A new study is highlighting a need for widespread use of better face masks and the importance of good ventilation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 indoors. Engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo performed experiments using a mannequin to simulate a seated person breathing in a large room. The studies showed a significant buildup over time of aerosol droplets – exhaled droplets so tiny they remain suspended and travel through the air – despite the use of common cloth and blue surgical masks....

Science Advances today, published online the research by a team led by Professor Andrew Forbes from the School of Physics at Wits University in collaboration with a team led by Professor Jian Wang at HUST. In their paper titled: Multi-dimensional entanglement transport through single-mode fiber, the researchers demonstrate a new paradigm for realizing a future quantum network. The team showed that multiple patterns of light are accessible after a communication link of conventional optical fiber, that paradoxically can only support a single pattern....

We’re protected from that radiation by the heliosphere, which itself is created by another source of radiation: the Sun. The Sun constantly spews charged particles, called the solar wind, from its surface. The solar wind flings out to about four times the distance of Neptune, carrying with it the magnetic field from the Sun. “Magnetic fields tend to push up against each other, but not mix,” said Eric Christian, a lead heliosphere research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland....

The hole is about 250 light-years wide and its presence is still something of a mystery. Stellar winds expelled by massive stars in the bubble’s interior may have driven away the gas, but this is inconsistent with measured wind velocities in the bubble. Another possibility, since the nebula is filled with massive stars that would expire in titanic explosions, is that the expanding shells of old supernovae sculpted the cosmic cavern....

This year, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice dropped to 4.72 million square kilometers (1.82 million square miles). Sea ice extent is defined as the total area in which ice concentration is at least 15%. The average September minimum extent record shows significant declines since satellites began measuring consistently in 1978. The last 15 years (2007 to 2021) are the lowest 15 minimum extents in the 43-year satellite record....

NASA is inviting the public to take part in virtual activities and events ahead of the launch of the Landsat 9 satellite, a joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey mission that will continue the legacy of monitoring Earth’s land and coastal regions. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket is targeted for Monday, September 27, 2021, from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Members of the public can register to attend the launch virtually....

Our galaxy holds at least an estimated 300 million of these potentially habitable worlds, based on even the most conservative interpretation of the results in a study to be published in The Astronomical Journal. Some of these exoplanets could even be our interstellar neighbors, with at least four potentially within 30 light-years of our Sun and the closest likely to be at most about 20 light-years from us. These are the minimum numbers of such planets based on the most conservative estimate that 7% of Sun-like stars host such worlds....

“With PUNCH we will finally be able to see directly the connection between the star at the center of our solar system, and the solar wind that immerses our planet and gives rise to space weather here on Earth,” says SwRI’s Dr. Craig DeForest, the mission’s principal investigator. “To do that, we are building satellites and four cameras to photograph very faint rays of sunlight reflected by free electrons in interplanetary space....

NASA’s Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars. The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday....

This mosaic is made up of 17 individual images captured in the “Marker Band” area by Curiosity’s Mastcam on November 7, 2022, the 3,646th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mosaic was captured by Mastcam’s 34-millimeter-focal-length camera. Curiosity is a rover that was sent to Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. The rover was launched on November 26, 2011, and landed on Mars on August 6, 2012....

This new technique is called Feed Extended Drilling, or FED. It lets Curiosity drill more like the way a person would at home, using the force of its robotic arm to push its drill bit forward as it spins. The new version of FED adds a hammering force to the drill bit. The drill was tested with the FED technique without percussion at the end of February. It didn’t successfully produce a rock sample, but did provide valuable results for engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California....

At the time of closest approach (called perijove), Juno will be about 2,670 miles (4,300 kilometers) above the planet’s cloud tops and traveling at a speed of about 129,000 mph (57.8 kilometers per second) relative to the gas giant. All of Juno’s eight science instruments, including the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, will be on and collecting data during the flyby. “With every close flyby we are finding something new,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio....

One NASA project is developing special gears that can withstand the extreme temperatures experienced during missions to the Moon and beyond. Typically, in extremely low temperatures, gears – and the housing in which they’re encased, called a gearbox – are heated. After heating, a lubricant helps the gears function correctly and prevents the steel alloys from becoming brittle and, eventually, breaking. NASA’s Bulk Metallic Glass Gears (BMGG) project team is creating material made of “metallic glass” for gearboxes that can function in and survive extreme cold environments without heating, which requires energy....

The numbers are mind-boggling: The Orion capsule will hit Earth’s atmosphere flying at speeds of almost 25,000 mph (or about 11 kilometers per second) and experience temperatures nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the process. Iain Boyd is a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences who has spent his career studying hypersonics, or vehicles that travel far faster than the speed of sound. He also leads a $15 million NASA institute called the Advanced Computational Center for Entry System Simulation (ACCESS)....

Quantum computers hold the promise of operating millions of times faster than conventional computers. But to communicate over long distances, quantum computers will need a dedicated quantum communications network. To help form such a network, a device has been developed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech that can count huge numbers of single photons – quantum particles of light – with incredible precision. Like measuring individual droplets of water while being sprayed by a firehose, the Performance-Enhanced Array for Counting Optical Quanta (PEACOQ) detector is able to measure the precise time each photon hits it, within 100 trillionths of a second, at a rate of 1....

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 7:42 a.m. EDT on June 10, 2014. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory – which typically observes the entire sun 24 hours a day – captured images of the flare. This flare is classified as an X2.2 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc....

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus will enter the sun’s corona and measure the full force of supersonic solar particles and radiation with a Faraday cup developed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Draper. Every so often the sun emits an explosive burst of charged particles that makes its way to Earth and often wreaks havoc on power grids, aircraft and satellite systems. When clouds of high-speed charged particles come racing off the sun, they can bathe spacecraft, astronauts and planetary surfaces in damaging radiation....

In this sonification, scientists represent data in the image as sound for a new, festive way of experiencing RS Puppis. Pitch is assigned based on direction from the center; as the circle travels inward, light closer to the top is high pitched, and light closer to the bottom is lower. Light toward the left is heard more in the left speaker and light toward the right is heard more in the right speaker....

The Los Angeles County Fire Department reported that the fire is 656 acres and is 5% contained. Tonight, low humidity and a resurgence of the Santa Ana winds with gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph) are expected to create a very dangerous scenario. The blustery weather, scheduled to continue through Thursday (according to the National Weather Service), and the steep terrain both make it difficult for firefighters to battle the blaze....

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, October 6, as the SpaceX Dragon Endurance docked to the complex at 5:01 p.m. EDT. At the time, the spacecraft were flying 258 miles above the west coast of Africa. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts docked autonomously to the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 4:57 p....