Copernical Team
Webb looks for Fomalhaut’s asteroid belt and finds much more
Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our Solar System in infrared light. But to their surprise, they found that the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our Solar System.
Webb finds water vapour, but from a rocky planet or its star?
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Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to study a rocky exoplanet known as GJ 486 b. It is too close to its star to be within the habitable zone, with a surface temperature of about 430 degrees Celsius. And yet, their observations using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) show hints of water vapour. If the water vapour is associated with the planet, that would indicate that it has an atmosphere despite its scorching temperature and close proximity to its star. Water vapour has been seen on gaseous exoplanets before, but to date no atmosphere has been
Aeolus’ fiery demise to set standard for safe reentry
ESA’s wind mission, Aeolus, will soon be lowered in orbit leading to its fiery reentry and burn-up through Earth’s atmosphere. ESA’s efforts to ensure a safe return go well beyond international standards and place the Agency in the lead for space safety.
Meet Dietmar Pilz, new Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality
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Dr Dietmar Pilz is ESA’s new Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality (D/TEC), and Head of ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
Dr Pilz has over 20 years of professional experience in the European and international aerospace industry, in various engineering and programme management positions in the defence and security sectors and the space community.
ESA extends AI and cloud computing to space
Despite the rain trickling down the windows, the atmosphere in this room is bright. Twelve teams are gathered in ESA's ESTEC technology centre to explore how we can use the latest developments in AI and advanced computing to make satellites smarter. To make them more reactive, agile and independent.
How space will help football fans to celebrate sport
Millions of supporters avidly follow football clubs across Europe, from Manchester United to Bayern Munich. Now ESA is partnering with UEFA to use space to help ensure the safety of football fans and the sustainability of the sport – as well as exploring other ways in which space can help promote football.
NASA launches two small satellites to track hurricanes
NASA launched two small satellites designed to track tropical cyclones hour by hour from a base in New Zealand on Monday, in a project that could improve weather predictions on devastating storms.
The new storm trackers, sent into orbit on a rocket built by US company Rocket Lab, can fly over hurricanes (or typhoons in the Pacific) every hour, compared to every six hours with current satellites.
Researchers will be able to see storms evolve on an hourly basis, said NASA scientist Will McCarty at a press conference for the first launch of the TROPICS mission.
"We still need the large satellites," he added. "What we get from this is the ability to add more information to the flagship satellites that we already have."
A second Rocket Lab-built vessel is due to launch in about two weeks carrying two more satellites to complete a small constellation of four storm-tracking satellites.
The information gathered on rainfall, temperature and humidity could help scientists determine where a hurricane will make landfall and how intense it will be, helping people living in coastal areas be better prepared for possible evacuations.
Alexandrite laser crystals from Europe for space applications
Alexandrite laser crystals are well suited for use in earth observation satellites. They are robust and enable laser systems with a tunable output wavelength. In the European Horizon 2020 project GALACTIC, the partners Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), Optomaterials S.r.l. (Italy) and Altechna (Lithuania) have now succeeded in establishing a solely European supply chain for alexandrite laser cr Satellite Data, Applications Flowing Through SERVIR to Southeast Asia
More than 50 million people in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar draw water for drinking and agriculture from the Mekong River. With customized tools that use NASA observations and data, the people who manage that water supply have been improving their decision-making. It is a prime example of the work NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have been doing to Tianzhou-5 cargo craft separates from China's space station
The China Manned Space Agency announced on Friday that the Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft successfully separated from China's space station at 3:26 p.m. Beijing Time. The spacecraft, which had been supporting the Shenzhou-15 crewed mission, is now in independent flight mode.
Tianzhou-5 was launched on November 12, 2022, from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan, a southern province o