california institute of technology
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These Companies Want to Beam Space-Based Solar Power to Earth
Space manufacturing startup Orbital Composites and space energy company Virtus Solis have announced a collaboration to bring space-based solar power even closer to reality. The two have announced a megawatt-scale space-based solar power station that can collect energy from the Sun and beam it down to Earth.
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Finding Habitable Worlds Must Be a Priority This Decade, U.S. Science Advisors Say
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released the results of its latest decadal survey, which outlines science objectives for the astronomical community over the next 10 years. The three biggest priorities, the report says, are finding Earth-like exoplanets, better understanding the nature of the universe’s densest objects, and drastically improving our grasp on…
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How Do We Know How Old Fossils Are?
Paleolithic hunters built mammoth traps in what is now Mexico some 14,700 years ago. An unknown sea creature left footprints in sand some 550 million years ago, making them the oldest known footprints on Earth. The mysterious Denisovan humans reached southeast Asia 160,000 years ago, as evidenced by a jawbone found on the Tibetan Plateau.…
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Astronomers Found an Ultra-Dense White Star the Size of Our Moon
Imagine a white-hot, dying star that contains more mass than our Sun packed into an orb just a little larger than our Moon. That’s ZTF J190132.9+145808.7, a record-setting white dwarf recently identified by astronomers.