Astronomy and Space Facts!!!!

[BouncerGuy]

Black hole that's 33 times bigger than the sun found 'lurking undetected' close to Earth

Gaia BH3, which is in the constellation of The Eagle, is 33 times bigger than the sun in terms of mass and was spotted because of a star 'wobbling' in its orbit. It was spotted in space by scientists from the European Southern Observatory.

Astronomers have discovered the Milky Way's "most massive" stellar black hole yet.

The newly discovered black hole is 33 times bigger than the sun and 2,000 light years away from us.

A stellar black hole is formed when a star collapses - and so far, the ones found in our galaxy have been about 10 times as big as the sun in terms of mass.

Scientists from the European Southern Observatory's Gaia mission noticed the black hole after a star was spotted wobbling as it orbited the area. It has been named Gaia BH3.

"No one was expecting to find a high-mass black hole lurking nearby, undetected so far," said Pasquale Panuzzo, an astronomer from the National Centre for Scientific Research at the Observatoire de Paris.

"This is the kind of discovery you make once in your research life."

Important clues

Gaia BH3 is the second-closest black hole to Earth, sitting in the Aquila constellation, which means "the eagle" in Latin. From Earth, the constellation is thought to form the shape of an eagle.

The "wobbly" star orbiting it is thought to give important clues as to how the black hole was formed, as stars in pairs tend to be similar.

How are stellar black holes formed?

As stars reach the end of their lives, most of them inflate, lose mass and cool to form "white dwarfs".

Stellar black holes are thought to form when a star doesn't contain heavy elements and loses less mass over its lifetime - these are called "metal-poor" stars. Then, instead of changing and cooling into a white dwarf, it collapses in on itself and forms a black hole.

Gaia BH3's companion star is a very metal-poor star which suggests that the star that collapsed to form BH3 was also metal-poor.

There are around 50 stellar black holes that scientists have discovered in the Milky Way, according to NASA.

In January, scientists discovered the oldest black hole ever, dating back to the early universe more than 13 billion years ago.

Spotted using the James Webb Space Telescope, that black hole is devouring an ancient galaxy called GN-z11 - 13.4 billion light years away. The universe is calculated to be 13.7 billion years old.

SOURCE: SKY NEWS

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Boeing is set to launch NASA astronauts for the first time after years of struggle

Boeing counted down for its first astronaut launch on Monday after years of struggle.

NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were set to climb into Boeing’s Starliner capsule for a nighttime liftoff from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station for a weeklong stay.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle program ended, paying the private companies billions of dollars. SpaceX has been in the orbital taxi business since 2020.



AP News

 

[BouncerGuy]

Earliest and most distant galaxy ever observed

The James Webb Space Telescope has smashed its own record for detecting the most distant known galaxy.

Called JADES-GS-z14-0, the collection of stars was spied as it was a mere 290 million years after the Big Bang.

Put another way - if the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, it means we're observing the galaxy when the cosmos was only 2% of its current age.

Webb used its huge 6.5m-wide primary mirror and sensitive infrared instruments to make the discovery.

The telescope's previous record holder was a galaxy seen at 325 million years after the Big Bang.

Astronomers say the most interesting aspect of the latest observation is not so much the great distance involved - as amazing as that is - but rather the size and brightness of JADES-GS-z14-0.

Webb measures the galaxy to be more than 1,600 light years across. Many of the most luminous galaxies generate the majority of their light via gas falling into a supermassive black hole. But the scale of JADES-GS-z14-0 indicates that is not the explanation in this case. Instead, the researchers believe the light is being produced by young stars.

"This much starlight implies that the galaxy is several hundreds of millions of times the mass of the Sun! This raises the question: how can nature make such a bright, massive, and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?" said Webb astronomers Stefano Carniani and Kevin Hainline.

Dr Carniani is affiliated to Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, and Dr Hainline is from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.

The $10bn James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched in 2021 as a joint endeavour of the US, European and Canadian space agencies.

It was designed specifically to see farther across the cosmos - and further back in time - than any previous astronomical tool.

One of its key objectives was to find the very first stars to ignite in the nascent Universe.

These giant objects, perhaps many hundreds of times the mass of our Sun, were made only of hydrogen and helium.

They are theorised to have burnt brilliant but brief lives, forging in their nuclear cores the heavier chemical elements known in nature today.

In JADES-GS-z14-0, Webb can see a significant amount of oxygen, which tells researchers the galaxy is already quite mature.

"The presence of oxygen so early in the life of this galaxy is a surprise and suggests that multiple generations of very massive stars had already lived their lives before we observed the galaxy," added Drs Carniani and Hainline.

The "JADES" in the object's name stands for "JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey". It is one of a number of observation programmes using the telescope to probe the first few hundred million years of the cosmos.

"z14" refers to "Redshift 14". Redshift is the term astronomers use to describe distances.

It's essentially a measure of how the light coming from a far-off galaxy has been stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the Universe.

The greater the distance, the greater the stretching. The light from the earliest galaxies is stretched from ultraviolet and visible wavelengths into the infrared - the part of the electromagnetic spectrum to which James Webb's mirrors and instruments were specifically tuned.

“We could have detected this galaxy even if it were 10 times fainter, which means that we could see other examples yet earlier in the Universe - probably into the first 200 million years,” said Prof Brant Robertson from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

The JADES discovery and its implications are described in a number scholarly papers published on the arXiv preprint service.

BBC

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Boeing, NASA target June 5 for Starliner's debut crew flight

Boeing and NASA said on Sunday that their teams are preparing to launch the new Starliner space capsule on June 5 after scrubbing its inaugural test flight launch attempt on Saturday.

The Starliner capsule had stood ready for blast-off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday before a ground system computer triggered an automatic abort command that shut down the launch sequence.

NASA said its teams worked overnight to assess the ground support equipment at the launch pad that encountered issues during the countdown and identified an issue with a ground power supply within one of the chassis which provides power to a subset of computer cards controlling various system functions.

The chassis containing the faulty ground power unit was removed, visually inspected, and replaced with a spare chassis, the space agency said.

The CST-200 Starliner's first crewed voyage to the International Space Station (ISS), with two astronauts aboard, remains a key milestone for Boeing as it scrambles to gain a greater share of lucrative NASA business now dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Once launched, the Starliner is expected to arrive at the space station after a flight of about 24 hours and dock with the orbiting research outpost some 250 miles (402 km) above Earth.


Reuters

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Boeing's Starliner finally blasts off to International Space Station

Boeing's troubled space capsule has finally made it off the launchpad with two astronauts on board.

