Washington Post: The NuSTAR space telescope was launched successfully this morning by a rocket dropped from an airplane 39â000 feet above Kwajalein Atoll in the western Pacific Ocean. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (the spacecraft’s full name) will study high-energy x rays from black holes, supernova explosions, and the Sun. The project is led by Fiona Harrison of Caltech, only the second woman ever to lead a NASA mission. Brian Vastag of the Washington Post conducts a Q&A with Harrison, in which he asks her about why she became interested in studying x rays from space and what makes NuSTAR special.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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