New Atlas

Electronics Audio available

New matchbox-sized radar could make its way into drones and security systems

David Nield April 23, 2019

The smaller and lighter electronics get, the more ways they can be used. A team of researchers has come up with a compact radar system the size of a matchbox that could be deployed in drones and other gadgets where portability and low cost are important.

The compact device uses a frequency-modulated continuous wave type of radar, producing continuous pulses of radio ...

Space Audio available

Liquid lake on Mars might be evidence the Red Planet is still volcanically active

Michael Irving February 12, 2019

Last year a huge lake of liquid water was apparently found beneath the ice at the Martian south pole. A new study has now examined how it might have gotten there, and concluded that Mars must have had volcanic activity much more recently than is normally believed, and may even still be active today.

A visualization of the south pole of Mars, where a huge lake of liquid water is ...

Space

Analog astronauts test water-hunting radar for future Mars missions

David Szondy September 20, 2018

Scientists from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica's (INAF) Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali and the University of Perugia have developed a towable ground radar designed to look for water on the planet Mars that was tested by a team of analog astronauts.

The ScanMars radar unit was tested in the desert in Oman

Medical

Radar could make for less-biased heart checks

Ben Coxworth August 14, 2018

Could the stethoscope be on its way to becoming a quaint instrument from yesteryear? Well, maybe. German scientists are reporting success in using radar to monitor people's heartbeats – and the technology could allow for more accurate diagnoses of heart maladies.

The radar-based heart-monitoring system in use

Health & Wellbeing

Could radar put an end to diabetic finger-pricking?

Ben Coxworth June 28, 2018

Although finger-prick blood glucose tests are a daily necessity for millions of diabetics, a less-painful alternative may be on the horizon. Led by Prof. George Shaker, a team from Canada's University of Waterloo is looking at using radar and artificial intelligence (AI) to do the job.

Thanks to a radar-based system that's currently in development, doing THIS may someday no longer be ...

Military

Expendable aerial decoy to provide protection for large military transports

David Szondy June 6, 2018

Leonardo Aerospace has taken the wraps off of its new expendable electronic countermeasures decoy for protecting large military transport aircraft. Billed as the first of its kind for transport protection, the BriteCloud 55-T is designed to confuse the targeting systems of radar-guided missiles.

Military

Quantum radar to render stealth technologies ineffective

David Szondy April 25, 2018

Stealth technology may not be very stealthy in the future thanks to a new quantum radar system that uses the phenomenon of quantum entanglement to eliminate heavy background noise, thereby defeating stealth anti-radar technologies to detect incoming aircraft and missiles with much greater accuracy.

The new quantum radar would negate the near-invisibility of stealth aircraft like the B-2 Spirit bomber

Motorcycles

Ducati to fit front and rear radars (and adaptive cruise control) to motorcycles by 2020

Loz Blain April 18, 2018

Yet more safety and driver assist technologies are set to move from the car world into the motorcycle world, with Ducati announcing it will release a motorcycle fitted with front and rear radars in 2020 as part of its "Safety Road Map 2025" strategy.

By 2020, Ducati will have a model available with front and rear radars, enabling blind spot ...

Space

Massive Earth-buzzing asteroid found to have two moons

Michael Irving September 6, 2017

Last week, Earth was buzzed by asteroid 3122 Florence, the largest space rock NASA has seen come this close since it began tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs). NASA took the opportunity to study Florence close up, confirming its monster size and revealing that it has two tiny moons.

The 4.5-km (2.8-mi) wide asteroid Florence, which whizzed past Earth last week, has been found to ...

Space

3-mile asteroid is the largest Earth-buzzing object NASA's ever seen

Michael Irving August 17, 2017

Asteroids whizz past Earth on a regular basis, usually only a few meters wide. But next month we’re due for a close encounter with a monster space rock measuring 4.4 km (2.7 mi) across, making it the largest near-Earth object to come this close since NASA began tracking them almost 20 years ago.

Measuring 4.4 km (2.7 miles) across, asteroid Florence will zip past Earth in September, making it ...