The first crewed test flight of Starliner had been delayed by series of faults, either with the capsule or the rocket that fired it off pad 41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Commander Butch Wilmore and colleague Suni Williams will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, where they will spend a week before returning to Earth.

Ms Williams is the first female test pilot of an orbital spacecraft.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said: "Two bold NASA astronauts are well on their way on this historic first test flight of a brand-new spacecraft."

"Boeing's Starliner marks a new chapter of American exploration. Human spaceflight is a daring task - but that's why it's worth doing. It's an exciting time for NASA, our commercial partners, and the future of exploration. Go Starliner, Go Butch and Suni!"

Three previous launch attempts this year were scrubbed, most recently on Saturday when mission control stopped the countdown with just three minutes and 50 seconds to go.

Boeing's Starliner finally blasts off to International Space Station

Boeing's crewed space capsule Starliner has finally lifted off to the International Space Station (ISS) after a series of delays. Commander Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will dock with the ISS on Thursday.

news.sky.com

 

[FearlessRoar]

Musk's SpaceX hired to destroy ISS space station​

Nasa has selected Elon Musk's SpaceX company to bring down the International Space Station at the end of its life.

The California-based company will build a vehicle capable of pushing the 430-tonne orbiting platform into the Pacific Ocean early in the next decade.

A contract for the work, valued at up to $843m (£668m), was announced on Wednesday.

The first elements of the space station were launched in 1998, with continuous crewed operations beginning in 2000.

The station circles the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude just above 400km (250 miles) and has been home to thousands of scientific experiments, investigating all manner of phenomena from the aging process in humans to the formula for new types of materials.

Engineers say the laboratory remains structurally sound, but plans need to be put in place now for its eventual disposal. Without assistance, it would eventually fall back to Earth on its own, however this poses a significant risk to populations on the ground.

"Selecting a US De-orbit Vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS) will help Nasa and its international partners ensure a safe and responsible transition in low Earth orbit at the end of station operations. This decision also supports Nasa's plans for future commercial destinations and allows for the continued use of space near Earth," Ken Bowersox, the agency's director of space operations, said in a statement.

The US and Russia lead the ISS project. Europe, Canada and Japan play supporting roles. The western partners have all agreed to fund the station through 2030; Russia says its involvement will extend until at least 2028.

Nasa has studied various options for end-of-life disposal.

These include disassembling the station and using the younger elements in a next-generation platform. Another idea has been to simply to hand it off to some commercial concern to run and maintain.

But these solutions all have varying complications of complexity and cost, as well as the legal difficulty of having to untangle issues of ownership.

Neither Nasa nor SpaceX have released details of the design for the de-orbiting "tug boat", but it will require considerable thrust to safely guide the station into the atmosphere in the right place and at the right time.

The platform's great mass and extent - the dimensions roughly of a football pitch - mean some structures and components are bound to survive the heat of re-entry and make it all the way to the surface.

Controllers will allow the orbit of the ISS to naturally decay over a period of time, and after removing the last crew will command the tugboat to execute the final de-orbit manoeuvre.

Redundant spacecraft are aimed at a remote location in the Pacific known as Point Nemo.

Named after the famous submarine sailor from Jules Verne's book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the target graveyard is more than 2,500km from the nearest piece of land.

Nasa is hopeful that a number of private consortia will have started launching commercial space stations by the time the ISS is brought out of the sky.

The focus of the space agencies will shift to a project to build a platform called Gateway that will orbit the Moon.

Elon Musk's SpaceX contracted to destroy retired space station

The California-based company will build a "tugboat" to execute the end-of-life disposal of the ISS.

www.bbc.com

 

[FearlessRoar]

Russian Space Chiefs Finally Admit US Landed on Moon​

Russia has finally admitted that American astronauts did, in fact, land on the moon.

Head of Russian Space Corporation Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, accepted the truth of the U.S. putting a man on the moon in an address to the State Duma, Intellinews has reported.

"As for whether the Americans were on the Moon or not, I have one fact to share," he was reported to have said.

"I was personally interested in this matter. At one time, they provided us with a portion of the lunar soil that the astronauts brought back during their expedition."

Previous polling revealed that just under half of Russians believe America's 1969 moon landing was a government hoax.

However, Borisov said that tests performed on the samples by the Russian Academy of Scientists confirmed their authenticity.

Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface in July 1969, famously declaring, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

Joined by Buzz Aldrin, the two astronauts spent approximately two hours exploring the lunar landscape at Tranquility Base, collecting 47.5 pounds of lunar material to bring back to Earth while Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the Command Module Columbia.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin may have been the first human being to be sent into space, but many Russians remain skeptical on whether the U.S. successfully landed men on the moon in 1969.

A receet survey of 1,600 Russian adults found that just 31 percent accepted that U.S. astronauts landed on the moon in the last century.

The conspiracy that the moon landing was faked in also prevalent in the United States, though to a lesser degree.

A 2019 Statista study found that 11 percent of Americans believed the landing was a hoax.

Five percent "strongly believed" the conspiracy, with a further six percent who "somewhat believed" it.

Another 11 percent answered that they "neither believed nor disbelieved" in the theory, but 61 percent said they "strongly disbelieved" the conspiracy.

A separate poll conducted by Gallup 30 years after the 1969 moon landing also found that six percent of Americans believed the event was either staged or fake, but the vast majority (89 percent) were confident the landing did, in fact, take place.

In related news, China's mission to the far side of the moon successfully returned last month after spending two months in space.

The Chang'e-6 lunar module arrived back on earth with the first-ever samples from the "dark side" of the moon.

Russian space chiefs finally admit US landed on Moon

The head of Roscosmos has admitted that the authenticity of the moon landing samples was confirmed by the Russian Academy of Scientists, reports say.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Mars could have enough water stored underground to cover the planet's surface, scientists say

Scientists say there could be water on Mars underground, and more than enough to fill the planet's oceans.

Scientists from California universities San Diego and Berkeley say evidence suggests there is a large reservoir of liquid water under the planet's surface.

Using data from NASA's InSight lander - which carried out a four-year-long mission that ended in 2022 - they wrote that the amount of groundwater could cover all of Mars to a depth of one to two kilometres.

But the researchers warned it isn't straightforward to find it. They believe the water is located in the rocks that form the midcrust of the planet, and is around 11.5 to 20km below the surface.

Despite how inaccessible the water is, study author and assistant professor at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Vashan Wright, said the evidence it's there gives major indications to the evolution of the red planet.

He said: "Understanding the Martian water cycle is critical for understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior.

"A useful starting point is to identify where water is and how much is there."

The researchers used InSight's data collected from the ground on Mars, including on the speed of Marsquake waves, and used a model to determine that the presence of liquid water in the crust most plausibly explained the data.

