Credits: Bill Ingalls from +NASA
November 6, 2013
November 5, 2013
Successful launch of the Indian spacecraft to Mars
Dear followers,
after the mission sent by +European Space Agency, ESA, Mars Express, and after the mission sent by +NASA, curiosity, and the missions Mars2 and Mars3 sent by Russia, India is the fourth country to send a mission to the red planet. The India's Mars Orbiter Mission, the Mangalyaan probe is a spacecraft powered by solar arrays and packed with five instruments to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars. The 1350 kg of the spacecraft has been launched with success from a pad at the agency's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota this morning.
Credits: +TIME
Those instruments include a color camera for photographic imaging, a spectrometer for surface composition and mineralogy analysis and a methane sensor.
We will provide you more details in the next hours, stay tune.
November 4, 2013
October 31, 2013
October 29, 2013
Amateur photograph of Earth's moon October 22nd 2013
Credits: +Kevin Franklin
Details of the photograph: Waning gibbous phase 22nd October 2013, around 1240 UTC. 18.1 days old, 87.2% illuminated.
Mosaic of 5 .ser video files at 7fps in full resolution in Firecaptue with QHY 5L-II mono CCD.
October 28, 2013
October 24, 2013
October 23, 2013
GOCE satellite will crash on Earth due its lack of fuel
Dear followers,
on October 18th, +European Space Agency, ESA reported a fuel trouble in the GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite. Actually, the pressure in the fuel system of the ion engine had dropped below 2.5 bar, which is the nominal operating pressure required to fire the engine. Last Monday, the end of mission was formally declared when the ion drive stopped working during at 03:16 UTC. The European satellite will reenter in our atmosphere and will be partially destructed before to crash on Earth.
Credits: +European Space Agency, ESA
The GOCE satellite, has been developed by an industrial consortium of 45 companies distributed over 13 European countries. One of the missions was focused on the mapping of Earth’s gravity field in unprecedented detail. In order to achieve its very challenging mission objectives, this 5 meters long satellite was orbiting at a very low altitude of just 260 km because the gravitational variations are stronger closer to Earth. GOCE satellite was launched on March 17th 2009 on a modified Russian intercontinental ballistic missile that had been decommissioned as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
The danger for the population due to the crack of the satellite is very low. Actually the risk to be hit by a debris of a spacecraft is 65 000 times lower than the risk to be struck by lightning.
Sources: ESA
October 22, 2013
October 21, 2013
Curiosity confirms the Martian origin of some meteors on Earth
Dear followers,
After the discovery of of water on Mars, few weeks ago, the Curiosity rover is still performing this work. Actually, while the NASA was out due to the shutdown during 2 weekend, the +NASA 's rover analysed the Martian atmosphere. These analyses confirm that some meteorites that have dropped to Earth really are from the Red Planet.
A key new measurement of the inert gas argon in Mars' atmosphere by the laboratory on-board the rover, provides the most definitive proof yet of the origin of Mars meteorites while at the same time giving a way to rule out Martian origin of other meteorites.
Credits: +NASA / +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Curiosity measurements do not directly measure the current rate of atmospheric escape, but NASA's next mission to Mars, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), is designed to do so. This mission is being prepared at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a launch around November 18th 2013.
Sources: NASA
October 18, 2013
A piece of the meteor fallen in Russia in February 2013
Dear followers,
few months ago (February 2013), a large meteor fell in Russia induced an amazing fireball in the sky. Yesterday, the Russian authorities find a piece for this meteor in a lake. Actually, the meteor had created a 6-meter-wide hole in this frozen lake.
