Copernical Team
Air pollution returning to pre-COVID levels
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In early 2020, data from satellites were used to show a decline in air pollution coinciding with nationwide lockdowns put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. One year later, as lockdown restrictions loosen in some countries and regular activity resumes, nitrogen dioxide levels are bouncing back to pre-COVID levels.
How do you become an astronaut? Just ask Playmobil’s ROBert…
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In a series of exciting video stories featuring the Playmobil toy system, the ever-knowledgeable robot host ROBert is assisted by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano to explain how you can become an astronaut and what it’s like to live in space.
Could there be life on Jupiter's moons?
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The search for life outside of Earth has taken many forms. Mars, our neighbouring world, looks like it was once habitable. Perhaps too Venus, despite its current hellish conditions. But in recent years, scientists' gazes have been drawn elsewhere. What about the moons of Jupiter?
Three of Jupiter's four largest moons are icy, and in 1998 NASA's Galileo spacecraft detected tantalising hints of an ocean beneath one, Europa. Since then, further studies have detected signs of water plumes possibly erupting from this ocean.
Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 restored
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The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was brought back online on Saturday, March 13th at approximately 7:00 p.m. EST. The instrument was shut down as part of the normal observatory safe mode activities that occurred on Sunday, March 7, in response to a software error on the main flight computer. After starting its recovery on Thursday, March 11, WFC3 suspended the process due to a slightly lower-than-normal voltage reading for a power supply, which triggered an internal instrument safeguard.
Analysis showed that voltage levels in WFC3 power supplies have slowly decreased over time as their electronics aged. The electronics experience colder temperatures when the hardware is turned off in safe mode. This factor coupled with the power the instrument components draw as they are turned back on contributed to the small voltage fluctuation that suspended WFC3 recovery operations. Further detailed analysis indicated that it would be safe to slightly reduce the low voltage limit to avoid a future suspend, and it would be safe to recover the instrument to its science state.
Live: Mission Alpha briefing with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, Tuesday 11:30 CET (10:30 GMT)
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Watch a virtual press event with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on Tuesday 16 March from 10:30–11:30 GMT (11:30–12:30 CET) to learn more about his second International Space Station mission. The briefing and questions and answer session will be in English and French.
This is ESA now also available in Irish and Russian!
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This is ESA now also available in Irish and Russian!
Dynamic dunes
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Dynamic dunes Chinese solar telescope reveals acceleration of magnetic reconnection
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Magnetic reconnection refers to the reconfiguration of magnetic field geometry. It plays an elemental role in the rapid release of magnetic energy and its conversion to other forms of energy in magnetized plasma systems throughout the universe.
Researchers led by Dr. LI Leping from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) analyzed the evolution of m Scientists sketch aged star system using over a century of observations
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Astronomers have painted their best picture yet of an RV Tauri variable, a rare type of stellar binary where two stars - one approaching the end of its life - orbit within a sprawling disk of dust. Their 130-year dataset spans the widest range of light yet collected for one of these systems, from radio to X-rays.
"There are only about 300 known RV Tauri variables in the Milky Way galaxy," Astronomers detect a black hole on the move
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Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space--but catching them in the act has proven difficult.
Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have identified the clearest case to date of a supermassive black hole in motion. Their results are published in the Astrophysical Journal.
"We don't expect the majority of s