The SpaceX-3 resupply mission to ISS postponed again

Dear readers and followers,

today, NASA and SpaceX have been confirmed that Sunday's launch (March 30th) of its third contracted resupply mission to the International Station (ISS) has been postponed due to a range asset issue. 

Credit: SpaceX 

The spacecraft should resupply ISS but also deploy the next generation module for data communication using a laser, called OPALS for Optical Payload for Laser Science. More information including a new target launch date will be posted as it becomes available. 

Stay tuned.

Find the french version of the article there

Successful launch of the space mission Expedition 39 in Soyuz TMA-12M to ISS

Dear readers and followers,

yesterday night, three new crew members, the Russian Cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and the NASA astronaut Steven R. Swanson blasted off into Space tonight  at 21:17 UTC in the TMA-12M spacecraft onboard the space rocket Soyuz-FG from the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

Credit: Parabolic Arc

Credit: Rt.com

The new crew, will dock to the International Space Station 6 hours after their launch and join the current crew members already onboard. Their mission on ISS will take around 6 months. Find below the video of the take-off.

 

Credit: NASA 

Update: Due to a failure, the spacecraft has to change the docking process to ISS. The spacecraft will use the previous standard process for the docking which needs to make 34 orbits of Earth. Stay tuned

Stay tuned

59th straight success for Ariane 5 from Kourou

Dear followers and readers,

last Saturday, March 22th 2014, the European space rocket, Ariane 5, performed with success a flawless launch from Europe’s spaceport at Kourou, French guiana. The space rocket orbited two telecommunications satellites, ASTRA 5B and Amazonas 4A. The flight was the European launcher’s 59th straight success since 2003. 

Credit image: CNES 

Stay tuned

Bring Astronomy on your wrist

Dear readers and followers,

If you are looking for a amazing gift or simply for yourself and that you want to bring some astronomy with you Jacob & Co. proposes THE WATCH you need! The creation called Astronomia Tourbillon includes a dial for the time (that remains upright in all positions as it moves around the main dial) a rotating representation of the earth, a spinning spherical crystal (perhaps a diamond), and lastly, an impressive looking bi-axial tourbillon. 

Credit: Jacob & Co

This is all based on a wonderful looking planetary gear arrangement that any engineering student (or watchmaker) would be proud to have as their term project. Enjoy this video:

Credit: Jacob & Co

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Dance of stars in the night sky over the Po delta

Credit: Dave sixtyfour 

This Startrail has been set in the "Sacca di Scardovari", a lagoon, where they are grown mussels and clams, of the Po River located in the northeast of Italy in the province of Rovigo. Over 200 shots has been combined with the software "startrails." and the exposure of each shot is about 25-30 seconds.

Extraordinary discovery of the gravitational waves: The Big Band Theory

Dear readers and followers,

yesterday US scientific community announced a huge event about the Big Bang theory: Astronomers have found the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation, that put the "bang" in the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. The team led by J. M. Kovac reported that they detected ripples in the fabric of space time, called gravitational waves. These waves has been identify to be the signature of a universe being wrenched violently apart when it was roughly a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second old, so quite short time.

Credit: By Karl Tate

The data obtained with telescope at the South Pole obtained 3 years ago has been analysed many and many time with the aim to verify all the possible hypothesis. 

This discovery could be one of the most extraordinary discovery. the Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb compares this discovery to a 1998 observation that opened the window on mysterious dark energy which won the Nobel price in 2011.

Enjoy this video explaining the discovery of gravitational waves.

Stay tuned

Successful launch of Proton-M rocket with Russian AT1 and AT2 communication satellites

Dear readers and followers,

2 days ago, the space rocket, Proton-M was ready on its launch pad at Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The payload was two satellites of communication, built for the Russian Satellite Communications Company Express AT1 and Express AT2.

Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos

If you missed the successfully, enjoy this video proposed from our Event: The rocket carried two communications satellites into orbit. 

AT1 satellite will be positioned at 56 degrees East with 32 Ku-Band transponders to cover Russia. In an other hand, the AT2 satellite will be positioned at 140 degrees.

