Copernical Team
Why do some planets have moons
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On Earth, you can look up at night and see the Moon shining bright from hundreds of thousands of miles away. But if you went to Venus, that wouldn't be the case. Not every planet has a moon - so why do some planets have several moons, while others have none?
I'm a physics instructor who has followed the current theories that describe why some planets have moons and some don't.
First, Two large asteroids to pass Earth in close succession
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Two large asteroids will safely pass Earth this week, coinciding with this year's Asteroid Day. Neither poses any risk to our planet, but one of them was only discovered a week ago, underscoring the need to enhance our detection capabilities for potentially hazardous objects.
Asteroid 2024 MK, measuring between 120 and 260 meters, was discovered on 16 June 2024. It will fly past Earth on 2 Chang'e-6 to Return with Farside Moon Samples
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On June 25, China's Chang'e-6 (CE-6) lunar probe is set to return to Earth, carrying the first surface samples collected from the farside of the Moon. In anticipation of this event, scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences are publishing their predictions for the materials that may be found in the CE-6 samples in the journal The Innovation. NASA calls off spacewalk for second time this month
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NASA canceled a spacewalk for the second time this month on Monday after reporting a coolant leak on the umbilical unit on one of the astronaut's spacesuits.
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson reported the leak on the suit's servicing and cooling umbilical unit, or SCU, just before she and Mike Barratt were set to walk outside the International Space Station at about 8:52 a.m., EDT. Both as Could we put data centers in space?
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Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm lately. It also requires loads of band-end computing capability to do the near-miraculous things that it does. So far, that "compute," as it's known in the tech industry, has been based entirely on the ground. But is there an economic reason to do it in space? Some people seem to think so, as there has been a growing interest in space-based data centers. Let's take a look at why.
Space-based data centers have several advantages over ground-based ones. The first and most obvious is the near-unlimited amount of space in space. Second, there are plenty of potential options for novel power and cooling technologies that can't exist back on Earth. Third, using a space-based data center as a relay point for information could cut down on lag in data transfer between continents. Let's look at each in turn.
One of the significant constraints for data centers is space—they require large amounts of it, and it is expensive in the areas where they are most needed (i.e.
Ariane 6 who makes what infographic
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Ariane 6 who makes what infographic ESA astronaut class of 2022: Astro Chat with John McFall
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Video:
00:24:06
John McFall, a member of the European astronaut reserve from the ESA astronaut class of 2022, brings a diverse background to his role. With experience as an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon and a former Paralympic sprinter, John is participating in the groundbreaking "Fly!" feasibility study. This initiative seeks to enhance our comprehension of the challenges posed by space flight for astronauts with physical disabilities, aiming to overcome these barriers. Tune in to discover more about John and the "Fly!" project.
This is Episode 9 of our ESA Explores podcast series, delving into everything you want to know about
Webb captures star clusters in Cosmic Gems arc
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An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to discover gravitationally bound star clusters when the Universe was 460 million years old. This is the first discovery of star clusters in an infant galaxy less than 500 million years after the Big Bang.
SpaceX successful with booster replacement on Starlink mission
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SpaceX was back at the launch pad Sunday with an updated rocket to finish off a Starlink mission it tried to send up earlier this month.
A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-2 mission lifted off at 1:15 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 amid cloudy skies with 22 more Starlink satellites for the company's growing internet constellation that now numbers more than 6,100 satellites in orbit.
The launch came nine days since SpaceX last attempted to knock out the mission on June 14. That attempt had a rare scrub as the countdown clock reached 0 and the rocket was ultimately brought back from the pad to allow for last week's ASTRA 1P satellite launch to go up instead.
But the Starlink satellites returned to the pad, this time with a new first-stage booster, which flew for the 11th time and made another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX did not reveal what was wrong with the original booster that was trying to fly for the 16th time.
NASA pushes Starliner return to July
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After numerous delays, NASA said Friday that the Starliner crew would return to Earth in July
The agency said in a blog post that it delayed Starliner's Tuesday departure from the International Space Station so it doesn't conflict with a series of planned ISS spacewalks.
The extra time also would afford Starliner astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams more ti