They wrote: "While available data are best explained by a water-saturated mid-crust, our results highlight the value of geophysical measurements and better constraints on the mineralogy and composition of Mars' crust."

Scientists have long tried to find water on Mars, with theories suggesting it had escaped into space. But the new evidence suggests "Mars' crust need not have lost most of its water via atmospheric escape," the writers said.

"Liquid water in the pores of the mid-crust also requires high enough permeability and warm enough temperatures in the shallow crust to permit exchange between the surface and greater depths," they add.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Mars could have enough water stored underground to cover the planet's surface, scientists say

Using data from NASA's InSight lander - which carried out a four-year-long mission that ended in 2022 - researchers say the amount of water underground could cover all of Mars with between one to two kilometres of water.

news.sky.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Earth hit by 'severe' solar storm

The Earth was hit Monday by an intense solar storm that could bring the Northern Lights to night skies farther south than normal, a U.S. agency announced.

Conditions of a level-four geomagnetic storm — on a scale of five — were observed Monday from 1500 GMT, according to a specialized center at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

These conditions may persist for several hours but were not expected to increase further in intensity, NOAA added in a statement.

"A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen faintly as far south as Alabama and northern California," NOAA said in a statement, referring to the two U.S. states.

The new solar storm is caused by coronal mass ejections, which are explosions of particles leaving the sun. When these particles arrive on Earth, they disrupt the planet’s magnetic field.

"There are a lot of auroras now. ... If it lasts until nightfall here, we might be able to see some," Eric Lagadec, an astrophysicist at the Cote d'Azur Observatory in France, said on X, formerly Twitter.

On Sunday, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick published on X a superb photo of the aurora borealis — or Northern Lights — taken from the International Space Station, where he is currently stationed.

But solar or geomagnetic storms can also trigger undesirable effects.

For example, they can degrade high-frequency communications, disrupt satellites and cause overloads on the electricity grid. Operators of sensitive infrastructure have been notified to put in place measures to limit these effects, NOAA said.

In May, the planet went through the most powerful geomagnetic storms recorded in 20 years. They caused auroras to light up the night sky in the United States, Europe and Australia, at much lower latitudes than usual.

This type of event has increased recently because the sun is currently close to its peak activity, as per its 11-year cycle.

Earth hit by 'severe' solar storm

Conditions could persist for several hours but were not expected to increase further in intensity, NOAA said

www.voanews.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Nasa issues warning as huge asteroid set to hit Earth

Nasa issued an alert after spotting asteroid 2024 PZ3 that will come scarily close to Earth on August 15 Thursday (Today).

The 96-foot asteroid, which is roughly as big as a large aeroplane, will zoom past our planet at the dangerous speed of 43,867 km/h.

Asteroid 2024 PZ3 has been classified as an Apollo asteroid, which is one of the categories of near-Earth objects (NEOs) which have orbits that cross the path of the Earth.

Generally, NEOs are not a threat because their orbits do not bring them close to the Earth.

However, some of them get labelled as potentially hazardous asteroids, because of their scary distance and need to be monitored.

Such asteroids are larger than nearly 460 feet (140 metres) and have orbits which are likely to bring them at a distance of 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometres) from Earth’s orbit.

Asteroid 2024 PZ3 has not been labelled as a potentially hazardous asteroid, however, its close approach distance of only 277,018 kilometres from Earth makes it important to be monitored.

What will happen if asteroid 2024 PZ3 hits Earth?

If asteroid 2024 PZ3 hits Earth, its impact will depend on its size and the location at which it hits the planet.

A 96-foot asteroid has the capability to cause localised damage and a noticeable explosion.

Although 2024 PZ3 will pass close from Earth, it will not be dangerous for the planet.

How is Nasa tracking asteroids?

Nasa, along with other space agencies, has established a network of telescopes and advanced computing for identifying near-Earth objects (NEOs).

Even though many of the NEOs don't come very near to Earth, some of them do come at a scary distance and get tagged as potentially hazardous asteroids which need more attention.

Such asteroids are more than 460 feet (140 metres) in size and their orbits bring them within a distance of 7.5 million kilometres from Earth. NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has been monitoring all the NEOs and looking for any potential impact risks.

Nasa issues warning as huge asteroid set to hit Earth

It is being closely monitored

dunyanews.tv

 

[FearlessRoar]

Boeing Starliner returns to Earth, but without astronauts​

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft has completed its journey back to Earth - but the astronauts it was supposed to be carrying remain behind on the International Space Station.

The empty craft travelled in autonomous mode after undocking from the orbiting lab.

The capsule, which suffered technical problems after it launched with Nasa's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, was deemed too risky to take the astronauts home.

They will instead return in a SpaceX Crew Dragon, but not until February - extending an eight-day stay on the ISS to eight months.

After Starliner's return, a Nasa spokesman said he was pleased at the successful landing but wished it could have gone as originally planned.

The flight back lasted six hours. After it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere parachutes were used to slow its descent at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico on Saturday at 23:01 local time (05:01 GMT).

Nasa said earlier that Butch and Suni were in good spirits and in regular contact with their families.

Steve Stich, Nasa’s commercial crew programme manager, said both astronauts were passionate about their jobs.

“They understand the importance now of moving on and... getting the vehicle back safely.”

This was the first test flight for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft with astronauts on board.

But it was plagued with problems soon after it blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 5 June.

The capsule experienced leaks of helium, which pushes fuel into the propulsion system, and several of its thrusters did not work properly.

Engineers at Boeing and Nasa spent months trying to understand these technical issues, but in late August the US space agency decided that Starliner was not safe enough to bring the astronauts home.

In a news briefing following the landing, Steve Stich said: "From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing, but then there's a piece of us - all of us - that wish it would have been the way we had planned it.

"We had planned to have the mission land with Butch and Suni on board."

He added there was "clearly work to do", and that it would take "a little time" to determine what will come next.

The briefing panel consisted only of Nasa officials. Missing, were two Boeing representatives who were supposed to be present.

When quizzed on the absence, Nasa official Joel Montalbano said Boeing decided to "defer to Nasa" to represent the mission.

Instead, Boeing released a statement "to recognize the work the Starliner teams did to ensure a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, re-entry and landing".

It said Boeing will "review the data and determine the next steps" forward for the programme.

Mr Stich previously admitted there was “tension in the room” between Boeing and Nasa while the decision not to bring the astronauts home on Starliner was being made, with Boeing arguing that their spacecraft could safely return with the pair on board.

“The Nasa team, due to the uncertainty and the modelling, could not get comfortable with that,” he said.

The plan to use rival company SpaceX has brought with it a significant delay to the astronauts’ return.

