NRL’s satellite operations service is ready for the Space Force enterprise
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In honor of Global Astronomy Month, we’re exploring the science of space. Learn how astronomy connects us through curiosity, discovery, and a shared wonder for what lies beyond.
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 12-Dec-2025 15:11 ET (12-Dec-2025 20:11 GMT/UTC)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Spacecraft Engineering Department recently developed the Transmit/Receive Enterprise (TREx) service with sponsorship from the Space Development Agency, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and Space Systems Command to provide software development and mission operations for sponsoring organizations across the space community.
Conventional telescopes are limited in detecting low-surface-brightness (LSB) structures, which are essential for studying galaxy evolution. Now, researchers have developed a new telescope system featuring a confocal off-axis design with three freeform mirrors, optimized for deep LSB imaging. This system enables astronomers to observe faint galactic features more clearly, revealing how galaxies evolve over time.
* Scientists have found compelling observational evidence of supermassive "first stars" in a galaxy called GS 3073 that blazed in the early universe.
* The data confirms a key prediction about how the first quasars – extraordinarily bright, actively-feeding black holes – were formed.
* This marks the first time scientists have found compelling evidence for such massive stars in the fossil record of the universe.
A new University of Maryland study of campus air samples revealed that chemical compounds from Canada’s historic 2023 fires lingered in the air, forming an ‘atmospheric soup.’