Daily News update on – Science

Space.com

The James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed all five layers of its tennis-court-sized sunshield, a prerequisite for the telescope’s science operations and the most nerve-wracking part of its risky deployment.

Space.com

Webb’s 21.3-foot-wide (6.5 meters) primary mirror consists of 18 hexagonal segments arrayed across a central platform and two smaller side “wings.” These wings were folded back prior to launch so the assembly could fit inside the protective payload fairing …

Space.com

“These structures can be seen as bright features moving upward and downward in this video compiled from the spacecraft’s WISPR [Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe] instrument,” the laboratory said. WISPR is designed to study the density of charged …

Space.com

The sun is just a little bit closer in Earth’s sky right now. Earth is at its closest to the sun Tuesday (Jan. 4) in its 365.25-day journey. This milestone, called perihelion, coincidentally happens near the start of the Gregorian calendar year …

CNN

It’s one of the most challenging spacecraft deployments NASA has ever attempted, according to the agency. Unfurling a tennis court in space.

WIRED

How do you tell whether a planet trillions of miles away is Earth-like? You look at its orbit and the starlight reflecting off its surface and atmosphere, which can reveal whether it has oceans, oxygen, or ozone. This is hard to do.

CBS News

Bill Ochs, the NASA project manager, said tightening up the sunshade’s five hair-thin layers, carefully pulling them taut with motor-driven cables running through multiple pulleys, likely would take three days to complete.

The Verge

Often considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope currently in orbit around Earth, JWST promises to provide even more power and an enhanced capability to see distant, faint objects in our Universe. Astronomers hope to use …

Phys.Org

Black holes really are giant fuzzballs, a new study says. The study attempts to put to rest the debate over Stephen Hawking’s famous information paradox, the problem created by Hawking’s conclusion that any data that enters a black hole can never leave …

Raleigh News & Observer

GENEVA — A top World Health Organization official says low hospitalization and death rates in South Africa due to the omicron variant cannot be considered a template for how the variant will fare as it surges in other countries.