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Hera takes flight: Didymos, here we come

Thursday, 10 October 2024 16:00
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Members of the Hera operations team on launch day

The day began with an 85% chance that bad weather would cause a launch delay: it ended with ESA’s Hera mission successfully in space and en route to the Didymos binary asteroid system.

At 16:52 CEST (14:52 UTC) on 7 October 2024, Hera took to the skies aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA. After a smooth 76-minute ascent, the spacecraft separated from its launcher, and, a few minutes later, ESA’s ESOC mission operations centre in Germany assumed control of the spacecraft.

Here is what

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Space-made weld scrutinised in ESA lab

Thursday, 10 October 2024 12:31
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Comparing the in-space weld to its terrestrial equivalent

ESA engineers have focused microscopes, hardness testers and an X-ray computer aided tomography machine onto a special aluminium weld just a single centimetre across – the historic result of the very first autonomous welding to be performed in space, and the first ESA has been involved with.

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Video: 00:01:20

Approximately 41 000 years ago, Earth’s magnetic field briefly reversed during what is known as the Laschamp event. During this time, Earth’s magnetic field weakened significantly—dropping to a minimum of 5% of its current strength—which allowed more cosmic rays to reach Earth’s atmosphere.

Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark and the German Research Centre for Geosciences used data from ESA’s Swarm mission, along with other sources, to create a sounded visualisation of the Laschamp event. They mapped the movement of Earth’s magnetic field lines during the event and created a stereo sound version which is what you

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MetOp-SG-A1 complete

With all instruments integrated, the first MetOp Second Generation-A, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite is now fully assembled and on schedule for liftoff next year. Meanwhile, its sibling, MetOp-SG-B1, is undergoing rigorous testing to ensure that it will withstand the vacuum and extreme temperature swings of space.

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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 08, 2024
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has been chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) to lead a multimillion-dollar initiative aimed at driving nuclear energy research at the university. This project will not only enhance experimental data but also strengthen computational work at UTSA while offering professional training opportunities to prepare st
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