Credit: SpaceVidNet

Stay tuned

ISS data communication boosted by the laser OPALS

Dear followers and readers,

The bandwidth speed of the communications between the International Space Station and Earth is a real bottleneck for the scientific experiments. But NASA decided to fix this problem. The slowness of capturing data from ISS is about to go into serious overdrive with a new laser communication experiment set which will be launch to ISS this weekend. The experiment gear is called OPALS for Optical Payload for Laser Science

Credit: OPALS - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

OPALS transfers the video data from ISS to the ground receiver at JPL's Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) in Wrightwood, California. As the ISS travels across the sky, a laser beacon is transmitted from the ground telescope to the payload on ISS and tracked. The main existing deep space missions send back 200k to 400k bits of information per second. OPALS will send information by laser beam rather than radio wave, demonstrating a speed of up to 50 megabits per second. Future deep space optical communication systems should reach up to one gigabit per second.

The OPALS module will be sent up to the space station aboard the cargo Dragon from the private company Space X. Its launch is planned next Sunday, March 16th.

Credit: NASA 

Stay tuned for the space launch of OPALS module

[Update] The Dragon launch was postponed to March 30. Stay tuned 

[Update] Chinese satellites may detected debris from the missing malaysia Airlines flight [nor not]

Dear readers and followers,

last week we knew about the dramatic missing of the Malaysia Airline flight. Today, Chinese satellites may have detected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, as illustrated below. 

Credit: AFP

Chinese government satellites orbiting Earth may have detected floating, crash related debris from the missing Malaysian Airline flight MH-370. This discovery could be a key finding in spurring the ongoing and so far fruitless search efforts.

Stay tuned

[Update] Chinese admitted mistake in releasing images. They retracted that statement and said the picture was not supposed to be released.

Star trail and Aurora in Scotland captured by amateur photographer

Credit Chris Sinclair 

The picture has been taken in March 2nd in Scotland

NASA proposes a reward of 35 k$ for an asteroid hunter software

Dear followers and readers,

the danger for the Earth planet induced by hazardous asteroids is a field which interests strongly all the space agency. NASA is used to detect, track and characterizes space comets and hazardous asteroids. A dedicated program called Near-Earth Object Observation, also named Spaceguard has been created by the space agency in order to present dramatic event. For this reason +NASA decided to propose a reward of 35 k€ for an asteroid hunter software.

During the three months of 2014, couple hazardous asteroids passed close to Earth such as the asteroid called 2014 DX110 last week. This asteroid was quite small, around 30 meters of diameter. However, in February 2014, an other wider asteroid was observed close to Earth, 2000 EM26: this one was really wide, around 270 meters of diameter, the equivalent of 3 football field.

With the number of asteroids growing, the US space agency would mine the talent from the general public. NASA hopes to spot dangerous space rocks such as the one that saw off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. In order to increase the interest of people, NASA is offering up to $35,000 over the next six months to anyone who is able develop computer code that can identify life-threatening asteroids.

The challenge started by NASA consists in developing significantly improved algorithms to identify asteroids in images captured by ground-based telescopes.
"The winning solution must increase the detection sensitivity, minimize the number of false positives, ignore imperfections in the data, and run effectively on all computer systems" defined NASA.

Stay tuned and try your chance to save Earth !

Video of sunset and night at the National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria

Credit: Nikola Petrov and Emil Ivanov

The video was performed in 2010 at NAO Rozhen, Bulgaria, with images taken with Canon 40D camera and 18mm f/1,8 lenses.

Explore the land of Mars with Curiosity for its 531 martian days on the red planet

Dear readers and followers,

After, 531 Martian days the NASA's rover, Curiosity is still working and performing its exploration of the red planet even if the space rover had some power glitch which perturb its functioning. This new interactive 360° panorama has been built with 130 images for a total resolution of 30,000 pixels widths !!! Dingo Gap is visible on the left where the rover traversed a small dune ripple to get into more better terrain for its wheels.