The extra time is to allow SpaceX to launch its next vehicle, with lift off scheduled for the end of September.

It was supposed to have four astronauts on board, but instead it will travel with two. This leaves room for Butch and Suni to join them in the vehicle to return to Earth at the end of its planned stay next February.

Dana Weigel, manager of the International Space Station, said that the astronauts were adapting well to their extended mission. Both have previously completed two long-duration stays in space.

She said the pair were undertaking the exercise programmes needed to stay healthy in the weightless environment.

And she added that they now had all of the gear they needed for their unplanned eight-month stay.

“When we first sent them up, they were borrowing a lot of our generic clothing that we have on board, and we have now switched some of those things out,” she said.

She explained that a resupply mission in July had delivered “specific crew preference items” that the pair had requested.

“So they actually have all of the standard expedition gear at this point that any other crew member would be able to select.

And we’ve got another cargo vehicle coming up, so we’ll send up anything else that they need for the back-end half of their mission on that flight.”

The issues with Starliner have no doubt been a blow to Boeing, which is suffering from financial losses as it struggles to repair its reputation following recent in-flight incidents and two fatal accidents five years ago.

After so many problems, a trouble-free landing will be a welcome outcome for the company - and for Nasa.

”We'll go through a couple months of post-flight analysis,” said Steve Stich.

“There are teams starting to look at what we do to get the vehicle fully certified in the future.”

The US space agency has emphasised its commitment to Boeing’s spacecraft - having two American companies to take astronauts to space has been a key goal for Nasa for some time.

When their space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, the US spent a decade relying solely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to transport its crew and cargo - a situation Nasa admitted was far from ideal.

So in 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts to provide commercial space flights for Nasa astronauts - Boeing’s was worth $4.2bn (£3.2bn) while SpaceX received $2.6bn (£2bn).

So far SpaceX has sent nine crewed flights to space for Nasa, as well as some commercial missions, but this was Boeing’s first attempt at a crewed mission.

Boeing’s Starliner had already been delayed for several years because of setbacks in the spacecraft's development and two previous uncrewed flights in 2019 and 2022 also suffered technical problems.

But Nasa administrator Bill Nelson says he is 100% certain it would fly with a crew onboard again.

Boeing Starliner spacecraft lands back on Earth

The troubled spacecraft returns empty to New Mexico from the International Space Station.

www.bbc.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

China aims for historic Mars mission ‘around 2028’ as it vies for space power

China’s historic attempt to bring samples from Mars to Earth could launch as soon as 2028, two years earlier than previously stated, according to a senior mission official.

The country’s Tianwen-3 mission would carry out two launches “around 2028” to retrieve the Martian samples, chief mission designer Liu Jizhong said at a deep-space exploration event in eastern China’s Anhui province last week.

The projected mission launch is more ambitious than a 2030 target announced by space officials earlier this year, though the timeline has fluctuated in recent years. A 2028 target appears to return to a launch plan described in 2022 by a senior scientist involved with the Tianwen program – a mission profile that would see samples returned to Earth by 2031.

The latest remarks follow China’s landmark success retrieving the first samples from the far side of the moon in June.

It also comes as an effort by NASA and the European Space Agency to retrieve Mars samples remains under assessment amid concerns over budget, complexity and risk. The US space agency, which first landed on Mars decades ago, said it is evaluating faster and more affordable plans to allow for a speedier result than one that would have returned samples in 2040.

Becoming the first country to return samples from Mars would be a significant accomplishment for China’s ambitious space program and leader Xi Jinping’s stated “eternal dream” to make the country a space power.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/09/china/china-mars-mission-tianwen-3-intl-hnk/index.html

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Partial lunar eclipse, supermoon will happen at same time Tuesday night

Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon, all rolled into one.

The spectacle will be visible in clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning.

A partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the sun and moon, casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the moon and appears to take a bite out of it.

Since the moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it’ll appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is one of three remaining this year.

“A little bit of the sun’s light is being blocked so the moon will be slightly dimmer,” said Valerie Rapson, an astronomer at the State University of New York at Oneonta.

The Earth, moon and sun line up to produce a solar or lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year, according to NASA. This lunar eclipse is the second and final of the year after a slight darkening in March.

In April, a total solar eclipse plunged select cities into darkness across North America.

No special eye protection is needed to view a lunar eclipse. Viewers can stare at the moon with the naked eye or opt for binoculars and telescopes to get a closer look.

To spot the moon’s subtle shrinkage over time, hang outside for a few hours or take multiple peeks over the course of the evening, said KaChun Yu, curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

“From one minute to the next, you might not see much happening,” said Yu.

For a more striking lunar sight, skywatchers can set their calendars for March 13. The moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow and will be painted red by stray bits of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere.

https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/partial-lunar-eclipse-supermoon-will-happen-at-same-time-tuesday-night/

 

[pakistani pride]

Its all perception...

 

[BouncerGuy]

Supermoon and lunar eclipse delight stargazers

A supermoon has lit up the sky across the world coinciding with a rare partial lunar eclipse.

The Moon could be seen to appear brighter and bigger on Tuesday night.

Supermoons happen when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit.

A rare partial lunar eclipse - when the Earth's shadow covers part of the Moon - also happened with about 4% of the Moon's disc covered in darkness.

Over night from Tuesday into Wednesday, the partial lunar eclipse was visible across the globe - with some of the clearest sightings in the UK and the US.

In the UK it occurred between 01:40 BST and 05:47, reaching its peak at 03:44.

For those in the US, the eclipse is visible between 20:41 EST and 00:47 - or 22:44 at its maximum.

The eclipse was also visible in Latin America, Europe and Africa, as well as small parts of Asia and the Middle East .

This month's full moon - known as the Harvest moon - is the second of four "supermoons" this year.

The next partial eclipse will be in August 2026, which will be special as around 96% of the Moon will be in shadow.

BBC

 

[FearlessRoar]

Earth Welcomes a New 'Mini-Moon' Later This Month​

Move over, Moon – Earth's about to pick up a new natural satellite. This "mini-moon" will be with us for the next two months, but it's not its first visit and it won't be the last.

This temporary mini-moon is actually a small asteroid about 10 meters (33 feet) wide. Officially known as 2024 PT₅, the rock was only discovered last month, and calculations of its path indicate it will become a satellite of Earth on September 29.

It will be our little travel companion for 56.6 days, completing one full orbit of Earth in that time. After that, the rock will break free from our gravitational grasp on November 25, returning to its path around the Sun.

2024 PT₅ will then swing past for a final goodbye on 9 January 2025, coming within 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) of Earth before heading back out into the inky blackness.

