European Space Agency – Page 3

‘Like the Moon’: Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train

12Nov

By adminNo Comments

Technology

‘Like the Moon’: Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train

[ad_1] With its blackened lava fields, craters and volcanic tubes, Lanzarote's geology can be uncannily similar to that of the Moon and Mars. Kneeling on the edge of a deep crater, astronaut Alexander Gerst uses a chisel to collect a sample of volcanic rock which he carefully puts inside a white plastic bag.Gerst is not on the Moon, even if it looks like it. He is in the middle of Los Volcanes Natural Park on the island of Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa. With its blackened lava fields, craters and volcanic tubes, Lanzarote's geology can be uncannily similar to that of the Moon and Mars -- so much so that the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have for years been sending astronauts to the island to train. "This place has lavas that are very, v...

Terrifying! When solar storm slammed into Earth and made magnetic field explode; LISTEN

29Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Terrifying! When solar storm slammed into Earth and made magnetic field explode; LISTEN

[ad_1] The sound of Earth's magnetic field after a solar storm strike is really scary. The European Space Agency has released the same. Listen now. Do you want to know how Earth's magnetic field sounds after a solar storm strike? It is terrifying! It happened just a couple of days ago and you can listen to the scary sound today. The European Space Agency (ESA) has released an audio track of converted data which provides a disturbing sonic representation of the Earth's magnetic field. It can be known that the Earth's magnetic field is not something we can actually see in itself, or ever hear. However, scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have taken magnetic signals measured by ESA's Swarm satellite mission and converted them into sound after the solar storm strike – and th...

One month after the NASA asteroid collision success, what have scientists learned?

27Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

One month after the NASA asteroid collision success, what have scientists learned?

[ad_1] It has been one month since the historic NASA DART asteroid crash. What new secrets have the scientists revealed in this time? Check details. On September 26, NASA made history! For the first time ever, humans were able to shake and actually move a celestial body. The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission sent a spacecraft to an asteroid called Dimorphos and struck it headfirst. The mission was conducted to find a reliable way to defend the Earth from any incoming asteroids. But a secondary objective was also to take a close look at the smallest asteroid any spacecraft has visited. So, what have the scientists found out after churning out the data for a month? Read on to find out.Carolyn Ernst, a planetary scientist responsible for DART's sole instrument told Spa...

European Space Agency to launch two missions on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets

21Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

European Space Agency to launch two missions on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets

[ad_1] The European Space Agency announced Thursday it will use SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets to launch two scientific missions because of delays to its own Ariane 6 rocket and the cancellation of flights on Russia's Soyuz launchers. The ESA's Euclid space telescope had been planned to launch next year on a Soyuz rocket, but in February Russia pulled out in response to European sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine. Euclid, which aims to better understand the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, will now instead catch a ride into space on the Falcon 9 rocket of billionaire Elon Musk's US company SpaceX. The ESA's Hera mission, which will probe the Didymos asteroid that NASA successfully knocked off course in September by smashing the DART spacecraft into it, will launch on a F...

Swirling galaxies unite around red quasar in ‘monster’ black hole

21Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Swirling galaxies unite around red quasar in ‘monster’ black hole

[ad_1] Using the James Webb Space Telescope to look back in time at the early universe, astronomers discovered a surprise. Using the James Webb Space Telescope to look back in time at the early universe, astronomers discovered a surprise: a cluster of galaxies merging together around a rare red quasar within a massive black hole. The findings offer an unprecedented opportunity to observe how billions of years ago galaxies coalesced into the modern universe. "We think something dramatic is about to happen in these systems," said co-author Andrey Vayner, a Johns Hopkins postdoctoral fellow who studies the evolution of galaxies. "The galaxy is at this perfect moment in its lifetime, about to transform and look entirely different in a few billion years." The work is in press in Astro...

Scientists find new evidence for liquid water on Mars

5Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Scientists find new evidence for liquid water on Mars

[ad_1] New evidence for the possible existence of liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars has been found. An international team of researchers has found new evidence for the possible existence of liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars.The results, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, provide the first independent line of evidence, using data other than radar, that there is liquid water beneath Mars' south pole. The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge with involvement from the University of Sheffield, used spacecraft laser-altimeter measurements of the shape of the upper surface of the ice cap to identify subtle patterns in its height. They then showed that these patterns match computer model predictions for how a body of water beneath the i...

Samantha Cristoforetti becomes first European woman to command International Space Station

29Sep

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Samantha Cristoforetti becomes first European woman to command International Space Station

[ad_1] Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European woman to take over command of the International Space Station. Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti on Wednesday became the first European woman to take over command of the International Space Station during a ceremony broadcast live from space.The outgoing commander, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, used the occasion to seemingly make a rare space-bound reference to the war in Ukraine, saying that "despite the storms on Earth, our international cooperation continues". During a relaxed ceremony, Artemyev handed Cristoforetti a golden key, symbolising that she is the new commander of the space station until she returns to Earth on October 10. Cristoforetti, a 45-year-ol...

Tech in space: Mars rover sees hints of past life in latest rock samples

16Sep

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Tech in space: Mars rover sees hints of past life in latest rock samples

[ad_1] NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has detected its highest concentrations yet of organic molecules, in a potential signal of ancient microbes that scientists are eager to confirm when the rock samples are eventually brought to Earth. While organic matter has been found on the Red Planet before, the new discovery is seen as especially promising because it came from an area where sediment and salts were deposited into a lake -- conditions where life could have arisen. "It is very fair to say that these are going to be, these already are, the most valuable rock samples that have ever been collected," David Shuster, a Perseverance return sample scientist, told reporters during a briefing. Organic molecules -- compounds made primarily of carbon that usually in...

US Postal Service to feature NASA’s James Webb Telescope on its new stamp

9Sep

By adminNo Comments

Technology

US Postal Service to feature NASA’s James Webb Telescope on its new stamp

[ad_1] NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be featured by the US Postal Service in its new stamp. Check details here. Have you noticed the stamp of the U.S. Postal Service? Well, now it features the World's most powerful space telescope- James Webb Space Telescope, NASA informed. "Post with the Most: New @USPS stamp features the world's most powerful space telescope. An illustration of @NASAWebb graces each stamp on a sheet, while the selvage features a sharp image of a star captured by the telescope during its alignment," the research organisation tweeted. “When anyone who uses these stamps looks at this telescope, I want them to see what I see: its incredible potential to reveal new and unexpected discoveries t...

ESA-NASA solar orbiter hit by terrifying coronal mass ejection near Venus

7Sep

By adminNo Comments

Technology

ESA-NASA solar orbiter hit by terrifying coronal mass ejection near Venus

[ad_1] The ESA-NASA solar orbiter has survived an enormous coronal mass ejection from the Sun that was flung out in the early hours of Sunday, September 4. Here is all you need to know. The ESA-NASA Solar Orbiter has just survived a terrifying coronal mass ejection out there in space when it flew by Venus for a gravity-assist manoeuvre that alters the spacecraft's orbit, getting it even closer to the Sun. Informing about the same the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a report, "In the early hours of Sunday, 4 September, Solar Orbiter flew by Venus for a gravity-assist manoeuvre that alters the spacecraft's orbit, getting it even closer to the Sun. As if trying to get the orbiter's attention as it cosied up to another body i...