Credit : +Andrew Bodrov 

Credit image: +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

The asteroid 2014 DX110 tracked by astronomers

Dear readers and followers,

yesterday night we reported you that an asteroid of 30 meters of diameter will be close to Earth. This asteroid called 2014 DX110 has been tracked and taken in picture by astronomers. You will find also a video, enjoy

Credit image : L. Elenin

 Credit image: Slooh

Stay tuned

Tonight check out the asteroid 2014 DX110 closer than the Moon

Dear readers and followers,

Tonight, at 10 pm CET (1 p.m. PST) Wednesday March 5th, an asteroid will very close to Earth. Actually closer than the distance from Earth to the Moon. 

This time, the asteroid called 2014 DX110 is estimated to be around 30 meter of diameter and its closest approach to our planet will be around 350,000 km. NASA is used to detect, track and characterizes space comets and hazardous asteroids. A dedicated program called Near-Earth Object Observation, also named Spaceguard has been created by the space agency in order to present dramatic event. This kind of event is quite usual, actually around 20 times a year said +NASA . 

Credit: +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

Last month, a hazardous asteroid with a diameter estimated to 3 times the size of a football field and called 2000 EM26 passed close to Earth. This time due to weather conditions, none observation gears could take some great picture of the asteroid.

Credit image: Daily Galaxy

This time we hope that official observation places and amateur astro-photographers could take some impressive picture of the asteroid 2014 DX110.

Live video by +Slooh of the asteroid tracking :

Stay tuned for pictures from all around the world

Source

Great picture capturing Milky Way and Venus in South Australia

Credit image: Dave Gen

The picture has been taken with a Nikon D3100 uding a Sigma 18-250mm lens and PP Lightroom 5 from South Australia over over Sellicks Hill.

Amazing panoramic picture of the milky way taken in the Mountains of New Hampshire

Credit image: Christopher Georgia

The picture has been built with 15-shot panoramic image north of Franconia Notch State Park, N.H. on July 2013. The photographer used a Nikon D3s camera, Nikon 14-24mm lens at 15mm, exposure 22 seconds x 15, f/2.8 and ISO 2500, to capture the photo.

Amazing video of Bulgaria night sky

Credit image: Nikola Petrov and Emil Ivanov

A whole night at Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgaria in September 2010. 

The frames are taken each 25 seconds. The video combines 764 individual images with a Canon 40 D camera with 20mm Sigma lenses at F/1.8. 

Source

First picture of the Moon taken by the NASA's probe LADEE

Dear readers,

while NASA is exploring Mars since August 2012 with Curiosity, The US space agency has some ambitions for our satellite, the Moon. The mission LADEE is a part of that.

LADEE was launched on September 7th 2013, from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia by a Minotaur V space rocket.

Few days ago, the NASA lunar spacecraft, sent its first picture of the Moon taken by on-board camera systems, known as star trackers. The main craters on the lunar surface can be identified. it's really impressive. 

Credit: NASA 

Stay tuned

Follow and participate to the live Hangout with the director of Rosetta mission from CNES

Source: CNES 

Participate and ask your questions on twitter with #CNEStalks ! 

Saturn planet just behind the Moon

Credit image: Colin Legg

Be careful: Powerful X4.9-class solar flare recorded by SDO

Dear readers,

This night, a powerful X4.9-class solar flare has been recorded by NASA . This solar flare is the most intense flare of 2014 so far, and one of the most intense of the current solar cycle. Solar flare are really critical, specially for the spacecrafts orbiting Earth. Few weeks ago, the Orb-1 mission of the Antares rocket delayed due to high space radiation environment induced by a high class solar flare. Fortunately, the solar flare was not Earth directed.

The NASA's +SDO | Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash. After a solar flare during the next 3 days, all space partners are used to be very mindful in order to monitor the behavior of their spacecraft and anticipate some possible failures. Moreover, the ISS is used to be reoriented with the aim to protect its critical modules and the crew.

Credit: SDO | Solar Dynamics Observatory 

Stay tuned

Andromeda galaxy M31 taken in November 2013

Credit image: +Chris Sinclair 

[Update] Successful space launch of GPS Satellite with Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral

Dear readers,

yesterday night, the United launch Alliance performed with success its space launch of GPS satellite (GPS IIF-5) for the US AirForce. The payload has been orbited by the Delta 4 rocket developed by the private company. The launch took place from the Space Launch Complex-37 in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8:59 pm EST on Thursday February 20th. 

