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Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 398

Jun 3, 2021

The most detailed 3D map of the Universe ever made

Posted by in category: space

Cosmologists have unveiled a trove of fresh data, but the measurements do not settle earlier questions about the Universe’s unexpected smoothness.

Jun 3, 2021

NASA is going back to Venus after 30 years for an apocalyptic reason

Posted by in categories: climatology, space

Two missions will study the hellish planet to piece together its climate past, look for volcanoes, and see if it was ever habitable.


NASA Administrator and former astronaut Senator Bill Nelson announced today that the agency would be sending two missions to Venus. The two missions, called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, will respectively study the planet’s atmosphere and geological history.

Continue reading “NASA is going back to Venus after 30 years for an apocalyptic reason” »

Jun 3, 2021

New NASA Missions Will Study Venus, a World Overlooked for Decades

Posted by in categories: biological, space

One of the spacecraft will probe the hellish planet’s clouds, which could potentially help settle the debate over whether they are habitable by floating microbes.

Jun 3, 2021

Stunning New Image of the Center of Our Galaxy Hints at Previously Unknown Interstellar Energy Source

Posted by in categories: energy, space

New image made using NASA ’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory hints at previously unknown interstellar energy source at the Milky Way center.

New research by University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Daniel Wang reveals, with unprecedented clarity, details of violent phenomena in the center of our galaxy. The images, published recently in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, document an X-ray thread, G0.17–0.41, which hints at a previously unknown interstellar mechanism that may govern the energy flow and potentially the evolution of the Milky Way.

“The galaxy is like an ecosystem,” says Wang, a professor in UMass Amherst’s astronomy department, whose findings are a result of more than two decades of research. “We know the centers of galaxies are where the action is and play an enormous role in their evolution.” And yet, whatever has happened in the center of our own galaxy is hard to study, despite its relative proximity to Earth, because, as Wang explains, it is obscured by a dense fog of gas and dust. Researchers simply can’t see the center, even with an instrument as powerful as the famous Hubble Space Telescope. Wang, however, has used a different telescope, NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which “sees” X-rays, rather than the rays of visible light that we perceive with our own eyes. These X-rays are capable of penetrating the obscuring fog — and the results are stunning.

Jun 2, 2021

NASA picks Venus as hot spot for two new robotic missions

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

NASA is returning to sizzling Venus, our closest yet perhaps most overlooked neighbour, after decades of exploring other worlds.

The US space agency’s new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced two new robotic missions to the solar system’s hottest planet, during his first major address to employees.

“These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface,” Nelson said.

Jun 2, 2021

Webb Telescope launch date delayed: Everything you need to know

Posted by in category: space

Will the James Webb Space Telescope still make it into orbit this year?


The James Webb Space Telescope may finally actually launch into orbit. Here’s everything you need to know, from launch date to how it works.

Jun 1, 2021

Europe picks EuroQCI satellite quantum communications consortium

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, space

TAMPA, Fla. — Europe has tasked an Airbus-led group to devise its own quantum communications network as startup Arqit raises $400 million for a space-based system.

Airbus said May 31 the European Commission awarded the group a contract to study a quantum technology-powered network, called EuroQCI, to secure critical infrastructure across Europe.

The 15-month agreement is worth several millions of euros, Airbus Defence and Space spokesperson Bruno Daffix told SpaceNews.

Jun 1, 2021

Register for free to the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress!

Posted by in categories: government, space

https://2021.spacerenaissance.space/index.php/registration/

Jun 1, 2021

Curiosity Spots Carbon Dioxide-Ice Clouds in Martian Skies

Posted by in category: space

In March 2021, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed clouds made of carbon dioxide (CO2) ice at high altitudes in the atmosphere of Mars.

But two Earth years ago, the Curiosity team members spotted clouds in the Martian atmosphere earlier than expected.

May 31, 2021

5 Eye-Opening Tidbits From America’s Space Race With The Soviets

Posted by in category: space

Fascinating new history of the earliest days of America’s space program details why the space race with the Soviet Union was more dire than generally appreciated.