It's not farewell forever, however – 2024 PT₅ is predicted to come back on November 8, 2055. It won't be quite as cozy next time though, flying by at a distance of 5.2 million kilometers (3.3 million miles).

This space rock was discovered on August 7 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), so it's nice to know that mission is working as intended. That was one day before it made its closest pass to Earth, swinging by just 567,000 kilometers (352,300 miles) away, or roughly one and a half times the (normal) Moon's distance.

Astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid were then able to calculate the orbit for 2024 PT₅ using data from JPL's Small-Body Database, based on 122 observations over 21 days. This revealed that it's on a horseshoe-shaped path and traveling relatively slowly, resulting in a brief honey(mini-)moon phase with Earth.

Its orbital characteristics also helped the team narrow down where it might have come from. 2024 PT₅ seems to belong to a group of near-Earth objects called the Arjunas, which orbit the Sun at about the same distance, shape and angle as Earth. This path makes it unlikely that 2024 PT₅ is a piece of artificial space junk, which ATLAS has spotted heading our way before.

This isn't the asteroid's first rodeo either. The astronomers traced its journey 60 years into the past with a good degree of certainty, before also mapping its fate 30 years into the future. Outside of those times, the data becomes a bit murky due to close interactions with the Earth-Moon system.

Before this year's approach, 2024 PT₅ has made relatively close flybys in February 2003, April 1982 and March 1960. But in all three cases, it was still stalking us at a distance of at least 8.2 million kilometers (5.1 million miles). The last time it was under a million kilometers away seems to have been in October 1937, but as the team says, that far back its history is less certain.

Going the opposite direction in time, the next sure visit will be in November 2055. After that, the foggy crystal ball suggests it could make another close pass in January 2084, at about 1.66 million kilometers (1 million miles) away.

Earth has had similar brief flings with mini-moons before. In 2020 astronomers realized a small rock, just 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) wide at most, had been orbiting our planet for about three years. Just a few months after its discovery, it broke free of its bounds and drifted off.

A different kind of mini-moon was discovered in 2016. This one was a 'quasi-satellite,' in that it was technically still orbiting the Sun but was trailing behind Earth, tangled up in its gravitational pull. It was estimated to have been following us for almost a century, and probably will for a few more yet.

Earth Welcomes a New 'Mini-Moon' Later This Month

It's small and cute!

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Earth now has another moon as small asteroid joins our orbit

Earth has a new “mini-moon” after an asteroid has joined our orbit.

The object, known as 2024 PT5, has been chasing after us for years. Now, it has become close enough to be pulled in by our gravity.

It will stay with us until November, when it will stop being bound to Earth and we will leave it behind. Then it will stay on its new orbit around the Sun.

Mini-moons happen when an asteroid slowly approaches Earth in such a way as to be taken around more by our own planet’s gravity than the usually much more powerful pull of the Sun.

They are usually formed out of asteroids or other natural objects that are floating around space. But it is possible for them to be human-made, as when pieces of space junk get caught in our gravity.

Earth now has another moon

Our neighbourhood has another occupant – for a couple of months

www.independent.co.uk

 

[hassan918]

SpaceX launches mission to space station that will bring back stranded NASA astronauts next year​

SpaceX on Saturday launched a Falcon rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday with two crew members on board to deliver the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station that will bring back the astronauts stranded by their troubled Boeing Starliner next year.

In June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on the Starliner, which suffered thruster problems and helium leaks, leaving the space agency to conclude returning them to Earth in the capsule after what was supposed to be an eight-day mission was too risky.

The crewless Starliner eventually landed in New Mexico earlier this month, while Wilmore and Williams remained on the space station.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday’s mission with two empty seats on Dragon that will bring Wilmore and Williams home in February.

Two astronauts were cut from the SpaceX mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams.

Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive at the space station Sunday afternoon, four other astronauts who were delayed a month by Starliner’s problems will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule.

"There’s always something that is changing," Hague said before the launch of the evolving nature of space missions. "Maybe this time it’s been a little more visible to the public."

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy called "human spaceflight" "complicated and dynamic" at a post-launch news conference Saturday.

"What a fabulous day it was today," she said. "We only have two crew members instead of four. A crew member change is not a small thing."

She added that "it was the right thing to do."

Melroy said the two astronauts who were cut from the mission were there to emotionally support Hague and Gorbunov at the launch.

"The International Space Station is unbelievable, it’s a really special place," she added, saying it "allows people to "look beyond gravity" and to build technologies to explore the whole solar system.

After they reach the space station, Hague and Gorbunov will be doing hundreds of "exciting experiments," including studying human cells and blood clotting.

Dana Hutcherson, deputy program manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said he was "pleased to report Nick and Aleksandr are safely in orbit" after an "incredibly smooth" launch and are expected to land at the space station around 5:30 p.m. ET Sunday.

"The crew is getting out of their suits at this time," Hutcherson said, adding that Gorbunov and Hague would be getting some rest and a meal in the capsule before preparing for docking operations."

After docking on the ISS, they’re expected to have a welcome ceremony.

SpaceX launches mission to space station that will bring back stranded NASA astronauts next year

An astronaut and a cosmonaut launched with two empty seats for the International Space Station on Saturday in a capsule expected to bring back two stranded astronauts.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

SpaceX docks at ISS to collect stranded astronauts

A SpaceX capsule sent to bring back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) has docked.

The Dragon capsule, which has two empty seats for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, docked at 17:30 eastern time (22:30 BST).

The pair arrived at the station on Boeing's new Starliner capsule for an eight-day mission in June, but were forced to remain there because of a fault discovered during the flight.

They are now expected to return to Earth in February.

SpaceX capsule docks at ISS to collect stranded astronauts

The craft will return Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams - stranded since June - to Earth.

www.bbc.com

 

[BouncerGuy]

European space mission to examine Nasa asteroid impact site

Final preparations are under way to send a European spacecraft to an asteroid to discover what happened when a Nasa probe deliberately slammed into the space rock two years ago.

The European Space Agency’s Hera mission will survey the impact site and make detailed measurements of the battered rock, Dimorphos, to help researchers hone their strategies for defending Earth should a wayward asteroid ever threaten the planet in the future.

Hera is due to launch on Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 10.52am local time (3.52pm BST). All being well, the probe will swoop past Mars in March next year and reach the asteroid more than 110m miles (177m km) from Earth in December 2026.

“It’s a series of breathtaking moments,” Paolo Martino, the lead engineer and deputy project manager said of the mission from ESA’s base in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. “The first one is surviving the launch.”

