U.S. and Chinese Scientists Propose Bold New Missions beyond the Solar System

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January 06, 2022

Dear Reader, Welcome back, and Happy New Year! Our lead story this week looks ahead, well beyond 2022, to coming decades when multiple recently proposed missions—one from the U.S., another from China—may embark on voyages into interstellar space. But so far this year's biggest "space" story is undoubtedly the successful launch and ongoing deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, a multibillion-dollar observatory meant to glimpse the universe's very first stars and galaxies and much, much more. Read on for updates on this exciting mission, as well as stories on NetFlix's astral disaster film Don't Look Up, galaxies strangely bereft of dark matter, supercharged stellar explosions and some quantum solace for the holiday blues.

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Space Exploration U.S. and Chinese Scientists Propose Bold New Missions beyond the Solar System Independent concepts from each nation envision launching high-speed spacecraft on aspirational multigenerational voyages into the great unknown of interstellar space By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Astrophysics Hollywood Can Take On Science Denial: Don't Look Up Is a Great Example This new release uses a comet hurtling toward Earth to satirize the way we dismiss scientific facts and the scientists who discover them By Rebecca Oppenheimer

Astronomy The James Webb Space Telescope Has Launched: Now Comes the Hard Part After years of delay, the most ambitious observatory ever built has at last left Earth. It now faces a high-stakes series of deployments in deep space By Richard Panek

Astronomy James Webb Space Telescope Completes Crucial Sunshield Deployment The successful unfurling of the five-layered, tennis court-sized assemblage is a major milestone for the new observatory By Tereza Pultarova,SPACE.com

Dark Matter Dark Matter May Be Missing from This Newfound Galaxy, Astronomers Say A growing number of galaxies seem to be bereft of the mysterious substance, posing fresh challenges for some of cosmology's most cherished theories By Anil Ananthaswamy

Quantum Physics Can Quantum Mechanics Quell the Holiday Blues? Scientists search for hidden variables underpinning our swerving moods and thoughts By John Horgan

Astrophysics Astronomers Report a Monstrous Eruption from a Supermagnetic Star In a fraction of a second, the outburst released as much energy as our sun produces in 100,000 years By Mindy Weisberger,LiveScience

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 30, Issue 5s

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Unfolding Webb's sunshield in space is an incredible milestone, crucial to the success of the mission. Thousands of parts had to work with precision for this marvel of engineering to fully unfurl. The team has accomplished an audacious feat with the complexity of this deployment – one of the boldest undertakings yet for Webb." Gregory L. Robinson, NASA's program director for the James Webb Space Telescope

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Proposed Interstellar Mission Reaches for the Stars, One Generation at a Time Starting in the early 2030s, the project could become our first purposeful step out of the solar system—if it launches at all By Lee Billings | November 2019

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