Topic: Space - on July 5, 2016 at 10:00:00 AM CEST
After 1.7 billion miles Juno nails its Jupiter orbit to within tens of miles
Traveling at a speed of 165,000 mph toward a swirling gas giant Monday night, the Juno spacecraft would have no second chances. Had its Leros 1b engine burned too long, Jupiter would have swallowed Juno into its gaseous maw. If the engine burned too short, the spacecraft would have zipped onward into space, lost into the inky blackness forever. But Juno needed no second chance late on the night of July 4th as its hardy little engine fired for a total 2,102 seconds, perfect to within one second, inserting the spacecraft neatly into orbit around Jupiter.
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Topic: Space - on June 7, 2016 at 5:21:00 PM CEST
Luxembourg to Invest $227 Million in Asteroid Mining
On Friday, the tiny European nation of Luxembourg announced that it would open a 200 million Euro ($227M U.S.) fund to entice companies focused on mining asteroids to locate there. Luxembourg’s economy minister said that the fund’s budget could expand if needed, and that it is aimed at making the country, which is about the size of the Dallas metro area, a global leader in space.
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Topic: Space - on September 23, 2014 at 5:03:00 PM CEST
‘Big Bang Signal’ Could All Be Dust
There was little need, before, to know exactly how much dust peppers outer space, far from the plane of the Milky Way. Scientists understood that the dimly radiating grains aligned with our galaxy’s magnetic field and that the field’s twists and turns gave a subtle swirl to the dust glow. But those swirls were too faint to see. Only since March, when researchers claimed to have glimpsed the edge of space and time with a fantastically sensitive telescope, has the dust demanded a reckoning. For, like a cuckoo egg masquerading in a warbler’s nest, its pattern mimics a predicted signal from the Big Bang.
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Topic: Space - on September 2, 2014 at 4:49:00 PM CEST
Sex geckos die in orbit on Russian space project
Five gecko lizards sent into orbit on a Russian space satellite as part of a sex experiment have all died, the Russian space agency says.
The Foton-M4 satellite returned to Earth on Monday, the Roscosmos agency said in a statement (in Russian).
Experts say the geckos may have frozen to death after the heating system broke down, Russian news agencies report.
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Topic: Space - on August 14, 2014 at 4:00:00 PM CEST
Earth Time Lapse, International Space Station
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Topic: Space - on August 12, 2014 at 4:52:00 PM CEST
"Monsters at the End of the Universe" --Black Holes with Masses Equaling Billions of Suns
At the ends of the Universe there are black holes with masses equaling billions of our sun. These giant bodies – quasars – feed on interstellar gas, swallowing large quantities of it non-stop. Thus they reveal their existence: The light that is emitted by the gas as it is sucked in and crushed by the black hole's gravity travels for eons across the Universe until it reaches our telescopes. Looking at the edges of the Universe is therefore looking into the past. These far-off, ancient quasars appear to us in their infancy, taken less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Since these ancient quasars were first discovered, scientists have wondered what process could lead a small black hole to gorge and fatten to such an extent, so soon after the Big Bang.
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Topic: Space - on December 22, 2013 at 2:53:00 PM CET
Sternschnuppen und Komet leuchten zur Weihnachtszeit
Zwei Naturereignisse bezaubern Himmelsgucker: Der Komet "Lovejoy" und Kaskaden von Sternschnuppen nähern sich der Erde. Am Sonntag sind sie am besten zu beobachten - wenn das Wetter mitspielt.
Der Nachthimmel bietet zur Weihnachtszeit gleich zwei Auftritte. Bei klarer Sicht dürfte der Komet "Lovejoy" am Sonntagmorgen und auch am Sonntagabend am besten zu beobachten sein. In der Nacht zu Montag erreichen zugleich die Sternschnuppen der Ursiden ihr Maximum. "'Lovejoy' ist aber vermutlich nur mit dem Feldstecher zu entdecken", sagte der Vorsitzende der Vereinigung der Sternfreunde (VdS) im hessischen Heppenheim, Otto Guthier.