Beyond the routine risks of poor weather and technical problems that can keep missions on the launchpad, there have been uncertainties over whether the SpaceX rocket will be allowed to fly. Last week, the Falcon 9 was grounded by the US Federal Aviation Administration for the third time in three months after it experienced an upper stage malfunction as it fell back to Earth.

Named after the Greek goddess of marriage, women and family, Hera will report back on the state of Dimorphos, a 150-metre-wide asteroid that orbits a larger, 780-metre-wide parent body called Didymos. In September 2022, Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) probe crashed into Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour, showering millions of tonnes of rock into space and altering the asteroid’s orbit.

As a first test of Earth’s planetary defences, the Dart mission was declared a success. But scientists need more information about the impact and Dimorphos itself to ensure the lessons learned can be used to deflect asteroids of different sizes and structures that might one day threaten Earth.

“Dart managed to change the orbit of Dimorphos very efficiently, even beyond expectations, and now the scientists need to know in detail what happened and what kind of effects the impact had on the asteroid,” Martino said.

When Dart thumped into Dimorphos, the momentum of the probe and the force from debris ejected from the asteroid knocked 33 minutes off its orbital period around Didymos. The collision reshaped the asteroid and sent a plume of dust and rock thousands of miles into space.

Hera’s instruments will record the precise size, shape, mass and orbit of Dimorphos so researchers can work out how efficiently momentum was transferred from the Dart probe to the space rock and what state the asteroid was left in.

For a closer look at Dimorphos, Hera will release two shoebox-sized probes called cubesats. These will map the surface in fine detail, measure any dust around the body, and deploy a ground-penetrating radar to assess the asteroid’s internal structure. The cubesats will then attempt to land on the asteroid

“The Dart mission was a spectacular success as a demonstration of asteroid deflection technology, but as a science experiment it generated as many questions as it provided answers,” said Prof Gareth Collins, a member of the Hera science team at Imperial College London. “Our hope is that Hera will answer those questions and more.”

One mystery is how Dart changed Dimorphos’s orbit so much. Scientists expected the Nasa probe to punch a 20-metre crater in the asteroid and shave little more than a minute off its orbital period. The more substantial shift in orbit suggests the impact completely reshaped the asteroid. “We think this might be because Dimorphos has a rubble-pile internal structure, but we only have a few close-up images of its surface to work with,” said Collins.

Of more than 1,600 near-Earth asteroids on ESA’s risk list, none are gigantic planet-killers that could destroy Earth in the next century. More concerning are the smaller and far more numerous space rocks that have the potential to take out cities, countries and continents. If one of these were spotted years in advance, scientists would aim to launch a reconnaissance mission to confirm its trajectory, composition and mass, and if it posed a real danger, launch another mission to knock it off course.

Armed with data from the Hera mission, researchers will work out the range of asteroids that can be deflected with colliding spacecraft and which space rocks might require more dramatic interventions. “If we ever have a real threat in the future, we’ll be in a position to choose the best technique,” said Martino.

THE GUARDIAN

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Nasa spacecraft receives laser signal from 290 million miles away

Nasa has successfully sent a laser signal about 290 million miles, smashing previous records and potentially transforming our exploration of the solar system.

The milestone was reached by Nasa’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which is exploring whether it is possible to use lasers to send messages deep into space. Lasers can send data at rates up to 100 times that of the radio frequencies used today, allowing for more complex and high-definition data, but they also require much greater precision to work.

It was sent to the Psyche spacecraft, which launched in October 2023. Its main mission is to study an asteroid with the same name, but it is also carrying the Nasa experiment to test laser communication through space.

The distance – which equates to about 460 million kilometres – is roughly the same as that between the Earth and Mars when they are their most distant.

Nasa hopes that the laser technology can help empower future crewed missions to Mars, among other exploration of our solar system, and so the successful test marks a major breakthrough.

Nasa spacecraft receives signal from 290 million miles away

Breakthrough could transform our exploration of the solar system, space agency says

www.independent.co.uk

 

[BouncerGuy]

China declares success as its youngest astronauts reach space

A Chinese spacecraft with a three-person crew, including the country's first female space engineer, has docked after a journey of more than six hours.

The crew will use the homegrown space station as a base for six months to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks as Beijing gathers experience and intelligence for its eventual mission to put someone on the Moon by 2030.

Beijing declared the launch of Shenzhou 19 a "complete success" - it is one of 100 launches China has planned in a record year of space exploration as it tries to outdo its rival, the United States.

The BBC was given rare access to the Jiuquan Satellite launch centre in Gansu and we were just over a kilometre away when the spacecraft blasted off.

Flames shot out of the rocket launcher as it took to the skies, lighting up the Gobi Desert with a deafening roar.

Hundreds of people lined the streets, waving and cheering the names of the taikonauts, China’s word for astronauts, as they were sent off.

Just two years ago, President Xi Jinping declared that "to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream”.

But some in Washington see the country’s ambition and fast-paced progress as a real threat.

Earlier this year, Nasa chief Bill Nelson said the US and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the Moon, where he fears Beijing wants to stake territorial claims.

He told legislators that he believed their civilian space programme was also a military programme.

'Dreams that spark glory'

However, in Dongfeng Space City, a town built to support the launch site, China’s space programme is celebrated.

Every street light is adorned with the national flag.

Cartoon-like astronaut figurines and sculptures sit in the centre of children’s parks and plastic rockets are a centrepiece on most traffic roundabouts.

A huge poster with Xi Jinping on one side and a photo of the Shenzhou spacecraft on the other greets you as you drive into the main compound.

Hundreds have gathered in the dark after midnight to wave flags and brightly coloured lights as the Taikonauts make their last few steps on Earth before heading to the launch site.

The brass band strikes up Ode to the Motherland as young children, kept up late for the occasion, their cheeks adorned with the Chinese flag, all shout in full song.

This is a moment of national pride.

The pilot of this mission, Cai Xuzhe, is a veteran but he’s travelling with a new generation of Chinese-trained taikonauts born in 1990 – including China’s first female space engineer, Wang Haoze.

“Their youthful energy has made me feel younger and even more confident,” he told the gathered media ahead of take-off.

“Inspired by dreams that spark glory, and by glory that ignites new dreams, we assure the party and the people that we will stay true to our mission, with our hearts and minds fully devoted. We will strive to achieve new accomplishments in China’s crewed space programme.”

Standing to his left, beaming, is Song Lingdong.

He recalls watching one of China’s first space station missions as a 13-year-old with “excitement and awe”. He chose to become a pilot in the hope that this is how he could serve his country.

All three convey their deep sense of national pride, and state media has emphasised that this will be its “youngest crew” to date.

The message is clear: this is a new generation of space travellers and an investment in the country’s future.

