About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the future of humanity.
Jan 25, 2023...
WASHINGTON — The United States and Israel are finalizing an agreement that would see NASA contribute to an upcoming Israeli astrophysics mission.
The focus of the agreement, which could be signed as soon as later this month, involves a mission called Ultrasat under development by Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science with support from the Israel Space Agency and German research center DESY.
As part of the agreement, NASA would provide the launch of Ultrasat, which will operate in geostationary orbit. NASA will likely arrange to fly Ultrasat as a secondary payload on a commercial GEO launch, said James Rhoads, NASA project scientist for Ultrasat, during a session of the 241st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Jan. 11.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/look-on-the-bright-side-of-earth/
Jan 26, 2023... January 23, 2023—When looking at the Earth from space, its hemispheres – northern and southern – appear equally bright. This is particularly unexpected because the Southern Hemisphere is mostly covered with dark oceans, whereas the Northern Hemisphere has a vast land area that is much brighter than these oceans. For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery. In a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Weizmann Institute of Science researchers and their collaborators reveal a strong correlation between storm intensity, cloudiness and the solar energy reflection rate in each hemisphere. They offer a solution to the mystery, alongside an assessment of how climate change might alter the reflection rate in the future.
Feb 21, 2023...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—FEBRUARY 21, 2023 NASA will launch Israel’s first space telescope – the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite, or ULTRASAT – into high-Earth orbit in early 2026, as part of a newly signed partnership between United States’ NASA and Israel's Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.
ULTRASAT, a premier project of the Israel Space Agency (ISA) in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science, is expected to revolutionize scientists’ ability to detect and analyze transient events in the universe, such as neutron star mergers and supernova explosions.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/look-on-the-bright-side-of-earth/
Feb 24, 2023...
While the Southern Hemisphere is mostly covered with dark oceans, the Northern Hemisphere has a vast, much brighter land area. However, when looking at the Earth from space, its hemispheres – northern and southern – appear equally bright.
For years, the reasons for this remained a mystery until Weizmann Institute of Science researchers and their collaborators revealed a strong correlation between storm intensity, cloudiness, and the solar energy reflection rate in each hemisphere. They offer a solution to the mystery, alongside an assessment of how climate change might alter the reflectivity of solar radiation, known in scientific lingo as “albedo.”
Apr 14, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 13, 2023 — The journey to Jupiter has begun. The European Space Agency’s unmanned spacecraft JUICE (short for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is launching today from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. JUICE’s voyage, the ESA’s most ambitious mission to date, will be particularly lengthy: Upon reaching Jupiter’s orbit by 2031, it will embark on a four-year mission to investigate three of Jupiter’s moons – Callisto, Europa and Ganymede – as well as the composition of Jupiter’s atmosphere
Apr 13, 2023...
The European Space Agency's (ESA) landmark JUICE mission is set to depart for Jupiter on Thursday, April 13 – and some Israeli-made technology is on for the ride.
The Israeli participation is funded by the Israel Space Agency, which is under the auspices of the Science and Technology Ministry.
The JUICE mission, which stands for Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, is set to embark on a 900 million-kilometer journey to the largest planet in the solar system, where it will spend four years exploring the moons of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/a-jupiter-hotter-than-the-sun/
Aug 14, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 14, 2023—The search for exoplanets – planets that orbit stars located beyond the borders of our solar system – is a hot topic in astrophysics. Of the various types of exoplanets, one is hot in the literal sense. Hot Jupiters are a class of exoplanets that are physically similar to the gas giant planet Jupiter in our solar system, but unlike “our” Jupiter, these planets orbit very close to their stars, complete a full orbit in days or even hours, and – as their name suggests – have extremely high surface temperatures. While they’re fascinating to the astrophysics community, hot Jupiters are difficult to study because the glare from the nearby stars makes them hard to detect.
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