Using a combination of multiple energy sources, including solar, makes the nation’s energy system more resilient. Solar energy provides about 3% of the country’s electricity overall and about 9% of Arizona’s, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Using a combination of multiple energy sources, including solar, makes the nation’s energy system more resilient. Solar … Read more
A sampling of the fossilized meteorites, preserved in limestone that was quarried in Sweden. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News) Monday was like Christmas in July at the Field Museum, where staff pried open crates recently arrived from Sweden, full of cargo that the word “precious” doesn’t begin to describe. As they freed each package from … Read more
A pair of missions to two asteroids near Earth are beginning to provide new information about when, where and in what form water first existed in the solar system. Why it matters: Water played a key role in the formation of planets – and the emergence of life that evolved on at least one world … Read more
Neptune orbiter outline The proposed mission overview identifies a launch window in 2030 that would see the probe launch on a Long March 5 rocket. It would reach Neptune at a distance of around 30 AU in 2040, via a Jupiter flyby, and enter a polar orbit around the ice giant. The mission, the authors … Read more
Even with the impressive and continuous advances in solar technologies, the question remains: How can we efficiently collect energy from sunlight coming from varying angles from sunrise to sunset? Even with the impressive and continuous advances in solar technologies, the question remains: How can we efficiently collect energy from sunlight coming from varying angles from … Read more
As the climate crisis looms, scientists are racing to find solutions to common clean energy problems, including solar energy storage. Solar energy is one of the best renewable resources we have, but it has challenges that prevent it from being widely adopted and replacing conventional energy sources. Because solar energy is variable throughout the day … Read more
AMES, Iowa – Solar panels and wind turbines, now projected to produce 44% of America’s electricity by 2050, present cybersecurity challenges. AMES, Iowa – Solar panels and wind turbines, now projected to produce 44% of America’s electricity by 2050, present cybersecurity challenges. They have sensors, controllers, actuators or inverters that are directly or indirectly connected … Read more
A new study shows a deep connection between some of the largest, most energetic events in the universe and much smaller, weaker ones powered by our own Sun. The results come from a long observation with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory of Abell 2146, a pair of colliding galaxy clusters located about 2.8 billion light-years from … Read more
Asteroid collisions in the early solar system exposed their iron cores to space, allowing them to cool rapidly. (Image credit: NASA / JPL – Caltech) A great demolition derby, with a chaotic mess of asteroids and forming planets constantly slamming into each other, took place in the early solar system between 7.8 million and 11.7 … Read more
There’s no question that young solar systems are chaotic places. Cascading collisions defined our young Solar System as rocks, boulders, and planetesimals repeatedly collided. A new study based on chunks of asteroids that crashed into Earth puts a timeline to some of that chaos. Astronomers know that asteroids have remained essentially unchanged since their formation … Read more