Copernical Team
NASA Schedules Trio of Rocket Launches to Study Eclipse Effects on Atmosphere
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In a significant event set for April 8, 2024, NASA will deploy three Black Brant IX sounding rockets from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to investigate the influence of solar eclipses on the upper atmosphere. The APEP mission seeks to examine the atmospheric response to the transient absence of sunlight. Launches are timed at 2:40 p.m., 3:20 p.m., and 4:05 p.m. EDT, coinciding with stag DESI achieves unprecedented measurement of Universe's expansion
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by Lauren Biron for Berkeley News
Berkeley CA (SPX) Apr 05, 2024
A revolutionary view into the cosmos is now possible thanks to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and its array of 5,000 robotic observers perched atop a mountaintop telescope. These robotic eyes have made it possible to gaze 11 billion years back in time, offering unprecedented insights into the universe's early day The PI's Perspective: Needles in the Cosmic Haystack
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New Horizons is healthy and speeding across the Kuiper Belt, nearing a distance of 60 times as far from the Sun as Earth is!
The spacecraft continues to collect round-the-clock data on our Sun's cocoon in the galaxy, called the heliosphere, and transmit that data, as well as the final data from our flyby of Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Arrokoth, back to Earth.
Since I last wrote in this NEOWISE Achieves a Decade of Asteroid and Comet Surveillance from Space
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Marking a significant milestone, NASA's NEOWISE mission has unveiled its tenth year of data collection, showcasing an ongoing infrared survey that sheds light on the dynamic changes of celestial bodies over extended periods. This survey, pivotal in the realm of time-domain astronomy, aids in observing the fluctuation in brightness of distant stars and the activities of remote black holes. Specif Voyager 1's Data Transmission Issue Traced to Memory Corruption, Fix in Progress
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After months of receiving gibberish data from Voyager 1, NASA engineers have isolated the problem to a corrupted memory segment in the spacecraft's computer. The anomaly, affecting the flight data subsystem (FDS)-integral for preparing the spacecraft's science and engineering data for Earth transmission-has hindered readable data transmissions since November last year.
In a diagnostic move First ‘glory’ on hellish distant world?
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For the first time, potential signs of the rainbow-like ‘glory effect’ have been detected on a planet outside our Solar System. Glory are colourful concentric rings of light that occur only under peculiar conditions.
Data from ESA’s sensitive Characterising ExOplanet Satellite, Cheops, along with several other ESA and NASA missions, suggest this delicate phenomenon is beaming straight at Earth from the hellish atmosphere of ultra-hot gas giant WASP-76b, 637 light-years away.
Seen often on Earth, the effect has only been found once on another planet, Venus. If confirmed, this first extrasolar glory will reveal
Astro Chat with Pablo Álvarez Fernández | ESA Explores podcast
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Video:
00:29:37
Pablo Álvarez Fernández, one of ESA's five astronaut candidates currently undergoing basic astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, shares his experiences in astronaut training, his favourite lessons, and his view on the future of space exploration. Also, stay tuned to hear his favourite space-related quote and movie!
This is Episode 5 of our ESA Explores podcast series introducing the ESA astronaut class of 2022, recorded in November 2023.
Music and audio editing by Denzel Lorge. Cover art by Gaël Nadaud.
Earth from Space: Victoria, Australia
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Image:
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features part of Victoria, a state in southeast Australia. A stellar role for ESA
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Launched on 21 February 2024 on Apple TV+, new original series Constellation has gripped viewers with its mix of sci-fi and mind-bending mystery.
Total solar eclipse forecast: Will your city have clear skies Monday?
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Some who hope to witness Monday's total solar eclipse may see the sun obscured by clouds instead of by the moon.
There's still plenty of time for forecasts to change, but meteorologists predict that eclipse day storms could blanket parts of the path, which stretches from Mexico and Texas through Maine and parts of Canada.
If clouds don't get in the way, viewers in the path wearing eclipse glasses will see the moon begin to slowly cover the sun until it is completely blocked, a period of darkness called "totality" during which temperatures drop and the sun's corona will be visible.
What's the forecast along the eclipse's path?
Clouds are expected in much of the eclipse's path Monday thanks to storms that are moving across the central U.S.