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Tag: Hubble Telescope

  • Space News Weekly Recap: India’s first personal spaceflight, ISRO Mars return, and extra

    ISRO’s plans for Mars return

    During a presentation on ISRO’s future missions, Anil Bharadwaj, Director of the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory, introduced that the house company deliberate to ship a probe to the pink planet.

    According to the preliminary plans charted out by the Indian house company, it’s going to construct a lunar lander and rover that shall be put into orbit by a Japanese rocket, with a touchdown deliberate close to the south pole of the Moon. “The rover will then travel to the permanent shadow region of the moon which never sees sunlight,” Bhardwaj mentioned, stories PTI.

    Inspired by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the Mumbai-based Space Aura Aerospace Technology Pvt Ltd firm has begun to construct an area capsule measuring 10 ft x 8 ft, which might carry six vacationers apart from the pilot into house at a time. (Representational picture)
    Space Aura needs to ship house vacationers in balloon-propelled capsule

    Mumbai-based Space Aura has begun constructing an area capsule that measures 10 ft by 8 ft, capable of carry six vacationers and a pilot into house, based on PTI. The firm offered a prototype, named SKAP 1, throughout a science throughout an area convention held in Dehradun.

    The house capsule will reportedly be propelled by a balloon crammed with helium or hydrogen fuel, which might take it to as much as 25 kilometres above sea degree. At this peak, house vacationers can witness the Earth’s curvature and the blackness of house for round 1 hour, based on CEO Akash Porwal.

    ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle pictured right here forward of its unsuccessful launch on August 7. India doesn’t but have a reusable rocket. (Image credit score: ISRO handout / PTI)
    ISRO’s first runway touchdown experiment of reusable launch car

    ISRO says it’s prepared for the primary runway touchdown experiment of its Reusable Launch Vehicle. (RLV) PTI stories that the RLV wing physique shall be carried to an altitude of three to 5 kilometres by helicopter and launched 4 to 5 kilometres away from the runway with horizontal velocity.

    If all goes based on plan, the RLV will glide, navigate in the direction of the runway and land autonomously utilizing its touchdown gear. New programs like touchdown gear, parachutes, hook beam meeting, a radar altimeter and pseudolite have reportedly already been developed and certified.

    The mission will assist the corporate take a look at its programs in house. (Source: @SkyrootA)
    India’s personal launch car’s maiden launch

    The Indian Express reported that Hyderabad-based Skyroot’s Vikram-S launch car is all set to go on its first flight between November 12 and November 16, from the spaceport in Sriharikota. The mission is known as “Prarambh” and can carry three business satellites into sub-orbital flight.

    “The Vikram-S rocket is a single-stage sub-orbital launch vehicle which will carry three customer payloads and help test and validate technologies in the Vikram series space launch vehicles,” mentioned Naga Bharath Daka, COO and co-founder of the corporate to The Indian Express.

    Artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope in house. (Image credit score: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)
    NASA works round JWST glitch

    NASA scientists had run right into a technical glitch with the James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared instrument earlier this 12 months. Mission engineers have recognized the difficulty and have outlined new operational procedures to permit JWST to proceed science observations regardless of the glitch.

    The difficulty was with a grating wheel mechanism that helps Webb’s “medium-resolution spectroscopy” (MRS mode). Engineers found that the mechanism was exhibiting indicators of elevated friction. MRS mode was placed on maintain for some time until the engineers devised the brand new operational procedures.

    NASA engineer’s have secured the Artemis 1 mission’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to guard them from the storm. (Image credit score: NASA / Twitter)
    Artemis 1 delayed, once more

    Tropical storm Nicole compelled NASA to as soon as once more postpone the scheduled launch date of its Artemis 1 mission. This time, the launch was shifted from November 14 to November 16. In the in the meantime, the Artemis 1 mission stack, which incorporates the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, was left on the launch pad to climate the storm.

    According to the American house company, the SLS rocket can face up to speeds near 136 kilometres per hour or 74.4 knots. It can also be designed to endure heavy rains. To defend the Orion spacecraft, all of its hatches had been secured to make sure that water doesn’t enter.

