comments feedEurope, Japan send spacecraft on 7-year journey to Mercury AP From Decca Chronicle ESA says the 1.3 billion-euro (USD 1.5 billion) mission is one of the most challenging in its history. European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit Saturday for a joint mission […]
ESA picks two tiny spacecraft to study the dark side of the Moon
January 30, 2018 by Leave a Comment
By Jon Fingas, From engadget The cubesats will provide insight into lunar activity you rarely see. Tiny cube spacecraft aren’t just useful around Earth’s orbit. The European Space Agency has chosen two winners in a competition to build cubesats that will study the dark side of the Moon. The first, the Lunar Meteoroid Impact Orbiter […]
Tracking a solar eruption through the solar system
August 15, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Ten spacecraft, from ESA’s Venus Express to NASA’s Voyager-2, felt the effect of a solar eruption as it washed through the Solar System while three other satellites watched, providing a unique perspective on this space weather event. Scientists working on ESA’s Mars Express were looking forward to investigating the effects of the close encounter of […]
The ESA’s hunt for gravitational waves is over, for now
July 20, 2017 by Leave a Comment
By Mariella Moon From engadget On July 18th, 2017 at around 2PM Eastern time, Professor Stefano Vitalesent the LISA Pathfinder its final kill commands from the mission’s control center in Germany. The lead investigator’s instructions prompted the probe to reboot itself and run a corrupted version of its software. That ensures that the spacecraft will […]
Astronaut filmed elusive blue lightning aboard the ISS
March 27, 2017 by Leave a Comment
By Mariella Moon From engadget And the video is quite mesmerizing. Some types of electrical discharge phenomena like blue jets and red sprites occur way above the altitudes where normal lightning occurs. That makes it tough to see them or even to confirm that they actually take place. There’s a group of people living in […]
Astronaut filmed elusive blue lightning aboard the ISS
March 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment
By Mariella Moon, from engadget And the video is quite mesmerizing Some types of electrical discharge phenomena like blue jets and red sprites occur way above the altitudes where normal lightning occurs. That makes it tough to see them or even to confirm that they actually take place. There’s a group of people living in […]
A spacecraft got smacked by a bit of space debris, but it’s fine
September 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
BY MIRIAM KRAMER From Mashable An Earth-gazing satellite keeping an eye on our planet from above appears to have been whacked by a little piece of natural or human-made space debris. Engineers working with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-1A spacecraft noticed a small and sudden dip in the power produced by one of […]
Caribbean Electric Ray will not be listed as Threatened or Endangered
August 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Notice of 12-month finding on a petition to list the Caribbean Electric Ray as Threatened or Endangered From Ocean Leadership We, NMFS, announce a 12-month finding and listing determination on a petition to list the Caribbean electric ray (Narcine bancroftii) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). (From The Federal Register)– We […]
Jupiter’s dramatic auroras
August 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Hubble photographs Jupiter’s dramatic auroras By Mariella Moon From engadget The wispy, glowing veil sitting on top of Jupiter in the image above is actually a humongous aurora captured on cam by Hubble. A team of astronomers are using the telescope’s ultraviolet instruments to study nature’s light shows on the poles of the gas giant. […]
Robots and lasers in space
January 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
By Nick Heath, From TechRepublic Photos of tech headed to the cosmos The European Space Agency researches technologies that will allow humans to learn more about space and eventually explore new worlds. That research relies on cutting-edge advances in fields such as robotics, laser-based communications and 3D printing. Here’s what the agency and its partners […]
