antenna, deep space network, laser, nasa, outer space

NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser

Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC aboard NASA’s Psyche mission. An experimental antenna has received both radio frequency and near-infrared laser signals from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels through deep space. This shows it’s possible for the giant dish antennas ...

Troy Oakes

Deep Space Station 13.

Continuous-Wave Lasing of Deep-Ultraviolet Laser Diode

A research group led by 2014 Nobel laureate Hiroshi Amano at Nagoya University’s Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability (IMaSS) in central Japan, in collaboration with Asahi Kasei Corporation, has successfully conducted the world’s first room-temperature continuous-wave lasing of a deep-ultraviolet laser diode (wavelengths down to UV-C region). These results, published in Applied Physics Letters, ...

Troy Oakes

Continous-wave lasing.

Canadian-Built Laser Chills Antimatter to Near Absolute Zero for the First Time

Today, the CERN-based ALPHA (Anti-hydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus) collaboration announced the world’s first laser-based manipulation of antimatter, leveraging a made-in-Canada laser system to cool a sample of antimatter down to near absolute zero. The achievement, detailed in an article published and featured on the cover of the journal Nature, will significantly alter the landscape of antimatter research and advance the next generation of experiments.  ...

Troy Oakes

An artistic rendering of the movement of an antihydrogen atom in the ALPHA magnetic trap, before and after laser cooling.

A Laser Pointer Could Hack Your Voice-Controlled Virtual Assistant

From a distance of more than 300 feet and through a glass window, a laser pointer can trick a voice-controlled virtual assistant like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant into behaving as if it registered an audio command, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo have demonstrated. The researchers discovered ...

Troy Oakes

A voice-controlled virtual assistant.

Lasers Could Be Used as a Porch Light to Attract Alien Astronomers

If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that lasers on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light — a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light-years away. The research, which author James Clark calls a “feasibility study,” appears ...

Troy Oakes