Copernical Team
An asteroid "double disaster" struck Germany in the Miocene
By analyzing sediments jostled by ground shaking, researchers have shown that two impact craters near Stuttgart were created by independent asteroid impacts rather than a binary asteroid strike.
A Gothic church rises high above the medieval town of Nordlingen, Germany. But unlike most churches, St. George's is composed of a very special type of rock: suevite, a coarse-grained breccia that' Student astronomer finds galactic missing matter
Astronomers have for the first time used distant galaxies as 'scintillating pins' to locate and identify a piece of the Milky Way's missing matter.
For decades, scientists have been puzzled as to why they couldn't account for all the matter in the universe as predicted by theory. While most of the universe's mass is thought to be mysterious dark matter and dark energy, 5 percent is 'normal A warp in the Milky Way linked to galactic collision
When most of us picture the shape of the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our own sun and hundreds of billions of other stars, we think of a central mass surrounded by a flat disc of stars that spiral around it. However, astronomers know that rather than being symmetrical, the disc structure is warped, more like the brim of a fedora, and that the warped edges are constantly moving around the SpaceX Crew Dragon team to break US record for on Sunday
On Sunday, US astronauts living aboard the ISS orbital outpost will break the record for most days in space by a crew launched aboard an American spacecraft, NASA said.
"They will surpass the record of 84 days set by the Skylab 4 crew on Feb. 8, 1974", NASA said.
The Skylab 4 crew, with NASA astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue, docked their Apollo spacecraft to t Private Chinese company launches smart suborbital rocket
A new smart suborbital rocket developed by a private Chinese company was successfully launched from a site in northwest China on Friday, according to the company.
The "Chongqing Liangjiang Star" OS-X6B, with a length of 9.4 meters, was launched at 5:05 p.m. It completed a flight time of about 580 seconds, reaching a maximum altitude of about 300 km, said OneSpace Technology Group Co. Best way to get around the Solar System
There is currently a great interest in going someplace in the Solar System. NASA wants to go to the Moon. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. Still others just want to go to an asteroid. These destinations require extremely complex systems and mission scenarios.
In order to get to any of these places, the easiest way is to first get into Earth orbit. This first step requires leaving the terrest Tianwen 1 makes orbital correction as Mars arrival draws near
China's Tianwen 1 Mars probe conducted its fourth orbital correction on Friday evening, as the spacecraft makes ready for its arrival in orbit around Feb 10, according to the China National Space Administration.
The robotic vehicle ignited one of its engines at 8 pm to make an orbital correction and ensure it would be flying in the right direction toward the Martian gravitational field, th Harvard astronomer argues that alien vessel paid us a visit
Discovering there's intelligent life beyond our planet could be the most transformative event in human history— but what if scientists decided to collectively ignore evidence suggesting it already happened?
That's the premise of a new book by a top astronomer, who argues that the simplest and best explanation for the highly unusual characteristics of an interstellar object that sped through our solar system in 2017 is that it was alien technology.
Sound kooky? Avi Loeb says the evidence holds otherwise, and is convinced his peers in the scientific community are so consumed by groupthink they're unwilling to wield Occam's razor.
Loeb's stellar credentials—he was the longest-serving chair of astronomy at Harvard, has published hundreds of pioneering papers, and has collaborated with greats like the late Stephen Hawking—make him difficult to dismiss outright.
China's space probe sends back its first image of Mars
China's Tianwen-1 probe has sent back its first image of Mars, the national space agency said, as the mission prepares to touch down on the Red Planet later this year.
The spacecraft, launched in July around the same time as a rival US mission, is expected to enter Mars orbit around February 10.
The black-and-white photo released late Friday by the China National Space Administration showed geological features including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons on the Martian surface.
The photo was taken about 2.2 million kilometres (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to CNSA, which said the spacecraft was now 1.1 million kilometres from the planet.
Out of this world: Shepard put golf on moon 50 years ago
![Out of this world: Shepard put golf on moon 50 years ago](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2021/1-outofthiswor.jpg "In this Feb. 6, 1971, file photo, Apollo 14 astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. conducts an experiment near a lunar crater using an instrument from a two-wheeled cart carrying various test tools. Apollo 14 commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. and his crew brought back 42 kilograms of moon rocks. Left behind were two golf balls that Shepard, who later described the moon's surface as "one big sand trap," hit with a makeshift 6-iron to become a footnote in history. (NASA via AP, File)")