Small eddies play a big role in feeding ocean microbes
Subtropical gyres are enormous rotating ocean currents that generate sustained circulations in the Earth’s subtropical regions just to the north and south of the equator. These gyres are slow-moving...
View ArticleDocumentary featuring Professor Sara Seager wins Emmy Award
A number of MIT affiliates featured prominently at the 43rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards presented by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences — including a winner of the Emmy...
View Article3 Questions: Looking to Artemis I for a return to the moon
On Nov. 16, NASA successfully launched the Artemis I mission after several launch delays. Artemis I is an uncrewed test flight featuring a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will send the Orion...
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Flocks of assembler robots show potential for making larger structures
Researchers at MIT have made significant steps toward creating robots that could practically and economically assemble nearly anything, including things much larger than themselves, from vehicles to...
View ArticleLooking beyond “technology for technology’s sake”
Austen Roberson’s favorite class at MIT is 2.S007 (Design and Manufacturing I-Autonomous Machines), in which students design, build, and program a fully autonomous robot to accomplish tasks laid out on...
View ArticleCommunications system achieves fastest laser link from space yet
In May 2022, the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload onboard a small CubeSat satellite was launched into orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface. Since then, TBIRD has delivered terabytes of data...
View ArticleMIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 12th annual Executive Visit Days
On Oct. 16 and 17, 14 MIT graduate students and one postdoc joined by five students from the University of the District of Columbia traveled to Washington to speak to representatives from several...
View ArticleWhite House names Daniel Hastings to space advisory group
United States Vice President Kamala Harris, the chair of the National Space Council (NSpC), has named MIT Professor Daniel Hastings to serve on the NSpC Users Advisory Group (UAG). Hastings, who is the...
View ArticleEngineering in harmony
How does an ensemble play music together while apart? This was the question facing Frederick Ajisafe and the rest of the MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE) at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. One method was...
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How to push, wiggle, or drill an object through granular material
Pushing a shovel through snow, planting an umbrella on the beach, wading through a ball pit, and driving over gravel all have one thing in common: They all are exercises in intrusion, with an intruding...
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3Q: What we learned from the asteroid-smashing DART mission
On Sept. 26, 2022, at precisely 6:14 p.m. ET, a box-shaped spacecraft no bigger than a loveseat smashed directly into an asteroid wider than a football field. The planned impact knocked the space rock...
View ArticleStudy: Smoke particles from wildfires can erode the ozone layer
A wildfire can pump smoke up into the stratosphere, where the particles drift for over a year. A new MIT study has found that while suspended there, these particles can trigger chemical reactions that...
View ArticleMix-and-match kit could enable astronauts to build a menagerie of lunar...
When astronauts begin to build a permanent base on the moon, as NASA plans to do in the coming years, they’ll need help. Robots could potentially do the heavy lifting by laying cables, deploying solar...
View ArticlePlanet hunting and the origins of life
George Ricker built his first telescope when he was in third grade. Growing up in rural Florida, with its abundance of dark night skies, facilitated his natural propensity for stargazing. But it was in...
View ArticleA portfolio that’s out of this world
At age 9, Ezinne Uzo-Okoro SM ’20, PhD ’22 was preoccupied with down-to-earth problems, such as devising an alternative to her father’s messy, paper Filofax organizer, and fixing the unreliable...
View ArticleScientists map gusty winds in a far-off neutron star system
An accretion disk is a colossal whirlpool of gas and dust that gathers around a black hole or a neutron star like cotton candy as it pulls in material from a nearby star. As the disk spins, it whips up...
View ArticleAstronomers detect the closest example yet of a black hole devouring a star
Once every 10,000 years or so, the center of a galaxy lights up as its supermassive black hole rips apart a passing star. This “tidal disruption event” happens in a literal flash, as the central black...
View ArticleIn a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet
As a star runs out of fuel, it will billow out to a million times its original size, engulfing any matter — and planets — in its wake. Scientists have observed hints of stars just before, and shortly...
View ArticleResearch pulled Michael McDonald in and it won’t let go
An excellent student in math, science, and computing, Michael McDonald was nonetheless lukewarm about pursuing a career in any of those areas. It wasn’t until he actively engaged in the process of...
View ArticleMIT HUMANS project breaks down borders, empowering global voices to reach for...
When the Axiom-2 mission launches later this month, it will carry with it a payload of languages never heard beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The Humanity United with MIT Art and Nanotechnology in Space...
View ArticleGeorge Clark, professor emeritus and X-ray astronomy leader, dies at 94
MIT Professor Emeritus George Whipple Clark PhD ’52, an astrophysicist who was highly influential in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, died on April 6 in Boston. He was 94.Clark employed buckets,...
View ArticleUnderstanding boiling to help the nuclear industry and space missions
To launch extended missions in space, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is borrowing a page from the nuclear engineering industry: It is trying to understand how boiling...
View ArticleA telescope’s last view
More than 5,000 planets are confirmed to exist beyond our solar system. Over half were discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, a resilient observatory that far outlasted its original planned...
View Article3Q: Exploring the universe’s “first light”
In its first year on the job, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has performed in ways that can only been described as stellar. Launching at the tail end of 2021 after years of delays, the observatory —...
View ArticleTiera Fletcher ’17: Finding the purpose that propels us
In describing her path from Mableton, Georgia, to working on NASA’s Space Launch System, Tiera Fletcher ’17 confesses to having a case of imposter syndrome. After a high school career full of honors...
