Space Renaissance International (SRI) is a Permanent Observer at the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). We are currently advocating for: Ownership of resources removed from in place (being considered by the COPUOS Working Group on the Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activity); Permanent advisory status for the private sector in Read More
You can tell a lot about a material based on the type of light shining at it: Optical light illuminates a material’s surface, while X-rays reveal its internal structures and infrared captures a material’s radiating heat. Now, MIT physicists have used terahertz light to reveal inherent, quantum vibrations in a superconducting material, which have not been observable until now.
Terahertz light is a form of energy that lies between microwaves and infrared radiation on the electromagnetic spectrum. It oscillates over a trillion times per second—just the right pace to match how atoms and electrons naturally vibrate inside materials. Ideally, this makes terahertz light the perfect tool to probe these motions.
But while the frequency is right, the wavelength—the distance over which the wave repeats in space—is not. Terahertz waves have wavelengths hundreds of microns long. Because the smallest spot that any kind of light can be focused into is limited by its wavelength, terahertz beams cannot be tightly confined.
Scientists say a real warp drive may no longer be pure science fiction, thanks to new breakthroughs in theoretical physics. Recent studies suggest space itself could be compressed and expanded, allowing faster-than-light travel without breaking known laws of physics. Unlike sci-fi engines, this concept wouldn’t move a ship through space — it would move space around the ship. Researchers are now exploring how energy, gravity, and exotic matter could make this possible. In this video, we explain how a warp drive could work and how close science really is.
Credit:
Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi / Lucasfilm https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/.… Trek Beyond / Paramount Pictures https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/.… Lost in Space / New Line Cinema https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120738/.… Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Smith — https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14036, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… Parker Solar Probe: By NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio — Johns Hopkins University/APL/Betsy Congdon, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Yanping Guo, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/John Wirzburger, NASA/Nicola Fox, NASA/Kelly Korreck, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Nour Raouafi, NASA/Joseph Westlake, eMITS/Joy Ng, eMITS/Beth Anthony, eMITS/Lacey Young, ADNET Systems, Inc./Aaron E. Lepsch — https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… Parker Solar Probe: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben — http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/Mu…, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index… Vertical Testbed Rocket: By NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center — https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… […]cket_(AFRC-2017–11349-1_Masten-COBALT-UnTetheredFLT1).webm Interstellar / Paramount Pictures Stargate / Canal+ CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.… Alcubierre: By AllenMcC., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index… Miguel alcubierre: By Jpablo.romero, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index… Water wave analogue of Casimir effect: By Denysbondar, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… Casimir plates: By Emok, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index… CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.… Proxima Centauri b: By ESO/Konstantino Polizois/Nico Bartmann — http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingd…, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… WARP Reactor Concept Movie: By WarpingSpacetime, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… Ag Micromirrors: By Simpik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… Animation is created by Bright Side.
Star Trek Beyond / Paramount Pictures https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/.…
Lost in Space / New Line Cinema https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120738/.…
Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Smith — https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14036, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
Parker Solar Probe: By NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio — Johns Hopkins University/APL/Betsy Congdon, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Yanping Guo, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/John Wirzburger, NASA/Nicola Fox, NASA/Kelly Korreck, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Nour Raouafi, NASA/Joseph Westlake, eMITS/Joy Ng, eMITS/Beth Anthony, eMITS/Lacey Young, ADNET Systems, Inc./Aaron E. Lepsch — https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
Parker Solar Probe: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben — http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/Mu…, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index…
Vertical Testbed Rocket: By NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center — https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi… […]cket_(AFRC-2017–11349-1_Masten-COBALT-UnTetheredFLT1).webm.
Interstellar / Paramount Pictures.
Stargate / Canal+
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.…
Alcubierre: By AllenMcC., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index…
Miguel alcubierre: By Jpablo.romero, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index…
Water wave analogue of Casimir effect: By Denysbondar, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
Casimir plates: By Emok, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index…
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.…
Proxima Centauri b: By ESO/Konstantino Polizois/Nico Bartmann — http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingd…, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
WARP Reactor Concept Movie: By WarpingSpacetime, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
Ag Micromirrors: By Simpik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi…
Animation is created by Bright Side.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are breathing new life into the scientific understanding of neptunium, a unique, radioactive, metallic element—and a key precursor for production of the plutonium-238, or Pu-238, that fuels exploratory spacecraft.
