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.
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/feature-stories/seeing-the-universe-like-never-before/
Jun 07, 2023...
In early 2026, NASA will launch Israel’s first space telescope – the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite, or ULTRASAT – into high-Earth orbit, as part of a newly signed partnership between NASA and Israel’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.
ULTRASAT is a premier project of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Space Agency. The telescope 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/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.
Mar 27, 2024... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 27, 2024—Humankind has long turned to the skies in search of answers. Accounts of supernovae – exploding stars – go back thousands of years, but while we know today that these events create the building blocks of life itself, the conditions that cause a star to explode still remain very much a mystery. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science have now made major headway toward better understanding these fascinating phenomena, which created us and all that we know. Through a combination of luck and determination, they were able to gather data from a once-in-a-lifetime supernova. Their findings are being published today in Nature.