Telescope Network issues 1st Alert – A new north polar spot in Saturn

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Europlanet Telescope Network issues 1st Alert – A new north polar spot in Saturn

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Laser-powered rover to explore Moon’s dark shadows

A laser light shone through the dark could power robotic exploration of the most tantalising locations in our Solar System: the permanently-shadowed craters around the Moon’s poles, believed to be rich in water ice and other valuable materials.

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RAT rover by night.

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Tiny NASA Satellite Captures First Image of Clouds and Aerosols

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After several months of commissioning, the HARP CubeSat sent back a first light capture on April 16, 2020. The coastlines of Italy, Sardinia and southeastern Europe can be seen in the image.

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Magnetic north and the elongating blob

For some years now, scientists have been puzzling over why the north magnetic pole has been making a dash towards Siberia. Thanks, in part, to ESA’s Swarm satellite mission, scientists are now more confident in the theory that tussling magnetic blobs deep below Earth’s surface are at the root of this phenomenon.

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Swirling iron.