China has already selected its next group of astronauts and they will train for potential lunar missions as well as to crew the space station.

“I am determined not to let down the trust placed in me,” says Mr Song. “I will strive to make our country’s name shine once again in space.”

China’s name has been "shining brightly" a lot lately when it comes to headlines about its space programme.

Earlier this year, the country achieved a historic first by retrieving rock and soil samples from the far side of the Moon.

In 2021, China safely landed a spacecraft on Mars and released its Zhurong rover – becoming just the second nation to do so.

China also has a fleet of satellites in space and has plans for many more.

In August it launched the first 18 of what it hopes will eventually be a constellation of 14,000 satellites providing broadband internet coverage from space, which it hopes will one day rival SpaceX’s Starlink.

Elon Musk, Starlink's chief executive, admitted on his own platform X that China’s space programme is far more advanced than people realise.

But others in the US are voicing even greater concerns, as they fear this technology can be weaponised.

The head of US Space Command, General Stephen Whiting, told a space symposium in April that China and Russia were both investing heavily in space at a “breath-taking speed”.

He claimed that since 2018, China has tripled the amount of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites it has in orbit, building a “kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find, fix, track and target United States and allied military capabilities”.

The new space race

China’s space exploration is a “collective mission for humanity”, says Li Yingliang, director of the general technology bureau of China’s Manned Space Agency, dismissing US concerns as “unnecessary”.

“I don’t think this should be called a competition… China has long upheld the notion of peaceful use of space in its manned space programme. In the future, we will further develop international co-operation in various aspects of manned space technology, all based on sharing and collaboration,” he adds.

But the new space race is no longer about getting to the Moon. It’s about who will control its resources.

The Moon contains minerals, including rare earths, metals like iron and titanium - and helium too, which is used in everything from superconductors to medical equipment.

Estimates for the value of all this vary wildly, from billions to quadrillions. So it’s easy to see why some see the Moon as a place to make lots of money. However, it’s also important to note that this would be a very long-term investment - and the tech needed to extract and return these lunar resources is some way off, writes the BBC's science editor Rebecca Morelle.

Chinese experts at the launch centre were keen to point out the benefits of Beijing’s space station experiments.

“We study bones, muscles, nerve cells, and the effects of microgravity on them. Through this research, we’ve discovered that osteoporosis on Earth is actually similar to bone loss in space. If we can uncover unique patterns in space, we might be able to develop special medications to counteract bone loss and muscle atrophy,” said Zhang Wei, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Many of these experimental results can be applied on Earth.”

China is, at times, trying to downplay its advances.

At the launch of a roadmap for its space ambitions, which include building a research station on the Moon, returning samples of Venus’s atmosphere to Earth and launching more than 30 space missions by the middle of this century, Ding Chibiao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the country did not have a great number of achievements “compared to developed nations”.

And even here at the launch centre, they admit to “significant challenges” as they try to land a crew on the Moon.

“The technology is complex, there's a tight schedule, and there are a lot of challenges,” said Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency.

“We'll keep up the spirit of 'two bombs and one star'. We will maintain our self-confidence and commitment to self-improvement, keep working together and keep pushing forward. We'll make the Chinese people's dream of landing on the Moon a reality in the near future.”

That’s perhaps why President Xi appears to be prioritising the country’s space programme even as the economy is in a slow decline.

And even though they are bringing along international press to witness their progress – there are key restrictions.

We were kept in a hotel three hours from the launch site and transported back and forth by bus, a total journey of 12 hours, rather than being left on site for a few hours.

A simple trip to a friendly local restaurant was carefully guarded by a line of security personnel.

We also noticed a large sign in town holds a stern warning: “It’s a crime to leak secrets. It’s an honour to keep secrets. You’ll be jailed if you leak secrets. You’ll be happy if you keep secrets. You’ll be shot if you sell secrets.”

China is taking no chances with its new technology, as its rivalry with the United States is no longer just here on Earth.

The world’s two most powerful countries could soon be staking territorial claims well beyond this planet.

BBC

 

[Cricket Warrior]

World's first wood-panelled satellite launched into space

The world's first wood-panelled satellite has been launched into space to test the suitability of timber as a renewable building material in future exploration of destinations like the Moon and Mars.

Made by researchers in Japan, the tiny satellite weighing just 900g is heading for the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission. It will then be released into orbit above the Earth.

Named LignoSat, after the Latin word for wood, its panels have been built from a type of magnolia tree, using a traditional technique without screws or glue.

Researchers at Kyoto University who developed it hope it may be possible in the future to replace some metals used in space exploration with wood.

"Wood is more durable in space than on Earth because there's no water or oxygen that would rot or inflame it," Kyoto University forest science professor Koji Murata told Reuters news agency.

"Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood," Prof Murata said. "A wooden satellite should be feasible, too."

If trees could one day be planted on the Moon or Mars, wood might also provide material for colonies in space in the future, the researchers hope.

Along with its wood panels, LignoSat also incorporates traditional aluminium structures and electronic components. It has sensors on board to monitor how its wood reacts to the extreme environment of space during the six months it will orbit the Earth.

LignoSat: First wood-panelled satellite launched into space

The tiny satellite built in Japan will test the suitability of timber as a renewable material in space.

www.bbc.com

 

[sweep_shot]

World's first wood-panelled satellite launched into space

The world's first wood-panelled satellite has been launched into space to test the suitability of timber as a renewable building material in future exploration of destinations like the Moon and Mars.

Made by researchers in Japan, the tiny satellite weighing just 900g is heading for the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission. It will then be released into orbit above the Earth.

Named LignoSat, after the Latin word for wood, its panels have been built from a type of magnolia tree, using a traditional technique without screws or glue.

Researchers at Kyoto University who developed it hope it may be possible in the future to replace some metals used in space exploration with wood.

"Wood is more durable in space than on Earth because there's no water or oxygen that would rot or inflame it," Kyoto University forest science professor Koji Murata told Reuters news agency.

"Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood," Prof Murata said. "A wooden satellite should be feasible, too."

If trees could one day be planted on the Moon or Mars, wood might also provide material for colonies in space in the future, the researchers hope.

Along with its wood panels, LignoSat also incorporates traditional aluminium structures and electronic components. It has sensors on board to monitor how its wood reacts to the extreme environment of space during the six months it will orbit the Earth.

LignoSat: First wood-panelled satellite launched into space

The tiny satellite built in Japan will test the suitability of timber as a renewable material in space.

www.bbc.com

Wow! This is very cool.

Great from Japan.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Landmark space mission set to create artificial solar eclipses using satellites

Final preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.

