Research lab
Germany's national aerospace research centre, conducting aeronautics and space research and building instruments for space missions.
A Geophysical Research Letters study says buried wrinkles suggest Mercury may have shrunk 10 to 30 percent more than experts thought. Lead author Gaku Nishiyama says the larger contraction suggests a core that started extremely hot and is mostly metal.
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Oratomic raised $475m at a $5.4bn valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported, as Gartner forecast more than half of quantum startups will close by 2030. Anyone signing a multi-year quantum contract now has to judge whether the vendor lasts to its own delivery date.
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Universal Quantum, a University of Sussex spin-out, raised more than $100 million in a Series A co-led by DCVC and Firgun Ventures. The money goes into commercialising hardware at a company already delivering a $77 million contract for Germany's DLR, startup.eu reported.
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One path of a rubidium atom was held against gravity while the other fell freely, and the phase the two arms accumulated matches what Einstein's equivalence principle predicts for a quantum wave.
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The August demonstration off Cape Muroto put a corner cube reflector on a Sceye airship and left the demanding part on the ground. There, a portable ranging system had to hold a narrow pulsed beam on a moving target and catch the return.
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The Bern-led BELA team ran the instrument's laser in 10-second, 10-minute and hour-long steps on 14 September, confirming it survived eight years of cruise. The pulses went into open space.
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Shortening structures turn up more often on smooth ground than on rough. Correcting for that detection bias raises Mercury's radial contraction from 8.3 to 11.6 kilometres, and the authors say even that is probably low.
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Mercury's lumpiest terrain carries the fewest shrinkage wrinkles, which the authors read as impact debris burying the record. Correct for that and total contraction rises to as much as 23 km, with the thermal models still to be redone.
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