    Through a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, three totally different moments in a far-off supernova explosion had been captured in a single snapshot by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA, ESA, STScI, Wenlei Chen (UMN), Patrick Kelly (UMN), Hubble Frontier Fields/Handout by way of REUTERS)
    Hubble captures stellar demise

    In a uncommon prevalence, the Hubble Space Telescope was capable of seize three pictures which documented a supernova in “blow-by-blow” element, based on a Reuters report. The distant star is about 530 instances the dimensions of our Sun and is about 11.5 billion years away. The pictures had been found throughout a assessment of Hubble’s archival knowledge from 2010.

    Hubble was capable of seize these pictures because of a phenomenon of gravitational lensing. The immense gravitational drive exerted by a galaxy cluster in entrance of the supernova labored like a lens, bending and magnifying the sunshine from the supernova behind it.

    This photograph supplied by NASA reveals a Northrop Grumman cargo ship about to be captured by the International Space Station’s robotic arm on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. The capsule delivered greater than 8,000 kilos of provides to the International Space Station on Wednesday, regardless of a jammed photo voltaic panel. (NASA by way of AP)
    Cygnus reaches ISS with one photo voltaic panel

    A Cygnus spacecraft was capable of carry a number of tons of provides to the International Space Station regardless of a jammed photo voltaic panel. When one of many photo voltaic panels of the spacecraft was jammed, flight controllers tried to open it many instances to no avail. Finally, missions groups determined to go forward with out the second photo voltaic panel because the flight was managing to attract sufficient energy with only one.

    Space station crew took footage of the spacecraft because it approached to know what went unsuitable. According to Reuters, a chunk of particles from the Antares rocket which launched the spacecraft had grow to be lodged within the photo voltaic panel’s mechanism throughout liftoff. This was what prevented the second panel from deploying.

    Image credit score: NASA
    NASA completes LOFTID demonstration

    NASA efficiently accomplished the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) mission, which demonstrated expertise that would someday assist land people on Mars. The Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) expertise was developed by the house company over greater than a decade.

    The whole HIAD system is foldable, packable and deployable, which implies that it takes up much less house on rockets in comparison with inflexible options. This additionally permits the design to be scalable. The massive dimension of the system additionally implies that it creates extra drag and begins the deceleration course of greater within the environment than typical options.

    Artist’s illustration of NASA’s CAPTONE spacecraft. (Image credit score: NASA Ames Research Centre/ Twitter)
    NASA’s CAPSTONE about to enter lunar orbit

    NASA says its CAPSTONE CubeSat is scheduled to enter the Moon’s orbit on November 13. The microwave-sized CubeSat weighing round 25 kilograms is designed to check a novel lunar orbit known as a close to rectilinear halo orbit, (NRHO) which could be very elongated and is situated at a exact stability level between the gravities of the Earth and the Moon.

    This orbit might assist future long-term missions like Gateway maintain a lunar orbit by spending a minimal quantity of vitality. Apart from the orbit, the CAPSTONE mission additionally demonstrates a key software program expertise— the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS). CAPS makes use of a spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation resolution that permits it to find out its location in house with out counting on monitoring from Earth.

  • Hubble telescope captures spectacular picture of spiral galaxy

    The Hubble Space Telescope captured this spectacular picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 1961 that includes glittering blue areas of younger, brilliant stars dotting the panorama of the galaxy’s dusty spiral arms.

    NGC 1961 is situated about 180 million light-years away within the constellation Camelopardalis. It is classed as an intermediate spiral galaxy and as an energetic galactic nucleus. Intermediate spirals fall in between “barred” and “unbarred” spiral galaxies. They would not have a well-defined bar of stars at their centre.

    Active galactic nucleus galaxies have very brilliant centres that far outshine the remainder of the galaxy at particular wavelengths. It is probably going that NGC 1961 has a supermassive black gap at its core, churning out the winds and brilliant jets that form the galaxy.

    Take within the new view! 😍

    This just-released Hubble picture of NGC 1961 reveals a shining galaxy that resides about 180 million light-years away, within the constellation Camelopardalis.

    Read extra: https://t.co/7I43uVJS23 pic.twitter.com/a0ZXWv7xDr

    — Hubble (@NASAHubble) September 14, 2022

    Last week, NASA revealed a shocking picture of a supernova remnant utilizing information from Hubble and the Chandra X-ray telescope. NASA scientists used information from Chandra, Hubble and the company’s retired Spitzer Space telescope to “rewind” the star’s explosion and located clues about how way back the stellar explosion occurred and concerning the setting of the star earlier than the explosion.