The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency’s first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail.

All being well, the spacecraft will blast off from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, on the Bay of Bengal coast, at 4.08pm local time (10.38am UK time) on Wednesday. After a four-month voyage, the probes will reach a highly elliptic orbit that swoops as close as 370 miles to Earth before swinging out for more than 37,000 miles.

“It’s an experiment in space to demonstrate a new concept, a new technology,” said Damien Galano, the Proba project manager at ESA. “It’s very challenging because we need to control very well the flight path of the two spacecraft.”

If the satellites operate as intended, they will line up with the sun such that the lead spacecraft casts a carefully controlled shadow on its partner, allowing instruments on the latter to measure the sun’s corona, the outer layer of its atmosphere.

Traditionally, scientists have studied the sun’s ring-like corona during solar eclipses, when the moon blocks enough of the sun’s glare to make the corona visible from Earth. The work requires scientists to chase eclipses around the world, often for only minutes of observation time, or none at all if the view is obscured by cloud.

The €200m (£166m) Proba-3 mission promises to transform scientists’ understanding of the corona by producing 50 artificial solar eclipses a year, each lasting six hours. The lead spacecraft carries a 1.4-metre wide occulter disc to block the sun as seen from the second spacecraft, turning the pair into a 150-metre-long instrument called a coronagraph.

Data from the mission should shed light on the longstanding mystery of why the corona is so much hotter than the sun itself; the sun’s surface is about 5,500C, but the corona can exceed 1mC.

By better understanding the corona, scientists hope to improve their predictions of solar weather, coronal mass ejections – where pulses of plasma and magnetic field burst into space – and solar storms, which can damage spacecraft and cause power outages and communications blackouts on Earth.

The Proba-3 spacecraft will swing around the planet once every 19.7 hours for two years. For six hours in every orbit the satellites will fly in formation, drawing on optical sensors and flashing LEDs to locate one another, and a precision laser system to automatically finesse their distance and orientation. The first images from the mission are expected as soon as March 2025.

Beyond the mission’s main goals, ESA scientists have set aside time to test manoeuvres that may be helpful in the future to service faulty satellites or remove “uncooperative” hardware and debris from orbit.

Formation flying could usher in a new era of space-based observatories and instruments by having multiple spacecraft work together in precise configurations. “If we would be able to have several satellites close to each other in an absolute, accurate, precise formation, we would be able to assemble larger instruments that are composed out of several satellites,” said Dietmar Pilz, the director of technology at ESA. These multi-satellite instruments could be used to study the climate crisis, objects in the solar system, and more distant planets around faraway stars.

“We all know that the launchers have been increasing in their power and the masses that they can bring into space,” said Pilz, in reference to the heavy payloads carried by modern rockets. “But no matter what you do, there’s always a limit.”

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/science...te-artificial-solar-eclipses-using-satellites

 

[BouncerGuy]

Scientists close to solving mystery of how universe's giant galaxies formed

Galaxies crashing together 12bn years ago could have caused the universe’s biggest galaxies to form, according to research.

A study by astronomers at the University of Southampton is hoping to solve what they are calling an “intergalactic mystery” of how elliptical galaxies were created.

How these galaxies, which look similar to bulging footballs compared with the flat disc of the Milky Way, emerged, has been at the centre of research for decades.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, Dr Annagrazia Puglisi said the team were close to coming to an answer.

“Two disc galaxies smashing together caused gas, the fuel from which stars are formed, to sink towards their centre, generating trillions of new stars,” she wrote.

“These cosmic collisions happened some eight to 12bn years ago, when the universe was in a much more active phase of its evolution. Our findings take us closer to solving a long-standing mystery in astronomy that will redefine our understanding of how galaxies were created in the early universe.”

Working with the Purple Mountain Observatory in China and the Chinese Academy of Science, the team has analysed more than 100 star-forming galaxies in the distant universe using the world’s largest radio telescope, known as Alma, in Chile’s Atacama desert.

Study lead Dr Qing-Hua Tan, from the Purple Mountain Observatory, said the research used a new technique that looked at the distribution of light emitted by distant and highly luminous galaxies.

She said: “This is the first real evidence that spheroids form directly through intense episodes of star formation located in the cores of distant galaxies. Astrophysicists have sought to understand this process for decades.

“These galaxies form quickly – gas is sucked inwards to feed black holes and triggers bursts of stars, which are created at rates 10 to 100 times faster than our Milky Way.”

The scientists will combine their findings with data taken from telescopes onboard the James Webb and Euclid satellites, and the Chinese Space Station, to map the stellar components of galaxies.

Puglisi said: “This will give us a more complete picture of early galaxy formation and deepen our understanding of how the universe has evolved since the beginning of time.”

 

[Cricket Warrior]

Nasa astronauts Butch and Suni's homecoming delayed again

Nasa says that the astronauts stuck on the International Space Station will have to wait even longer to get home.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were due to be back after just a week when they blasted off in June.

Their stay was extended to February next year because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft, Starliner, built by Boeing.

Now - following a delay in launching a new capsule to the ISS - the pair won't be back until late March or possibly April.

Nasa said the delay posed no risk to the astronauts.

In a statement Nasa stated: "The International Space Station recently received two resupply flights in November and is well-stocked with everything the crew needs, including food, water, clothing, and oxygen. The resupply spacecraft also carried special items for the crew to celebrate the holidays aboard the orbital platform."

Nasa astronauts Butch and Suni face further delay in homecoming

Nasa says that the astronauts stuck on the space station will have to wait even longer to get home.

www.bbc.com

 

[Cricket Warrior]

NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun

NASA’s pioneering Parker Solar Probe is poised to make its closest-ever approach of the Sun on Christmas Eve, a record-setting 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the surface.

Launched in August 2018, the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space-weather events that can affect life on Earth.

Its closest approach to date will happen on Tuesday, December 24, at 6:53 am (11:53 GMT).

If the distance between Earth and the Sun is the equivalent to the length of an American football field, the spacecraft would be about four yards (meters) from the end zone at that point.

“This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe,” said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist, in a statement.

“We can’t wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks.”

During this closest approach – known as perihelion – mission teams will lose direct contact with Parker, relying on a “beacon tone” this Friday to confirm the spacecraft’s status.

Although the heat shield will endure scorching temperatures of about 1,600 to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (870 to 930 degrees Celsius), the probe’s internal instruments will remain near room temperature – around 85F (29C) – as it explores the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona.

Not only will the temperatures be extreme, but Parker will also be moving at a blistering pace of around 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), fast enough to fly from the US capital Washington to Tokyo in under a minute.

NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun

Launched in August 2018, spaceship is on seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of star

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