Source: AFP
October 16, 2013
ATV4 report mission for week 42
Dear followers,
on June 15th, the ATV Albert Einstein has arrived at the International Space Station, making a successful rendezvous and docking. After 4 months docked to the international space station, the last steps of the ATV-4 are planned before to undock (October 28th) and reentry (November 2nd) :
- 17 October: Cargo transfer
- 17 October: ATV Proximity Communications Equipment (PCE) installation on board ISS
- 18 October: Cargo transfer
- 19 October: PCE test between ISS and ESA ground stations
Credits: +NASA / +European Space Agency, ESA
October 15, 2013
Fireball from a meteor over Maryland and New Jersey, USA
Dear followers,
today, the +American Meteor Society indicates that they received 63 reports of a fireball over the state of Maryland and New Jersey during the night on October 14th 2013 around 8:25 pm
A preliminary trajectory plot shows the meteor entered over New Jersey and flew on a north east trajectory, ending somewhere in or near Lancaster County in Maryland.
today, the +American Meteor Society indicates that they received 63 reports of a fireball over the state of Maryland and New Jersey during the night on October 14th 2013 around 8:25 pm
Sources: +American Meteor Society
A preliminary trajectory plot shows the meteor entered over New Jersey and flew on a north east trajectory, ending somewhere in or near Lancaster County in Maryland.
October 14, 2013
October 11, 2013
October 9, 2013
First ever strike of a comet on Earth
Dear followers,
The first ever evidence of a comet entering Earth’s atmosphere and exploding, raining down a shock wave of fire over Sahara desert in Egypt, has been discovered by a team of South African scientists from the University of Witwatersrand and international collaborators.
Credits: Terry Bakker
In 1997, in Egypt, close to the border with Libya, fragments of a natural silica-rich glass aged of around 28.5 million years, are found. The analyse of a stone and the comparison with specimen of the glass leads the scientists to discover the first ever comet striking Earth.
Actually, the comet entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, heating up the Sahara's sand beneath it to a temperature of about 2 000 degrees Celsius, and resulting in the formation of a huge amount of yellow silica glass which lies scattered over a 6 000 km² area
An amazing specimen of the glass, polished by ancient Egyptian jewelers can be see on this brooch of Tutankhamun with its striking yellow-brown scarab.
"+NASA and +European Space Agency, ESA spend billions of dollars collecting a few micrograms of comet material and bringing it back to Earth, and now we’ve got a radical new approach of studying this material, without spending billions of dollars collecting it,” says Professor Jan Kramers of the University of Johannesburg.
Sources: Wits
October 8, 2013
Water on Mars discovered by Curiosity
Dear followers,
few weeks after its first anniversary on the red planet, the NASA's rover Curiosity is still working. The first scoop of soil analysed by the analytic suite in the belly of martian rover reveals that fine materials on the surface of the planet contain several percent water by weight. The scientists used the ChemCam, CheMin instruments, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite aboard NASA’s Curiosity Rover to perform the analysis.
Credits: +NASA / +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
About 2 percent of the soil on the surface of Mars is made up of water, which is great resource, and interesting scientifically. The sample also released significant carbon dioxide,oxygen and sulfur compounds when heated.
The result were published in Science as one article in a five-paper special section on the curiosity mission.
October 7, 2013
October 3, 2013
The Online Astronomy Society Word magazine October 2013
The Online Astronomy Society is proposing this magazine, let us know your feelings about
October 1, 2013
September 22, 2013
September 20, 2013
September 19, 2013
A private capsule launched with success to ISS
Dear followers,
yesterday was a busy day for the space launches in USA. Actually after the successful liftoff of the space rocket Atlas5, the private company, Orbital Sciences, became the second private challenger to successfully launch a cargo vessel to the International Space Station. The lift off could be watched from New York was depicted on the picture below.
The next step for the Cygnus spacecraft is four days of tests while its in orbit. If successful, the mission will take a rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station on Sunday, September 22th , as the ATV4, from +European Space Agency, ESA did few weeks ago.
Credit: Orbital Sciences / +Google Earth
The next step for the Cygnus spacecraft is four days of tests while its in orbit. If successful, the mission will take a rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station on Sunday, September 22th , as the ATV4, from +European Space Agency, ESA did few weeks ago.
The liftoff of the space rocket Antares happened from the center of Wallops Flight, located on an island near the coast of Virginia. Cygnus is separated from the second stage of the launcher ten minutes after launch to reach the Earth orbit.
