Copernical Team
The upside of volatile space weather
Although violent and unpredictable, stellar flares emitted by a planet's host star do not necessarily prevent life from forming, according to a new Northwestern University study.
Emitted by stars, stellar flares are sudden flashes of magnetic energy. On Earth, the sun's flares sometimes damage satellites and disrupt radio communications. Elsewhere in the universe, however, robust stellar f Scientists complete yearlong pulsar timing study after reviving dormant radio telescopes
While the scientific community grapples with the loss of the Arecibo radio telescope, astronomers who recently revived a long-dormant radio telescope array in Argentina hope it can help modestly compensate for the work Arecibo did in pulsar timing.
Last year, scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology and the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (IAR) began a pulsar timing study us SwRI-led team finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
A Southwest Research Institute-led team of scientists has identified a potentially new meteorite parent asteroid by studying a small shard of a meteorite that arrived on Earth a dozen years ago. The composition of a piece of the meteorite Almahata Sitta (AhS) indicates that its parent body was an asteroid roughly the size of Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and formed in the SLS team completes propellant loading of Core Stage during Green Run test
NASA and Boeing engineers successfully completed propellant loading during the seventh core stage Green Run test, wet dress rehearsal Sunday, Dec. 20. The massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's tanks were loaded with more than 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
Engineers working in the Test Control Center monitored all core stage systems during the test as propellant A new satellite 'Made in Belgium' with SPACEBEL software
Already involved since 2018 in the Altius (Atmospheric Limb Tracker for the Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere) stratosphere observation mission at several levels, the software engineering company SPACEBEL is ending the year 2020 in style.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has now officially awarded the SME a new contract to supply the payload data ground segment. This operational gr China's Chang'e-5 orbiter embarks on new mission to gravitationally stable spot at L1
Having finished its primary mission, the part of China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft that remained in space has departed for a new mission: exploring an unusual area of space known as a Lagrangian point.
On December 16, the orbiter vehicle performed the final task of its primary mission when it dropped off the capsule carrying samples from the lunar surface. The capsule plunged back to Earth, bei Astroscale Ships ELSA-d Spacecraft to Launch Site
Astroscale Holdings Inc. ("Astroscale"), the market leader in securing long-term orbital sustainability, has shipped its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) satellite to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a March 2021 launch on a Soyuz rocket.
"Shipment is always a significant milestone on any satellite development program," said Gene Fujii, Astroscale Chief Engine Major changes coming over the horizon for the global space industry
The attention of the world has recently been captured by the return of Japan's Hayabusa-2 asteroid mission, the activities of Elon Musk's SpaceX venture, and China's Chang'e 5 moon landing, yet a quiet revolution is taking place in the global space industry. This revolution started in the 2010s and its full impact on global space industry should be measured over the next decade.
In the next 10 years, the entry into service of constellations of small satellites should reshape the face of the global space industry.
How to get people from Earth to Mars and safely back again
There are many things humanity must overcome before any return journey to Mars is launched.
The two major players are NASA and SpaceX, which work together intimately on missions to the International Space Station but have competing ideas of what a crewed Mars mission would look like.
Size matters
The biggest challenge (or constraint) is the mass of the payload (spacecraft, people, fuel, supplies etc) needed to make the journey.
We still talk about launching something into space being like launching its weight in gold.
The payload mass is usually just a small percentage of the total mass of the launch vehicle.
For example, the Saturn V rocket that launched Apollo 11 to the Moon weighed 3,000 tons.
But it could launch only 140 tons (5% of its initial launch mass) to low Earth orbit, and 50 tons (less than 2% of its initial launch mass) to the Moon.
Mass constrains the size of a Mars spacecraft and what it can do in space.
Jupiter and Saturn cheek-to-cheek in rare celestial dance
The solar system's two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, came within planetary kissing range in Monday's evening sky, an intimacy that will not occur again until 2080.
This "great conjunction", as it is known to astronomers, occurred fortuitously on the winter solstice for those in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the global south.
The two planets were, in fact, more than 730 million kilometres (400 million miles) apart. But because of their alignment in relation to Earth, they appeared to be closer to each other than at any time in almost 400 years.
Optimal "conjunction" took place at 1822 GMT.
The best viewing conditions on Monday were in clear skies and close to the Equator, while people in Western Europe and along a vast swathe of Africa had to train their sight to the southwest.
But hundreds of space fans also gathered in Kolkata to watch—through a telescope at a technology museum in the city, or from surrounding rooftops and open areas.