Credit : United Space Alliance

GPS IIF-5 is the fifth in a series of the next-generation of GPS satellites and will join the navigation system utilizing 24 spacecrafts in 6 different planes in orbit around 17700 km of altitude. This ultimate generation of satellite provides an improved accuracy and enhanced performed for GPS users, for civil and military applications.

The liftoff has been also taken in picture by Sam Wolfe photographer

Credit : Sam Wolfe

Source

[Update] : Enjoy the video provided by SpaceVids.tv

Kate Upton in weightlessness with the Zero-G aircraft

Dear readers,

the model Kate Upton is very well known, and we don't have to present her. But this week, the model and the science have been united to experiment the zero gravity. The experiment took place on-board a +Boeing+ plane, the B727. In Europe the +CNES (French Space Agency) work with a similar gear, but in a +Airbus Group plane, A300-Zero-G. The A300 Zero-g looks very much like a conventional aircraft, with a few special modifications dedicated for this experiment.

Theweightlessness is attained through a series of aerobatic maneuvers known as parabolas, where the pilot pulls the plane up at 45 degrees to an altitude around 8500 meters, and then pushes the aircraft into a descent to create zero gravity for 20-30 seconds.

Since 2003, the A300 Zero-g is used by +European Space Agency, ESA and the +CNES for their research programs to keep track of main cryogenic propulsion stages falling backing to Earth during Ariane 5 launches. 

But this time, the model Kate Upton defied gravity for the Sports Illustrated’s 2014 Swimsuit Issue. And it was insanely awesome. Enjoy the picture and the video:

Credit image : +Sports Illustrated 

Source

Publication IJETAE: Space Debris Removal System

Moby Dick asteroid 2000 EM26 is missing - Help astronomers find It

Dear readers,

last Monday, February 18th, the asteroid called 2000 EM26 or Moby Duck with its 270 meters of diameter passed close to Earth. the Slooh's robotic telescope on Mount Teide in the Canaries Island should monitored the asteroid called 2000EM26. However, because of frozen conditions, the telescop didn't work normally as illustrated on the picture below.

Credit: +Slooh 

Yesterday night Slooh published a file about the only picture provided during the night of February 17th by Slooh and the Dubai Astronomy Group: "Somewhere in this image, amongst the trailing star field, there should be a static round point of light – the light reflecting from an asteroid some 394­886ft in diameter (­270m). Based on the orbital data held by +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this is where Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2000 EM26 should have been. So if it’s not here, where was this chunk of primordial space rock as it made its closest approach to Earth on Feb. 17th 2014?"

Credit image: +Slooh 

Yesterday night Slooh announced officially that they are still looking for the asteroid. If you find it please contact Slooh as soon possible.

Stay Tuned

First picture of the asteroid 2000 EM26 from Dubai

Dear readers,

yesterday we told you about an hazardous asteroid of 270 meters of diameter. The asteroid called 2000 EM26 should be followed by the Slooh telescop in the Canary islands. Unfortunately, the Slooh's robotic telescope on Mount Teide which monitored the asteroid didn't work because of frozen conditions. 

Pictures from Dubai had been proposed by the Dubai Astronomy group. Look it is there :

Credit image : Dubai Astronomy group

Stay tuned for incoming pictures

[Update there]

Milky way taken by amateur photographer from Loch More, Caithness Scotland

Credit image : +Chris Sinclair 

A potentially hazardous asteroid of 270 meters of diameter close to Earth today

Dear readers,

in less then 10 hours now, the asteroid called 2000 EM26 will pass very close to Earth. The potentially hazardous asteroid has been estimated to have a diameter around 270 meters. Its trajectory should be very close to Earth around 8.8 of the distance Earth-Moon, and could be seen from Earth.

