Copernical Team
Telescopes unite in unprecedented observations of famous black hole
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In April 2019, scientists released the first image of a black hole in the galaxy M87 using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). However, that remarkable achievement was just the beginning of the science story to be told.
Data from 19 observatories are being released that promise to give unparalleled insight into this black hole and the system it powers, and to improve tests of Einstein's The China releases lunar sample data online
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China's space agency has released an online database of the first batch of the lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e-5 probe.
Researchers and the public can access the Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Scientific Data and Sample Release System via the website www.clep.org.cn, where they can apply for data and samples, according to the China National Space Administration, which announced Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket nails 'astronaut rehearsal' vertical landing test
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With NASA's Space Shuttle program gone for nearly a decade, a slew of private firms have stepped up their efforts to provide manned space flight capabilities, not just for US governmental needs, but also for space tourism.
In a Wednesday test described by the company as an "astronaut rehearsal," Blue Origin successfully blasted a New Shepard rocket into suborbital space and then landed the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A engine completes final acceptance test for Delta 4 Heavy
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The world's most powerful hydrogen-fueled rocket engine built by Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-68A, has completed its final hot-fire acceptance test for use on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle on the B-1 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket uses three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A engines; one on each of its three comm Phantom Space raises $5M in seed funding to for space transportation concept
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Phantom Space Corporation, a space transportation technology development and manufacturing company, has announced it has raised $5 million in seed investment funding to make space commerce commonplace and to lower the barriers to space access. The round was led by New York City based Chenel Capital, who specializes in growth equity investments.
Phantom is a startup working to democratize s Blue Origin launches what may be final test flight before carrying people
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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched Wednesday from Texas what may be the last test flight for its New Shepard rocket before it carries people later this year.
The rocket lifted off about 12:50 p.m. EDT from the company's spaceport near Van Horn, about 120 miles southeast of El Paso. New Shepard soared into the hazy spring sky, reaching velocity of more than 2,200 mph.
"Now the antic Study warns of 'oxygen false positives' in search for signs of life on other planets
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In the search for life on other planets, the presence of oxygen in a planet's atmosphere is one potential sign of biological activity that might be detected by future telescopes. A new study, however, describes several scenarios in which a lifeless rocky planet around a sun-like star could evolve to have oxygen in its atmosphere.
The new findings, published April 13 in AGU Advances, highli Mock crew straps into space capsule, exits before liftoff
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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company strapped two employees into a fueled rocketship for practice, but pulled them out shortly before sending the capsule to the edge of space Wednesday with only a test dummy.
The crew rehearsal in West Texas brings Blue Origin closer to launching tourists and others into space.
Blue Origin wanted to see how well a crew could get in and out of the capsule. The pretend astronauts also tested seatbelts and radio links before the 10 1/2-minute flight, and went back to the capsule following touchdown to climb aboard for recovery practice.
Popping pills in space: Helping astronauts manage pain or sickness on crewed missions
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And you think you've had a bad head cold.
Getting sick in space is no joke. You're stuck, surrounded by the most advanced equipment in the world, most of which is useless if you need a medicine you didn't think to bring.
Even taking a pill has its problems as the constant radiation breaks them down.
Professor Volker Hessel is a researcher at the University of Adelaide who has sent medicine up to the International Space Station (ISS) to test how pills survive in space.
The plan is to understand how we can make space drugs that can last the 3-year trip to Mars.
In space, no one can hear you sneeze
Astronauts are extremely fit for a reason. Space is incredibly stressful to human bodies. Microgravity means astronauts lose 1–2% of their bone mass each month.
Radiation also changes astronaut DNA.
Video: Drone test of Hera mission's asteroid radar
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This drone hauled a model of the Juventas CubeSat high into the air, as a practical test of the antennas designed to perform the first radar sounding of the interior of an asteroid.
The shoebox-sized Juventas will be transported to the Didymos double-asteroid system by ESA's Hera mission. Once it flies freely in space, Juventas will deploy a cross antenna to perform a low-frequency radar scan up to 100 m deep within the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos. Such low frequencies result in long wavelengths of around 6 m, too long for most indoor measurement facilities.
"To verify the antenna characteristics, we performed this aerial test with the support of the Hexapilots drone company," notes Martin Laabs of the Chair for Radio Frequency and Photonics Engineering of Technical University Dresden in Germany.
"For the most accurate measurements of the antennas' radiation properties, they had to be as far away as possible from other objects, so the Juventas model was hung 10 m down from the drone, which was flown up to 50 m into the sky.