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Hera is ESA's first planetary defence mission, set to probe the lingering mysteries of a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System: the first body to have had its orbit shifted by human action.

Spacecraft are among the most complex machines ever built, so need to be broken down into sets of subsystems, and this video shows how ESA and European industry put together Hera.

Hera’s chemical propulsion subsystem is what moves it through space, while its electrical power subsystem supplies and regulates electrical power throughout the spacecraft as needed. Its data handling subsystem

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Solar wind is a never-ending stream of charged particles coming from the Sun. Rather than a constant breeze, this wind is rather gusty. As solar wind particles travel through space, they interact with the Sun's variable magnetic field, creating chaotic and fluctuating motion known as turbulence.

This video confirms something long suspected: the turbulent motion of solar wind begins very close to the Sun, inside the solar atmosphere known as the corona. Small disturbances affecting solar wind in the corona are carried outward and expand, generating turbulent flow further out in space.

By blocking out direct light coming from

Image: On 20 September, the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite captured its first stunning image of the Moon, achieved by rolling the satellite sideways in a unique manoeuvre. Although Sentinel-2C is primarily designed for Earth observation, this image – intended for calibration and cross-mission comparisons – exceeded expectations.

Taking place at KAP Europa in Frankfurt, Germany, from 27 to 28 November 2024, the second ESA Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum will bring together stakeholders from the Earth observation and space commercialisation sectors, including end users, space industry players, entrepreneurs, private and public investors and policymakers to discuss and promote commercial opportunities in Earth observation.

The event is an important part of ESA’s broader strategy to enhance the economic return from Earth observation investments to ensure that space technology contributes to sustainable economic growth.

A spacecraft in flight cannot help but change the space about it – which can pose problems. A new paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics presents a study on how ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, is interacting with the solar wind. The consequences include potentially problematic surface charging, a dense cloud of photoelectrons that surround the spacecraft and a more than 65-m-long wake of ion-free space behind it, resembling the trail of a boat.

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) inaugurated LUNA, a state-of-the-art lunar analogue facility, on September 25, 2024, in Cologne, Germany. The facility, located near ESA's European Astronaut Centre, is designed to simulate lunar surface conditions to support astronaut training and testing for upcoming lunar missions. LUNA will serve as a vital tool for

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
A volunteer crew recently "returned" from a simulated 45-day mission to Mars at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. The crew completed their stay in a small habitat, contributing to research essential for future human space missions to the Moon and Mars. The HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) missions are part of NASA's effort to study how humans cope with the unique challe

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2024
With a $20 million, five-year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is partnering with academic institutions and federal labs in the Midwest to advance AI-driven astrophysics research. The collaboration, led by Northwestern University, will establish the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has announced the pricing of its upsized public offering, where it will sell 10,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at $4.00 per share. This offering is expected to generate gross proceeds of approximately $40 million before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions, and other related expenses. All shares in the offering are being sold by Bl

Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
Is our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, a special place? A team of scientists started a journey to answer this question more than a decade ago. Commenced in 2013, the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey studies galaxy systems like the Milky Way. Now, the SAGA Survey just published three new research articles that provide us with new insights into the uniqueness of our own Milky Wa