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Category: satellites

Webb discovers a new moon orbiting Uranus

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has identified a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus, expanding the planet’s known satellite family to 29. The detection was made during a Webb observation on Feb. 2, 2025.

“This object was spotted in a series of ten 40-minute long-exposure images captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam),” said Maryame El Moutamid, a lead scientist in SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division based in Boulder, Colorado. “It’s a small moon but a significant discovery, which is something that even NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft didn’t see during its flyby nearly 40 years ago.”

The newly discovered moon is estimated to be just six miles (10 kilometers) in diameter, assuming it has a similar reflectivity (albedo) to Uranus’s other small satellites. That tiny size likely rendered it invisible to Voyager 2 and other telescopes.

FLEX instrument meets its satellite

The development of ESA’s Earth Explorer FLEX mission has recently passed a significant milestone: the mission’s all-important, single instrument has been joined to its satellite platform.

This delicate operation was carried out by spacecraft engineers at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, following the delivery of the instrument from Leonardo in Florence, Italy.

FLEX’s fluorescence imaging spectrometer is called FLORIS for short and designed to map vegetation fluorescence around the globe and quantify photosynthetic activity and plant stress.

As the atmosphere changes, so will its response to geomagnetic storms

Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change the way geomagnetic storms impact Earth, with potential implications for thousands of orbiting satellites, according to new research led by scientists at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR).

Geomagnetic storms, caused by massive eruptions of charged particles from the surface of the sun that buffet Earth’s atmosphere, are a growing challenge for our technologically dependent society. The storms temporarily increase the density of the upper atmosphere and therefore the drag on satellites, which impacts their speed, altitude, and how long they remain operational.

The new study used an advanced computer model to determine that the upper atmosphere’s density will be lower during a future geomagnetic storm compared with a present-day storm of the same intensity. That’s because the baseline density will be lower, and future storms won’t increase it to levels as high as what occurs with storms currently.

“It’s Now Twice Florida’s Size”: NASA Tracks Rapidly Expanding Anomaly In Earth’s Magnetic Field Threatening Satellites And Power Systems

IN A NUTSHELL 🔍 NASA monitors the South Atlantic Anomaly, a region of weakened magnetic intensity impacting satellite operations. 🛰️ The anomaly poses risks to technological systems in spacecraft due to exposure to solar particles. 🧭 The anomaly’s evolution involves dynamic changes and a potential split into two distinct cells. 🌌 Ongoing research explores the

South Africa and China set up a quantum communication link: How we did it and why it’s historic

A major breakthrough in quantum technology was achieved in October 2024: the first-ever quantum satellite communication link between China and South Africa. The connection spanned a remarkable 12,900 km: the longest intercontinental quantum communication link established to date. The longest before this was 7,600 km and within the northern hemisphere only.

It was achieved with quantum , a method for a sender and receiver to share a secure key that they can use to safely send messages. Any interception during transmission leaves traces that can be detected. It involves sending single photons (tiny particles of light).

If someone tries to intercept the photons, the photons get disturbed because of quantum physics. Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. Sender and receiver use only undisturbed photons, making the key to the message ultra secure. The key can be sent via optical fiber or free-space, including satellites.

GIGANTIC: Humanoid Robots $100 Trillion+ (deep dive)

Questions to inspire discussion.

Data and Autonomy.

📊 Q: Why is vision data valuable in AI development? A: Vision data is worth more than zero if you can collect and process yataflops and yataflops of data, but worthless without collection capabilities, making the world’s visual data valuable for those who can collect and process it.

🚗 Q: How does solving autonomy relate to AI development? A: Solving autonomy is crucial and requires tons of real world data, which necessitates tons of robots collecting real world data in the real world, creating a cycle of data collection and AI improvement.

Company-Specific Opportunities.

🔋 Q: What advantage does Tesla have in developing humanoid robots? A: Tesla has essentially built the robot’s brain in their vehicles, allowing them to transplant this brain into humanoid robots, giving them a massive head start in development.

Continue reading “GIGANTIC: Humanoid Robots 0 Trillion+ (deep dive)” | >

Sweeping survey maps hundreds of satellite systems orbiting dwarf galaxies

We usually think of satellites as small objects orbiting planets or stars. But in the broader universe, galaxies themselves can have satellites—smaller galaxies bound by gravity that orbit a larger host, carrying with them stars, gas, dust, and dark matter.

Most of what we know about satellite galaxies comes from studying the Milky Way and other similarly large galaxies. But a new study led by Dartmouth astronomers broadens that understanding by exploring the satellites of dwarf galaxies—systems less than a tenth the size of the Milky Way.

The multi-institutional survey triples the number of dwarf galaxies surveyed for satellites, the researchers report in The Astrophysical Journal. The study identifies 355 candidate satellite galaxies, including 264 that were previously undocumented. The researchers suggest that 134 of these candidates are highly likely to be satellite galaxies.

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