Lifeboat Foundation

Almost a century ago, physicists Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein predicted a theoretical state of matter in which individual particles would, at extremely cold temperatures and low densities, condense into an indistinguishable whole. These so-called Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) would offer a macroscopic view into the microscopic world of quantum mechanics. In 1995, theoretical BECs became an experimental reality, which garnered the physicists who created them a Nobel Prize. Labs around the world— and even in space —have been creating them ever since.

All of the BECs created so far to ask fundamental questions about quantum mechanics have been made from atoms. It has proven much harder to make molecules cold enough to approach a BEC state, which hover fractions of a degree above absolute zero, and to keep the molecules stable long enough to conduct experiments.

“For twenty years, there have been proposals about what you could do with stable ultracold molecules, but it has been tough on the experimental side because the lifetime of molecular samples has been short,” said Columbia physicist Sebastian Will, whose lab specializes in creating ultracold atoms and molecules.

TOKYO — Japan launched a lunar lander on Thursday, aiming to become the fifth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon’s surface early next year following India’s success in a similar mission last month.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was sent to space on an H-IIA rocket, the first launch since a high-profile launch failure of the next-generation H3 rocket in March.

In just two weeks, the Indian mission has made some surprising discoveries about the composition of the Moon.

Scientists hope to use the pilot technology to build out a more robust system that would produce enough oxygen for humans and for rocket propellant.

Aditya-L1, India’s solar probe, has snapped some striking shots in space, capturing itself and the Earth and moon.

Dubbed ‘Luminous Fast Coolers,’ this new class of extreme cosmic explosion is incredibly rare — and unbelievably bright.

Since the Perseverance rover’s landing in 2021, MOXIE has produced a cumulative 122 grams of oxygen.

NASA’s Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) successfully concluded its mission by producing oxygen on the Red Planet for the 16th and final time. Developed by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the machine exceeded the initial expectations of its creators and has set a strong precedent for future missions aimed at human exploration of Mars.

“MOXIE’s outstanding results validate the viability of extracting oxygen from the Martian atmosphere—a crucial resource for both life-support and propellant for return missions,” stated NASA Deputy Administrator… More.

Continue reading “NASA’s MOXIE wraps mission with breath of fresh Martian air” »

Quantum technology’s future rests on the exploitation of fascinating quantum mechanics concepts—such as high-dimensional quantum states. Think of these states as basic ingredients of quantum information science and quantum tech. To manipulate these states, scientists have turned to light, specifically a property called orbital angular momentum (OAM), which deals with how light twists and turns in space. Here’s a catch: making super bright single photons with OAM in a deterministic fashion has been a tough nut to crack.

Now, enter quantum dots (QDs), tiny particles with big potential. A team of researchers from Sapienza University of Rome, Paris-Saclay University, and University of Naples Federico II combined the features of OAM with those of QDs to create a bridge between two cutting-edge technologies.

Their results are published in Advanced Photonics.

The Nordic KvarkenSpaceEco project, led by the University of Vaasa, has brought the Kvarken region into a new space age. Sustainable space economy and space-based data are now offering exciting business opportunities for companies in the region.