For this first flight, Cygnus carries 589 kg of supplies including food and clothing. It will remain docked to the ISS thirty days. Upon his return, Cygnus will be destroyed in the atmosphere.
Source
Source
September 18, 2013
Atlas 5 take-off livestream now
Dear followers,
today, United Launch Alliance will perform its seventy-fifth launch with the space-launcher Atlas V with the aim of deploying the AEHF-3 satellite for the US Air Force.
The Liftoff is scheduled from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in few minutes. You could follow the liftoff in livesteam below.
September 17, 2013
September 16, 2013
September 13, 2013
Voyager1 leaves the Solar system
Dear followers,
yesterday +NASA announced a huge step of the history of space conquest. Actually, after 36 years of flight, the spacecraft +Voyager 1 sent Cap Canaveral, has left the solar system and move to the interstellar space. The spacecraft perform a flight of 125 AU. One AU is the distance from the sun to the Earth, which is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. The spacecraft went to the humankind's most distance than ever !
Credits: +NASA / +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Voyager-1 spacecraft was built and continue to be operated by +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. This mission is a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, supported by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at +NASA Headquarters in Washington.
September 10, 2013
3753 Cruithne the second Moon of Earth ?
Dear followers,
In March of 2012, astronomers at +Cornell University published the result of a computer study, presenting that asteroids orbiting the sun might temporarily become natural satellites of Earth. They are called quasi-satellite. The most famous quasi-satellite is also called the second moon for Earth is 3753 Cruithne. This object is five kilometers wide ( 3 miles).
Credits: 3753 Cruithne
A quasi-satellite is an object in a co-orbital configuration with a reference planet (for 3753 it's Earth). Scientists would say there is a 1:1 orbital resonance between Earth and this object. In other words, a quasi-satellite is orbiting the sun, like Earth. Its orbit around the sun takes exactly the revolution time as Earth’s orbit, but the shape is slightly different.
Astronomers discovered 3753 Cruithne in 1986, but it wasn't until 1997 that they figured out its complex orbit. It’s not a second moon for Earth; it doesn't orbit Earth. But 3753 Cruithne is co-orbiting the sun with Earth. Like all quasi-satellites, 3753 Cruithne orbits the sun once for every orbit of Earth.
September 9, 2013
The short list of the landing of the next Mission InSight on Mars surface selected
Dear followers,
+NASA has announced that the number of potential landing site for the next mission to the surface of Mars is now focus on four locations. After the current success of Curiosity and its one news for research on the red planet, the mission InSight ( Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is scheduled to launch in March 2016 and land on Mars's surface six months later.
Credits: +NASA / +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
"This mission's science goals are not related to any specific location on Mars because we're studying the planet as a whole, down to its core," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory . For this main reasons, the "mission safety and survival are what drive our criteria for a landing site."
During its mission, InSight rover will deploy a seismometer on the Mars' surface and will use its radio for scientific measurements.
Credits: +NASA / +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The French space agency, +CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), and the German Aerospace Center are contributing instruments to the mission. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is building the spacecraft.
September 5, 2013
September 3, 2013
September 2, 2013
The Online Astronomy Society Word magazine September 2013
The Online Astronomy Society is proposing this magazine, let us know your feelings about
August 30, 2013
Success of the fourth Ariane5 launch in 2013
Dear followers,
yesterday night, two satellites were successfully geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket fired from Kourou, French Guiana, +Arianespace announced. It is the 215th Ariane launch and 71st for the Ariane 5 space launcher.This fourth Ariane launch of the year from the Guiana Space Centre began at 17:30 Kourou time (22h30 Paris time) at the beginning of the launch window.
Credits: AFP
This fourth Ariane launch of the year from the Guiana Space Centre began at 17:30 Kourou time (22h30 Paris time) at the beginning of the launch window.
This is the 57th consecutive success for the European launcher, which "confirms the unparalleled level of reliability of our delivery systems," said the CEO of +Arianespace, Stéphane Israel.
