Today, ESA’s Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.

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Since its launch in 2013 ESA’s Gaia observatory has been mapping our galaxy from Lagrange point 2, creating the most accurate and complete multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way. By now two full sets of data have been released, the first set in 2016 and a second one in 2018. These data releases contained stellar positions, distances, motions across the sky, and colour information, among others. Now on 13 June 2022 a third and new full data set will be released. This data release will contain even more and improved information about almost 2 billion stars, Solar

Entrepreneurs, fledgling firms and established space companies are to receive a boost with the launch of the European Centre for Space Economy and Commerce.

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is turning 10. Launched on June 13, 2012, this space telescope detects high-energy X-ray light and studies some of the most energetic objects and processes in the universe, from black holes devouring hot gas to the radioactive remains of exploded stars. Here are some of the ways NuSTAR has opened our eyes to the X-ray universe over the last d

Berkeley CA (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
If, as astronomers believe, the death of large stars leave behind black holes, there should be hundreds of millions of them scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. The problem is, isolated black holes are invisible. Now, a team led by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers has for the first time discovered what may be a free-floating black hole by observing the brightening of a

Boca Raton FL (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, reports that it has completed bus commissioning for the CENTAURI-5 satellite has concluded with nominal health and status checkouts. Tyvak International SRL, Terran Orbital's wholly-owned international subsidiary, designed and built the

Long Beach CA (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) has been selected by Ball Aerospace to manufacture the Solar Array Panel (SAP) to power NASA's Global Lyman-Alpha Imager of Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE) mission spacecraft planned to launch in 2025. GLIDE is a heliophysics mission intended to study variability in Earth's atmosphere. The SAP will utilize SolAero by Rocket Lab's high-efficiency, radiation-hardened, qua

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
The InSight mission on Mars is running out of power and most of its functions could be shut down in the months to come. Some have already been deactivated. However, the attached seismometer, SEIS, will remain in operation for as long as possible. ETH Professor Domenico Giardini takes stock of three years of marsquake measurements. NASA's InSight lander successfully touched down on Mars on

Houston TX (SPX) Jun 08, 2022
Venus Aerospace, a startup developing hypersonic aircraft, introduced the "Stargazer", the company's first conceptual vehicle design, at the Up.Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Venus Vehicle Engineering Team has been working on this iteration since the company's founding in 2020. Backed by leading Venture Capitalists and with $1M in government funding, Venus has since raised over $33M

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 10, 2022
Mars, Earth's neighbouring planet, is not particularly known for its colourful appearance. It is usually thought of as an orange-brown expanse, stretching as far as the eye - or at least the cameras on rovers and spacecraft - can see. But there are landscapes that are a veritable kaleidoscope of colour by Martian standards. One such area has been captured in the latest images from DLR's Mars cam