Copernical Team
Glittering moon rises ahead of super blood moon
A glittering full moon rose over New Zealand on Wednesday night as people there and around the world waited for a cosmic event known as a super blood moon.
It's when a full lunar eclipse coincides with a supermoon, which is when the moon is particularly close to Earth and appears brighter than normal.
For about 15 minutes, as the moon moves fully into Earth's shadow, the moon will appear to turn red.
Europa's interior may be hot enough to fuel seafloor volcanoes
Jupiter's moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea volcanoes.
New research and computer modeling show that volcanic activity may have occurred on the seafloor of Jupiter's moon Europa in the recent past—and may still be happening. NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper mission, targeting a 2024 launch, will swoop close to the icy moon and collect measurements that may shed light on the recent findings.
Alpha Data Launches new Space Development Kit
Alpha Data, in collaboration with Xilinx and Texas Instruments, has launched a new Space Development Kit, the ADA-SDEV-KIT3, which will help users to rapidly test the hardware and software setups that look to incorporate the Xilinx Radiation Tolerant Kintex UltraScale XQRKU060 Space-Grade FPGA. Alpha Data's new Space Development Kit, the ADA-SDEV-KIT3, is a development kit for the Xilinx R
Plasma jets reveal magnetic fields far, far away
For the first time, researchers have observed plasma jets interacting with magnetic fields in a massive galaxy cluster 600 million light years away, thanks to the help of radio telescopes and supercomputer simulations. The findings, published in the journal Nature, can help clarify how such galaxy clusters evolve. Galaxy clusters can contain up to thousands of galaxies bound together by gr
Slew of dwarf galaxies had simultaneous 'baby boom' of new stars
Three dozen dwarf galaxies far from each other had a simultaneous "baby boom" of new stars, an unexpected discovery that challenges current theories on how galaxies grow and may enhance our understanding of the universe. Galaxies more than 1 million light-years apart should have completely independent lives in terms of when they give birth to new stars. But galaxies separated by up to 13 m
Milky Way not unusual, astronomers find
The first detailed cross-section of a galaxy broadly similar to the Milky Way reveals that our galaxy evolved gradually, instead of being the result of a violent mash-up. The finding throws the origin story of our home into doubt. The galaxy, dubbed UGC 10738, turns out to have distinct 'thick' and 'thin' discs similar to those of the Milky Way. This suggests, contrary to previous theories
NASA Interns help to solve the Terminator Problem via GLOBE Challenge
Taking pictures of the clouds above is a popular pastime for photographers of all stripes. NASA Spring 2021 interns were invited to do it for science by participating in a data challenge to help solve the terminator problem. What is the terminator problem? The solar terminator (or "twilight zone") is the line that separates the daylit side of a planet from the dark night side. From Earth's
US Space Command chief in Seoul as two sides deepen space cooperation
The U.S. Space Command chief met with the head of South Korea's military in Seoul after the two countries agreed to strengthen space cooperation at the White House Friday. Gen. James Dickinson met with South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook to discuss partnerships in space from a defense perspective, Yonhap reported Monday. The two sides indicated "continued efforts" are needed to maintai
Enabling human control of autonomous partners
A major benefit of increasingly advanced automation and artificial intelligence technology is decreased workload and greater safety for humans - whether it's driving a vehicle, piloting an airplane, or patrolling a dangerous street in a deployed location with the aid of autonomous ground and airborne squad mates. But when there's a technology glitch and machines don't function as designed, human
NASA Marshall team soars to success in microgravity
No force - including gravity - could hold a team of NASA researchers down in their quest for a scientific breakthrough to benefit life on Earth and in space. Scientists from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, completed two parabolic flights April 28 and 29 to test modifications to a payload called the ring-sheared drop. "This demonstration proved that the mod