The ORNL team’s research arrives during a period of increased national interest in the use of Pu-238 in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs. Often used in space missions such as NASA’s Perseverance Rover for long-term power, RTGs convert heat from radioactive decay into electricity. Advancing RTG knowledge and application possibilities also requires the same high-level evaluation of both chemical reactions and structural characterization, two key aspects of the materials science for which ORNL is known.
“When people want to do scientific experiments in space, they need something to power their instruments, and plutonium is typically the power source because things like solar and lithium ion batteries don’t withstand deep space,” said Kathryn Lawson, radiochemist in ORNL’s Fuel Cycle Chemical Technology Group and lead author of the new study.
People have scanned the night sky for ages, but some of the Milky Way’s most important features cannot be seen with ordinary light. Dr. Jo-Anne Brown, PhD, is working to chart one of those hidden ingredients: the galaxy’s magnetic field, a vast structure that can influence how gas moves, where stars form, and how cosmic particles travel.
“Without a magnetic field, the galaxy would collapse in on itself due to gravity,” says Brown, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary.
“We need to know what the magnetic field of the galaxy looks like now, so we can create accurate models that predict how it will evolve.”
“When the effect of perchlorate on just the bacteria is studied in isolation, it is a stressful factor,” said Swati Dubey. “But in the bricks, with the right ingredients in the mixture, perchlorate is helping.”
How can engineers design bricks on Mars for future habitats despite the toxic Martian regolith, also called perchlorates? This is what a recent study published in PLOS One hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated how bacteria can be used to construct strong bricks on Mars despite the presence of perchlorates. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and future Mars astronauts develop novel methods for designing future Mars habitats.
For the study, the researchers tested perchlorates on Martians bricks built with regolith simulant and bacteria, also called biocementation, to ascertain how the perchlorates affected the integrity of the bricks, and specifically how the bacteria responded to the perchlorates. The goal of the study was to ascertain how perchlorates could influence Martian brick construction methods using bacteria, the latter of which has been explored in past studies using the soil bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii. In the end, the researchers found that despite the perchlorates slowing the growth of the bacteria within the bricks, the process resulted in stronger bricks.
As the miniaturization of silicon-based semiconductor devices approaches fundamental physical limits, the electronics industry faces an urgent need for alternative materials that can deliver higher integration and lower power consumption. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, which are only a single atom thick, have emerged as promising candidates due to their unique electronic and optical properties. However, despite intense research interest, controlling the growth of high-quality 2D semiconductor crystals has remained a major scientific and technological challenge.
A research team led by Research Associate Professor Hiroo Suzuki from the Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering at Okayama University, Japan, together with Dr. Kaoru Hisama from Shinshu University and Dr. Shun Fujii from Keio University, has now overcome a key barrier by directly observing how these materials grow at the atomic scale. Using an advanced in situ observation system, the researchers captured real-time images of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) forming inside a micro-confined reaction space. The study was published on December 12, 2025, in the journal Advanced Science.
The work builds on earlier success by the team in synthesizing large-area monolayer TMDC single crystals using a substrate-stacked microreactor. While that method consistently produced high-quality materials, the mechanisms governing crystal growth inside the confined space were poorly understood.
Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new extrasolar planet transiting a distant star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-6692 b, is the size of Jupiter and has an orbital period of about 130 days. The discovery was presented in a paper published January 22 on the arXiv pre-print server.
TESS is conducting a survey of about 200,000 bright stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. To date, more than 7,800 potential planets (known as TESS Objects of Interest) have been cataloged using this satellite, with 733 of those discoveries officially verified.
Silicon semiconductors are widely used as particle detectors; however, their long-term operation is constrained by performance degradation in high-radiation environments. Researchers at University of Tsukuba have demonstrated real-time, two-dimensional position detection of individual charged particles using a gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor with superior radiation tolerance.
Silicon (Si)-based devices are widely used in electrical and electronic applications; however, prolonged exposure to high radiation doses leads to performance degradation, malfunction, and eventual failure. These limitations create a strong demand for alternative semiconductor materials capable of operating reliably in harsh environments, including high-energy accelerator experiments, nuclear-reactor containment systems, and long-duration lunar or deep-space missions.
Wide-bandgap semiconductors, characterized by strong atomic bonding, offer the radiation tolerance required under such conditions. Among these materials, gallium nitride (GaN)—commonly employed in blue light-emitting diodes and high-frequency, high-power electronic devices—has not previously been demonstrated in detectors capable of two-dimensional particle-position sensing for particle and nuclear physics applications.