The payload placed on a geostationary orbit was two satellites: EUTELSAT 25B/Es of the European operator Eutelsat and Qatari Es'hailSat, and GSAT-7 for Indian space agency (ISRO).
With a total launch mass of about 6.3 tons, EUTELSAT 25B/Es satelliste must serve the growing markets of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. This satellite will enhance the coverage and power of EUTELSAT 25C which he will take over.
GSAT-7 is the 17th satellite entrusted by the Indian space agency to the European launcher. With a weight of 2.6 tonnes, this satellite will offer to the entire Indian subcontinent telecommunications services multi-band (Ku, C, S and UHF).
Update : video of the take-off
Update : video of the take-off
August 28, 2013
Water on the Moon found
Dear followers,
a new study, published on the journal Nature Geoscience, has revealed the probably presence of water on the Moon when it first formed 4.5 billion year ago.
The new water signatures discovered in the center peak of Bullialdus crater on the Moon have the form of hydroxyl molecules. Hydroxyls are molecules consisting of an oxygen atom connected to a hydrogen atom. The pairing is often seen as a substructure of the water molecule.
Credits: +NASA / +Arizona State University
The scientists have detected magnetic water on the surface of the Moon. This type of water is originating from deep within the Moon's interior. These findings has been performed using data from +NASA 's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) carried on-board India's Chandrayann-1 lunar orbiter.
Sources: +Universe Today and +Astro Watch
August 27, 2013
Light signal of stars turned into sound
Dear followers,
Scientists from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN), Fisk University (Nashville, TN), University of California (Berkeley, California), Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) have turned light signals from distant stars into sound. Acoustic oscillations and transits don't interfere with each other: sound waves cause the brightness of Sun-like stars to vary on time scales of 5–15 minutes, whereas planetary transits last for hours.
Scientists from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN), Fisk University (Nashville, TN), University of California (Berkeley, California), Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) have turned light signals from distant stars into sound. Acoustic oscillations and transits don't interfere with each other: sound waves cause the brightness of Sun-like stars to vary on time scales of 5–15 minutes, whereas planetary transits last for hours.
Credits: Nature Video
Source:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7463/full/nature12419.html
August 23, 2013
August 22, 2013
August 21, 2013
August 20, 2013
The India GSLV launch has been delayed after a fuel leak
Dear followers,
yesterday India planed to launch GSLV rocket with the payload GSAT-14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota Island on India's east coast. However, it seems that a fuel leak before the countdown stop the launch process. This launch should be the first one since back-to-back failures in 2010.
Credits: ISRO
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicule (GSLV) is and expendable launch system operated by the India Space Reasearch Organisation (ISRO). This launcher has been developed to enable India to launch its own INSAT-type satellites into GEO orbit and to make India less dependent on foreign rockets such as Ariane5 or the Soyuz program.
August 19, 2013
NASA does not intend to repair Kepler
Dear followers,
many month ago, we talk you that some technical troubles happened on the Kepler spacecraft. Today, +NASA announced that they do not plan to repair the spacecraft.
Credits: Wikipédia
Actually, +Kepler Space Telescope is blocked by the malfunction of a mechanism which allows the telescope to focus on a given point in the sky towards.
An engineering study will be done on the modifications required to manage science operations with the spacecraft using a combination of its remaining two good reaction wheels and thrusters for spacecraft attitude control.Depending on the outcome of these studies, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year, +NASA will assess the scientific priority of a two-wheel Kepler mission.
Discovery of huge cloud of gas by NASA
Dear followers,
+NASA has discovered using the Chandra X-ray observatory a huge could of multimillion-degree gas in a far away galaxy. The phenomenon is likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a spiral galaxy. This impact must caused shock wave that generated hot gas with a temperature of about six million degrees.
Credits: +NASA
The gas cloud is located in a galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth. This discovery could explain how galaxy grow through similar collisions. The mass of the entire gas could could is uncertain because it can not be determined from the 2D image, from the Chrandra X-ray.
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