NASA launches daring robotic rescue to save Swift telescope; Hubble could be next

NASA launches robotic rescue to save Swift telescope from falling to Earth The $30M mission, using Katalyst Space's three-armed spacecraft on a Pegasus rocket, will boost Swift to a higher orbit. Hubble could be next as it faces similar orbital decay from intense solar activity. 12

JWST resolves 16.5 million individual stars in the Cigar Galaxy Webb's 65-hour infrared survey of Messier 82 pierced through dust to reveal stars forming ten times faster than the Milky Way. The burst is estimated to last only a few hundred million years. 34

MIT astronomers discover the oldest flickering quasar in the early universe Detected 850 million years after the Big Bang, the quasar's flat accretion disk challenges expectations of chaotic early black holes. The finding was published in Nature Astronomy. 5

UC team demonstrates fast mid-circuit measurement for neutral atom quantum arrays Using a high-finesse optical cavity, the method achieves cycle times below 1 ms with less than 2% infidelity on unmeasured qubits, enabling real-time error correction. 6

UMass Amherst designs architecture for 1,000km quantum communication with 9km repeaters Combining GKP and Steane error-correcting codes, the all-photonic system requires only thousands of qubits per repeater, a major resource reduction for long-range quantum networks. 7

Lithos opens first commercial enhanced rock weathering plant in Brazil for carbon removal Basalt dust spread across 12,000 hectares targets 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ removal annually. Corporate buyers include Microsoft and Stripe at over $200/tonne. 8

NUS develops oral vaccine protecting fish from fatal nervous necrosis virus The vaccine can be mixed into fish feed, offering a cost-effective solution for aquaculture. It targets near-100% mortality in larval stages, published in Fish & Shellfish Immunology. 9

Hydroxyl-rich perovskite nanocavities enable barrierless hydrogen transfer for ammonia synthesis The new electrocatalyst achieves 97.81% Faradaic efficiency and 51.37 mg/h ammonia yield from nitrate reduction, published in Nature Communications. 10

KRICT boosts sulfide all-solid-state battery lifespan with high-elastic buffer material An elastic ion-conducting polymer reduces cracking during charge-discharge cycles, addressing a key durability issue for safe, fast-charging batteries. Published in Energy Storage Materials. 11

NASA pays SpaceX $843 million to build spacecraft to destroy the International Space Station The U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, a heavily modified Dragon, will guide the ISS into a controlled reentry over the Pacific Ocean to avoid uncontrolled debris scatter. 12