NASA missions help investigate an 'old faithful' active galaxy
Wednesday, 13 January 2021 06:00
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During a typical year, over a million people visit Yellowstone National Park, where the Old Faithful geyser regularly blasts a jet of boiling water high in the air. Now, an international team of astronomers has discovered a cosmic equivalent, a distant galaxy that erupts roughly every 114 days.
Using data from facilities including NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Transiting Exopla Galaxy mergers could limit star formation
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Our astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and affect galaxy growth.
Using a powerful Earth-based telescope they saw that a huge amount of star-forming gas was ejected into the universe by the coming together of two galaxies.
The merger created a new galaxy called ID2299 at a t When Galaxies Collide: Hubble Showcases 6 Beautiful Galaxy Mergers
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To celebrate a new year, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has published a montage of six beautiful galaxy mergers. Each of these merging systems was studied as part of the recent HiPEEC survey to investigate the rate of new star formation within such systems. These interactions are a key aspect of galaxy evolution and are among the most spectacular events in the lifetime of a galaxy.
It Wind bands, jet streams spotted on nearest brown dwarf
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The brown dwarf closest to our solar system hosts wind bands and jet streams, according to new analysis of the object's atmosphere.
Brown dwarfs are too big to be planets but not quite massive enough to generate fusion, a prerequisite for stellar classification. Though hot in their infancy, brown dwarfs steadily cool as they mature, making them difficult to spot and study.
Becaus Chandra Studies Extraordinary Magnetar
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In 2020, astronomers added a new member to an exclusive family of exotic objects with the discovery of a magnetar. New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory help support the idea that it is also a pulsar, meaning it emits regular pulses of light.
Magnetars are a type of neutron star, an incredibly dense object mainly made up of tightly packed neutron, which forms from the coll Unveiling the double origin of cosmic dust in the distant Universe
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Two billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still very young. However, thousands of huge galaxies, rich in stars and dust, were already formed. An international study, led by SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, now explains how this was possible.
Scientists combined observational and theoretical methods to identify the physical processes behind their evolu SpaceX wins contracts for lunar lander, environmental satellite launches
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 23:55 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — SpaceX secured contracts Jan. 13 for the launches of a commercial lunar lander mission backed by NASA as well as a privately funded satellite to track methane emissions.
Intuitive Machines announced that it selected SpaceX for the launch of its IM-2 lunar lander mission on a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than 2022.
Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal selected as future home of U.S. Space Command
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 19:42 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, was picked as the future location of U.S. Space Command’s headquarters.
Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett announced the decision Jan. 13.
The selection of Redstone Arsenal is a huge win for Huntsville, nicknamed “Rocket City.
A robot made of ice could adapt and repair itself on other worlds
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:06 Write a comment
Some of the most tantalizing targets in space exploration are frozen ice worlds. Take Jupiter's moon Europa, for instance. Its warm, salty subsurface ocean is buried under a moon-wide sheet of ice. What's the best way to explore it?
Maybe an ice robot could play a role.
Though the world's space agencies—especially NASA—are getting better and better at building robots to explore places like Mars, those robots have limitations. Perhaps chief among those limitations is the possibility of breakdown. Once a rover on Mars—or somewhere even more distant—breaks down, it's game over. There's no feasible way to repair something like MSL Curiosity if it breaks down while exploring the Martian surface.
But what if the world being explored was a frozen one, and the robot was made of ice? Could icy robots perform self-repair, even in a limited fashion? Could they actually be manufactured and assembled there, even partly?
Director General’s annual press conference 2021
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 13:37 Write a comment
Join our start-of-year press conference with ESA Director General Jan Wörner and future Director General Josef Aschbacher plus other ESA Directors when they meet online on Thursday, 14 January 2021. The event starts at 09:30 GMT / 10:30 CET. Watch live on #ESAwebTV.
Blue Origin preparing for next New Shepard flight
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 12:30 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin is gearing up for the next test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle as soon as Jan. 14.
Temporary flight restrictions published by the Federal Aviation Administration Jan. 12 will close airspace above Blue Origin’s West Texas test site from Jan.
Image: Underwater astronaut training
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 12:29 Write a comment
Prepping for a spacewalk typically means diving underwater to rehearse and fine-tune operations.
In 2016, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst performed such an underwater rehearsal for the ColKa high speed radio, the brown box imaged above, that will be installed this month on the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover will integrate the small fridge-sized device outside the European Columbus module during a spacewalk scheduled this year. ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will be at NASA's mission control directing the spacewalkers as Capcom. The Columbus Ka-band terminal, nicknamed "ColKa," will enable faster communication with Europe.
Orbiting the planet every 90 minutes means the Space Station is constantly making and breaking short links with ground stations on Earth as it passes over them at a height of 400 km.
With Colka, a European telecommunications satellite in geostationary orbit can pick up data sent from the Columbus module. This satellite is part of the European Data Relay System and will be able to directly relay the signals from Columbus to European soil via a ground station in Harwell, in the U.K.
NASA and Japan finalize Gateway agreement
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 11:18 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA and the Japanese government have completed an agreement outlining Japan’s contributions to the lunar Gateway as NASA works to wrap up international contributions to the outpost.
NASA announced Jan. 12 it signed an agreement with the Japanese government governing Japan’s contributions to the Gateway.
Spain’s chilly blanket
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:54 Write a comment
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The heavy snowfall that hit Spain a few days ago still lies heavy across much of the country as this Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite image shows. Exotrail aims for more in orbit space mobility
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
Exotrail reports full success of first-ever cubesat mission equipped with Hall-effect electric propulsion technology. Through an In-Orbit Demonstration mission launched to Low Earth Orbit on 7th of November 2020 onboard a PSLV rocket, Exotrail nominally ignited its ExoMGTM Hall-effect electric propulsion system on the first attempt.
Small satellite constellations will now be able to quickl