A metal 3D-printing revolution is entering space. AMAZE is a recently announced project that aims to perfect the printing of space-quality metal components on Earth and beyond within five years.
3D printing builds a solid object from a series of layers, each one printed on top of the last. This ‘additive manufacturing’ technique produces very complex structures with minimal waste … Read the rest of this article
Nestled within the shell around this large bubble is an embryonic star that is already a hefty eight times more massive than our Sun.
This image, by ESA’s Herschel space observatory, was originally presented in the first announcement of scientific results from the mission in May 2010.
This week Herschel scientists will meet again at ESA’s ESTEC establishment in the … Read the rest of this article
Scott Carpenter, who became the second US astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962, as America battled with Moscow in the space race, died Thursday in Colorado aged 88, his wife said.
In 1962 Carpenter became the second American to orbit the earth, piloting the Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the earth.
Carpenter had suffered complications following a … Read the rest of this article
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found the building blocks of solid planets that are capable of having substantial amounts of water. This rocky debris, currently orbiting a white dwarf star called GD 61, is considered a relic of a planetary system that survived the burnout of its parent star. The finding suggests that the star system — located … Read the rest of this article
Ripped apart by tectonic forces, Hebes Chasma and its neighbouring network of canyons bear the scars of the Red Planet’s early history.
ESA’s Mars Express has flown over this region of Mars on numerous occasions, but this new eight-image mosaic reveals Hebes Chasma in full and in greater detail than ever.
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Location of Hebes Chasma, at about 1°S / 284°E, …
A mystery that has stumped scientists for decades might be one step closer to solution after ESA tracking stations carefully record signals from NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it swings by Earth today.
NASA’s deep-space probe will zip past to within 561 km at 19:21 GMT as it picks up a gravitational speed boost to help it reach Jupiter in 2016.… Read the rest of this article
Watch the NASA TV coverage of the asteroid redirection systems session of the NASA-hosted public workshop at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston to examine 96 of the ideas submitted to the recent Request For Information on ways to accomplish the agency’s asteroid initiative.… Read the rest of this article
by Magdalena Szczypa
We have all gone through this. You decide to do something with your passion for astronomy and want to buy a telescope, but you have no idea of what equipment is best for you. Often, due to inexperience, you end up buying a telescope too advanced and too expensive to your liking, causing frustration which makes you … Read the rest of this article
Using a telescope in Antarctica and ESA’s Herschel space observatory, astronomers have made the first detection of a subtle twist in the relic radiation from the Big Bang, paving the way towards revealing the first moments of the Universe’s existence.
The elusive signal was found in the way the first light in the Universe has been deflected during its journey … Read the rest of this article
Deep-space missions require precise navigation, in particular when approaching bodies such as Mars, Venus or a comet. How precise?
It’s necessary to pinpoint a spacecraft 100 million kilometres from Earth to within 1 km. To achieve this level of accuracy, ESA experts use ‘quasars’ – the most luminous objects known in the Universe – as beacons in a technique known … Read the rest of this article
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
(Northern Hemisphere) |
Aurora Oval
(Southern Hemisphere) |
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