Enjoy this live steam of the hazardous asteroid with the video below :

Credit video: +Slooh 

Stay tuned

Update : Yesterday, the Slooh's robotic telescope on Mount Teide should monitored the asteroid 2000EM26 didn't work because of frozen conditions, but a first pictures had been proposed by the Dubai Astronomy group. 

The OAS Sky Notes Feb 2014

Yutu, the Chinese lunar rover is still alive after its abnormality

Dear readers,

Last night, China announced that the Yutu rover is still alive after its abnormality. “Yutu has come back to life!” said Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesperson for China’s lunar probe program, according to a breaking news report by the state owned Xinhua news agency.

 Credit : CNSA/CCTV

The rover landed on the Moon on December 14th, however, the January 25th an abnormality emerged before the rover entered its second dormancy at dawn on Saturday as the lunar night fell, according to SASTIND. The equipment failure may block the solar panel. If the panels cannot be closed, the rover will almost certainly freeze during the two week span. As said, the moon environment is really critical. 

Actually, one night on the Moon is about 14 days on Earth, during which the temperature falls below minus 180 Celsius. During the lunar night, there is no sunlight to provide power to Yutu's solar panel.

Today all the China people are so glad to heard that the first spacecraft Yutu sent on the Moon ground is still continuing its exploration of the lunar surface. Yutu can be translate as "Jade Rabbit" which corresponds to the rabbit in Chinese mythology that lives on the Moon as a pet of the Moon goddess Chang’e.

For the moment the space engineer of the China lunar program are still working on the identification of the abnormality. "Yutu failed to power-up Monday, February 11th, and data about its current condition and repair progress is still being collected and analyzed,” Xinhua reported.

Stay tuned

Amateur photography of the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae

Credit image: +Chris Sinclair 

The picture has been done with Celestron CG5 GoTo mount, Skywatcher ED80 Refractor and Canon 1100D. This was 50 images at ISO 6400 and 50 seconds, then another 15 images at ISO1600 and 50 seconds. All stacked with Deepskystacker

Progress M-22M docks with ISS 6 hours after its launch

Dear followers,

last Wednesday, February 5, the Progress M-22M spacecraft was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:23pm UTC. The Russian Progress M-22M, has successfully docked to ISS just 6 hours after launching from Baikonur. 

The space launch happened Less than 24 hours since its Progress M-20M cargo craft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS), following six months in residence.

Credit: +Roscosmos press service

The craft is full of cargo and supplies for the 6 membered Expedition 38 crew. Docking occurred at 22:22 UTC. With around 750 flights, the Soyuz-U is the most-flown orbital launch system ever developed.

Live the docking to the International Space Station in video :

Successful launch and orbiting of 2 satellites by Ariane 5

Dear followers,

yesterday, the European space rocket, Ariane 5, performed its first 2014 launch from Kourou, French Guiana. Ariane 5 orbited 2 telecommunications satellites, Athena-Fidus and ABS-2 at  21:30 UTC (February 6th).

Credit: +CNES 

Athena-Fidus (Access on THeatres for European Nations Allied forces - French Italian Dual Use Satellite) is a telecommunications satellite developped by the large collaboration between France and Italia. Developed for CNES, the Italian space agency ASI, the French Defense agency (DGA) and the Italian Ministry of Defence, it will deliver telecommunications services to French and Italian military and civil protection forces, complementing capacity already provided by the Syracuse and SICRAL satellites.

In an other hand, ABS-2 is a telecommunications satellite that will enable the operator Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) to deliver telecommunications, television, multimedia and data transmission services to Asia, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Enjoy the European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from Kourou in French Guiana

Credit: +Arianespace 

Dingo Gap, the dune of sand taken in 360° by Curiosity on Mars

Dear followers,

after 526 days on Mars, the curiosity rover from +NASA continue to explore the surface for the red planet until a dune of sand called Dingo Gap.

Credit image: +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

A new 360° panorama has been proposed +Andrew Bodrov. The panorama shows the Dingo Gap taken during the 530th Martian day. The dune is about 1 m high.

Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 530 in The World


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Impressive shot of the Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula

Credit image: +Chris Sinclair 

North pole of Saturn from Cassini

Credit: +NASA