SpaceX Starship test to attempt first-ever spaceship ‘catch’

Elon Musk’s SpaceX was poised Friday to carry out its latest test of the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket, the Starship, with plans for a groundbreaking “catch” of the spaceship following a day in orbit.

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Light-activated molecules in porous crystals show potential for quantum chemical sensing

An international research team led by Nobuhiro Yanai from the University of Tokyo and Michael R. Wasielewski from Northwestern University has created polarized radical pairs, molecules with unpaired electrons whose spins align, in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), porous materials consisting of metal ions linked by organic molecules.

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Automated assembly in space is the future and NOM4D is showing the way

If we want big things in space, we’ll have to build and assemble them there. Rocket fairings are not large enough to accommodate the large things we want to have in space. Not only that, but the stubborn rocket equation refuses to bend itself to our desires.

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Research advances quantum computing that harnesses speed of light

Quantum computers have the potential to perform calculations more quickly than supercomputers, but they could be even faster and more energy-efficient if they were built with photons as their basic units, called qubits.

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The moon is not the Wild West: Experts call for a pause on lunar industrialization

As the major powers and the private companies go full tilt with their plans to develop infrastructure and extract resources on the moon, the questions around environmental protection, international regulation and who benefits all come into play. Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science (VU IIRPS) professor Florian Rabitz, together with Xiao-Shan Yap from Utrecht University, explores these concerns in their research article, “Don’t Fly Me to the Moon: A Moratorium on Lunar Industrialization,” published in the journal Global Environmental Politics.

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Vision and interferometry improve calibration of large monolithic mirrors

In a new study published in Measurement, researchers from the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a calibration method that combines machine vision with interferometry. This method separates a mirror’s fixed internal offset from changes in the test path alignment.

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Engineered atomic interactions help microwave sensor capture three times as much information

Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw (UW) and the Center for Optical Quantum Technologies at the University of Warsaw’s Center for New Technologies (CeNT UW) have developed a method for ultrasensitive microwave sensing. Using cold, strongly interacting Rydberg atoms as a microwave detector, the researchers observed that carefully engineered interactions between the atoms make the atomic state resistant to loss.

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Multiplexed detector system precisely counts more than 9,000 photons

Researchers have developed a new approach that can precisely count from zero to more than 9,000 individual photons. The advance opens new possibilities for studying quantum light at large scales and making precise optical measurements.

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Matter–antimatter asymmetry still provides no evidence of new physics

The universe’s dominance by ordinary matter is compelling evidence that matter and antimatter are not perfect reflections of each other. However, known differences do not explain the scale of this imbalance, leaving open the possibility that unknown physics is responsible. A new analysis of meson decays, conducted by the LHCb collaboration, has narrowed the scope of the search for such a scenario while paving the way for more precise measurements in the future.

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Chip-based laser cooling could ease quantum computing bottleneck

Researchers at Cornell have developed a laser-cooling technique that could potentially remove a significant bottleneck in the development of larger, faster quantum computers.

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Widow of slain officer eligible for $1M death benefit under 2024 Colo. law

Lakewood PD Agent Nick Graham, a 7-year veteran of the Lakewood Police Department, was killed in a shootout aboard an RTD bus

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Hubble offers cosmic sampler of targets for Roman

A gallery of gravitational lenses captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showcases the diversity of this cosmic phenomenon and lays the groundwork for follow-up observations by the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

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Layered superionic conductor hosts atomic vibrations that behave like liquids, glasses and crystals

Scientists from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have directly observed liquid-like, glass-like and crystal-like phonon behaviors coexisting in a crystalline solid—the layered superionic conductor AgCrSe₂.

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Ultrafast 3D imaging captures fleeting motion at 150,000 frames per second

A research team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), led by professor Jinyang Liang, is pushing the limits of ultrafast imaging with a new technology capable of capturing three-dimensional images at speeds of up to 150,000 frames per second. Published in the journal Nature Communications, this study establishes a new world record in profilometry.

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Space telescope Euclid sets the new standard for cosmology

On July 1, 2023, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Euclid space telescope into space. Its mission: to create the largest and most detailed map of the universe ever made.

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