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Topic: Space - on December 4, 2013 at 3:19:00 PM CET
Signs of Water Found on 5 Alien Planets by Hubble Telescope
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected water in the atmospheres of five planets beyond our solar system, two recent studies reveal.
The five exoplanets with hints of water are all scorching-hot, Jupiter-size worlds that are unlikely to host life as we know it. But finding water in their atmospheres still marks a step forward in the search for distant planets that may be capable of supporting alien life, researchers said.
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Topic: Space - on November 29, 2013 at 2:46:00 PM CET
Second Planetary System Like Ours Discovered
A team of European astronomers has discovered a second planetary system, the closest parallel to our own solar system yet found. It includes seven exoplanets orbiting a star with the small rocky planets close to their host star and the gas giant planets further away. The system was hidden within the wealth of data from the Kepler Space Telescope.
KOI-351 is “the first system with a significant number of planets (not just two or three, where random fluctuations can play a role) that shows a clear hierarchy like the solar system — with small, probably rocky, planets in the interior and gas giants in the (exterior),” Dr. Juan Cabrera, of the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center, told Universe Today.
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Topic: Space - on November 29, 2013 at 2:44:00 PM CET
Verschwundener Komet: "Ison" ist wieder da
Astronomen hatten ihn schon aufgegeben - doch offenbar überstand Komet "Ison" die Annäherung an die Sonne. Die extreme Hitze hat den Schweifstern anscheinend stark demoliert.
Hamburg - Das Schicksal des Adventskometen "Ison" beschäftigt weiter die Astronomen. Womöglich könnten doch Teile des Kometen dessen Vorbeiflug an der Sonne überstanden haben, wie aktuelle Aufnahmen von Sonnensonden am Freitag nahelegen. "Ein Bruchteil des Kometen hat offenbar überlebt und ist auf der anderen Seite der Sonne wieder hervorgekommen", sagte die Bochumer Astronomin Susanne Hüttemeister.
spiegel.de nightskyinfo.com Satellitenaufnahmen: "Isons" Höllenritt in die Sonnenglut ISON's Nucleus Survives Journey Through Sun's Corona (NASA VIDEO)
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Topic: Space - on September 13, 2013 at 2:57:00 PM CEST
"Voyager 1" hat das Sonnensystem verlassen
Erstmals in der Geschichte der Menschheit hat eine Raumsonde von der Erde unser Sonnensystem hinter sich gelassen. Neue Auswertungen belegen, dass "Voyager 1" inzwischen wohl durch den interstellaren Raum rast.
Was haben der Rock'n'Roll-Pionier Chuck Berry, der Ausnahmepianist Glenn Gould und der wegen seiner Kriegsvergangenheit umstrittene österreichische Politiker Kurt Waldheim gemeinsam? Sie sind - zusammen mit anderen Menschen - auf Schallplatten verewigt, die seit 36 Jahren an Bord von zwei ganz besonderen Raumfahrzeugen durchs All hasten. Mit rund 60.000 Kilometern pro Stunde geht es fort von der Erde. Die sogenannten Golden Records an Bord der "Voyager"-Zwillingssonden sind als Botschaften an außerirdische Lebensformen gedacht - selbst wenn es eher unwahrscheinlich sein dürfte, dass sie jemals abgespielt werden.
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Topic: Space - on September 11, 2013 at 3:05:00 PM CEST
Swiss space plane to launch robotic orbital debris destroyer
Last year, the Swiss Space Center at the University of Lausanne announced the planned launch of CleanSpace One, a robotic satellite designed to grab onto large pieces of space junk and push them down towards Earth, where ablation with the atmosphere will burn up the trash. Now, in partnership with Swiss Space Systems (S3), the team is proposing using an experimental space plane to get the 30 kilogram CleanSpace One into orbit.
S3 is building an unmanned Suborbital Reusable Shuttle (SOAR) which will take off by piggybacking on an Airbus A-300. The two craft will fly up for 10 kilometers before releasing the unmanned shuttle. SOAR's engines will then fire, boosting the craft to 80 kilometers above the Earth's surface.
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