Copernical Team
Scientists unearth meteorite from the birth of the solar system
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Scientists believe they have identified a meteorite formed in the first million years of our solar system, making it the oldest known meteor of volcanic origin.
The space rock, which began its journey some 4.5 billion years ago, has already proved an "exceptional" witness to the building blocks of the planets.
Known as Erg Chech 002, the meteorite was discovered in May 2020 by meteor hunters in the Algerian Sahara desert. It had rested undisturbed for "at least 100 years", according to Jean-Alix Barrat, a geochemist at France's Brest University.
In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, Barrat and his colleagues describe its discovery and several rare features.
There are 43 officially documented fragments, but "probably about a hundred" either still in the ground or unaccounted for, said the study.
European science on Space Station in February
Alpha pre-launch press briefing
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Watch the replay of the virtual press event in which ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet talks about his upcoming ‘Alpha’ mission to the International Space Station.
Set to launch on 22 April, Thomas will be the first ESA astronaut to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon being launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, USA. In this event we will also hear from ESA ISS Utilisation Planning Team Leader Kirsten MacDonell, and Head of the ESA Human and Robotic Exploration Strategy & Coordination Group Didier Schmitt.
Keeping up with Thomas
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ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will serve as commander of the International Space Station towards the end of his second mission, called Alpha, currently slated to begin on 22 April this year. The announcement was made during today’s press briefing.
Thomas will be the fourth European to hold the post of commander, after ESA astronauts Frank De Winne, Alexander Gerst and Luca Parmitano. During the briefing, Thomas remarked how three back-to-back European commanders underscores the growing role of Europe in space exploration and is a testament to the hard work of ESA colleagues.
‘I am unbelievably humbled and honoured’, said Thomas.
AFRL collaborates with Purdue University on autonomy challenge project
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Air Force Research Laboratory researchers are collaborating with Purdue University students on an autonomy challenge project, projected for completion in May 2021.
"Collaboration with Purdue is an on-going effort that began in 2020 when AFRL established an Educational Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Purdue," said Andrea Gilkey, a senior engineer with AFRL. "Through this EPA, multiple thre Israel unveils laser-guided 'precision' mortar system
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Israel unveiled Sunday a laser-guided mortar system that it said could reduce civilian collateral damage, as the Jewish state faces an International Criminal Court investigation into possible war crimes.
The "Iron Sting" system, developed by the Israeli military with local firm Elbit Systems, will use laser and GPS technology to provide maximal accuracy to 120mm mortar rounds, the defence mi Gamma Ray Observatory discovers origin of highest-energy cosmic rays in galaxy
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A long-time question in astrophysics appears to finally be answered, thanks to a collection of large, high-tech water tanks on a mountainside in Mexico. The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) data shows that the highest-energy cosmic rays come not from supernovae, but from star clusters.
"The origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays in the galaxy has been an open question in astrophysics LMT collaborates with Dimetor to enable connectivity in VLL airspace
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Mobile innovator LMT and software company Dimetor have partnered to explore the integration of drones into VLL (very low level) airspace. This builds on earlier collaboration where the two companies succeeded in validating the viability of BVLOS drone flights using mobile networks. The current collaboration entails investigative research into the theoretical and practical possibilities of using NASA Partners with Companies to Test Satellite Fixtures for Robotic Grappling
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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has chosen three companies to participate in a new partnership to test and evaluate satellite servicing technologies.
Altius Space Machines of Broomfield, Colorado, Honeybee Robotics of Brooklyn, New York, and Orbit Fab of San Francisco will provide cooperative robotic grapple fixtures and data to be studied by NASA's Exploration a Skoltech and MIT explore human landing system architectures for Moon landings
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Researchers from Skoltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have analyzed several dozen options to pick the best one in terms of performance and costs for the 'last mile' of a future mission to the Moon - actually delivering astronauts to the lunar surface and back up to the safety of the orbiting lunar station. The paper was published in the journal Acta Astronautica.
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