View ArticleStudying rivers from worlds away
Rivers have flowed on two other worlds in the solar system besides Earth: Mars, where dry tracks and craters are all that’s left of ancient rivers and lakes, and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, where...
View ArticleStudy: The ocean’s color is changing as a consequence of climate change
The ocean’s color has changed significantly over the last 20 years, and the global trend is likely a consequence of human-induced climate change, report scientists at MIT, the National Oceanography...
View ArticleA simpler method for learning to control a robot
Researchers from MIT and Stanford University have devised a new machine-learning approach that could be used to control a robot, such as a drone or autonomous vehicle, more effectively and efficiently...
View ArticleNewly discovered planet has longest orbit yet detected by the TESS mission
Of the more than 5,000 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, most orbit their stars at surprisingly close range. More than 80 percent of confirmed exoplanets have orbits shorter than 50 days,...
View ArticleHow to prevent biofilms in space
After exposure in space aboard the International Space Station, a new kind of surface treatment significantly reduced the growth of biofilms, scientists report. Biofilms are mats of microbial or fungal...
View Article3 Questions: The first asteroid sample returned to Earth
On Sunday morning, a capsule the size of a mini-fridge dropped from the skies over western Utah, carrying a first-of-its-kind package: about 250 grams of dirt and dust plucked from the surface of an...
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With Psyche, a journey to an ancient asteroid is set to begin
If all goes well, a NASA mission with extensive connections to MIT will soon be headed to a metal world.Psyche, a van-sized spacecraft with winglike solar panels, is scheduled to blast off aboard a...
View ArticleRobert van der Hilst to step down as head of the Department of Earth,...
Robert van der Hilst, the Schlumberger Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has announced his decision to step down as the head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at...
View ArticleThe Beaver visits Father Sky: Meet MIT’s First Nations Launch team
Earlier this year, MIT’s First Nations Launch team participated in the 2023 First Nations Launch, an international NASA-Artemis Student Challenge hosted by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium that...
View ArticleMIT engineers are on a failure-finding mission
From vehicle collision avoidance to airline scheduling systems to power supply grids, many of the services we rely on are managed by computers. As these autonomous systems grow in complexity and...
View ArticleILLUMA-T launches to the International Space Station
On Nov. 9, a Lincoln Laboratory–developed laser communications terminal integrated on a NASA-built payload was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle. Cameras inside the launch vehicle enabled the...
View ArticleMIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 13th annual Executive Visit Days
From Oct. 23-24, a delegation consisting of 21 MIT students, one MIT postdoc, and four students from the University of the District of Columbia met in Washington for the MIT Science Policy Initiative’s...
View ArticleHow to be an astronaut
The first question a student asked Warren “Woody” Hoburg ’08 during his visit to MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) this November was: “It seems like there’s no real way to...
View ArticleA carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other...
Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers’ best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, rather than the...
View ArticleResearchers release open-source space debris model
MIT’s Astrodynamics, Space Robotics, and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab) announced the public beta release of the MIT Orbital Capacity Assessment Tool (MOCAT) during the 2023 Organization for Economic...
View ArticleAstronomers spot 18 black holes gobbling up nearby stars
Star-shredding black holes are everywhere in the sky if you just know how to look for them. That’s one message from a new study by MIT scientists, appearing today in the Astrophysical Journal.The...
View ArticleProfessor Emeritus Igor Paul, an expert in product design and safety, dies at 87
Professor Emeritus Igor Paul ’60, SM ’61, PhD ’64, an influential professor of mechanical engineering, passed away on Dec. 17, 2023 at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was 87. Paul was a member...
View ArticleFor all humankind
Can a government promote morality? How much trust should people place in their government?Such fundamental questions of political philosophy and ethics intrigue Leela Fredlund, a senior majoring in...
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Study determines the original orientations of rocks drilled on Mars
As it trundles around an ancient lakebed on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is assembling a one-of-a-kind rock collection. The car-sized explorer is methodically drilling into the Red Planet’s surface...
View ArticleNew exhibits showcase trailblazing MIT women
This spring, two new exhibits on campus are shining a light on the critical contributions of pathbreaking women at the Institute. They are part of MIT Libraries’ Women@MIT Archival Initiative in the...
View ArticleThree MIT alumni graduate from NASA astronaut training
“It's been a wild ride,” says Christopher Williams PhD ’12, moments after he received his astronaut pin, signifying graduation into the NASA astronaut corps.Williams, along with Marcos Berríos’06 and...
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Persistent “hiccups” in a far-off galaxy draw astronomers to new black hole...
At the heart of a far-off galaxy, a supermassive black hole appears to have had a case of the hiccups.Astronomers from MIT, Italy, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere have found that a previously quiet...
View ArticleAtmospheric observations in China show rise in emissions of a potent...
To achieve the aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change — limiting the increase in global average surface temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — will require...
View ArticleErin Kara named Edgerton Award winner
Class of 1958 Career Development Assistant Professor Erin Kara of the Department of Physics has been named as the recipient of the 2023-24 Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award. Established in...
View ArticleUsing deep learning to image the Earth’s planetary boundary layer
Although the troposphere is often thought of as the closest layer of the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) — the lowest layer of the troposphere — is actually the...
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