    Earlier this month, the area company launched a James Webb Telescope picture of the “Phantom Galaxy,” formally often known as M74. The Webb picture revealed delicate filaments of fuel and mud within the spiral arms within the galaxy and the dearth of fuel at its centre gave a transparent view of the nuclear star cluster.

  • Space information weekly recap: China’s plans for lunar minerals, Indian reusable rocket and extra

    While NASA started its work to switch the defective hydrogen seal on the Artemis 1 mission’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, ISRO introduced that will probably be engaged on designing and constructing a reusable launch automobile for the worldwide market. Read about al the fascinating house information that occurred over the past week in our weekly house information recap.

    Frank Drake, chief of seek for extraterrestrial life, passes away

    Frank Drake first pointed a telescope at a pair of stars within the hopes of discovering an alien civilisation in 1960. Since then, he has been a frontrunner within the seek for clever life on different planets. The New York Times studies that drake handed away at his residence in California on September 2 on the age of 92.

    Among Frank Drake’s achievements was the event of the Drake Equation, which continues for use to estimate the variety of superior civilizations within the galaxy. (Image credit score: SETI)

    In the early years of the seek for clever alien life, Drake was certain that people would come into contact with extraterrestrial intelligence inside his personal lifetime. But since then, he has acknowledged that he may not reside to see that occur, since we have now barely scratched the floor of the mysteries our universe has to supply.

    His illustrious record of achievements contains the event of the Drake Equation, which continues for use to estimate the variety of superior civilisations within the galaxy. The equation takes into consideration seven elements. Some of those are fairly empirical, like the speed at which stars are born within the Milky Way, whereas others usually tend to be educated guesses at finest, like the typical lifetime of a technological civilisation.

    India will design and construct a reusable rocket for the worldwide market: ISRO

    ISRO Chairman S Somanath stated that India is planning to design and construct a brand new reusable rocket for the worldwide market whereas talking on the Bengaluru Space Expo. Somanath stated that that is aimed toward considerably chopping the price of launching satellites.

    “So, the idea is the next rocket that we are going to build after GSLV Mk III should be a reusable rocket. We will have to have a retro-propulsion to land it (rocket back on earth),” stated Somanath, in keeping with a PTI report. Somanath asserted that this concept can’t be ISRO’s alone, emphasising that the brand new rocket must be reusable in partnership with trade, startups and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the industrial arm of ISRO.

    ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle mission ferrying an earth statement satellite tv for pc and a scholar satellite tv for pc earlier than its launch. (PTI)

    “So, it’s a big shift from what we do today,” he identified. “I would like to see this (proposal) taking shape in the next few months.” “We would like to see such a rocket, a rocket which will be competitive-enough, a rocket that will be cost-conscious, production-friendly which will be built in India but operated globally for the services of the space sector. This should happen in the next few years so that we can retire all those operating launch vehicles (in India) at appropriate time,” he added, in keeping with the report.

    NASA replaces defective seal

    NASA says that it has changed the defective seal that precipitated the hydrogen leak in the course of the second try at launching the Artemis 1 mission. Next, the technicians will reconnect the umbilical plates and carry out inspections earlier than making ready for a tanking demonstration that would occur as early as September 17. During this demonstration, engineers will verify new seals beneath cryogenic situations.

    NASA groups will follow loading liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen within the rocket’s core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage. They will then verify whether or not the leak has been repaired and also will carry out a kick-start bleed take a look at and pre-pressurisation take a look at which is able to validate the bottom and flight methods.

    Webb captures a near-perfect ‘Einstein ring’

    The James Webb Space Telescope captured this picture of an Einstein Ring. This phenomenon is created when the sunshine from a galaxy, star or different light-emitting cosmic object passes close to an enormous object earlier than it reaches the observer, which on this case is the Webb Telescope.

    This picture of an Einstein ring was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. (Image credit score: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/ u/spaceguy44 on Reddit)

    When gentle passes by way of the distorted space-time attributable to an enormous object, it causes “gravitational lensing,” the place the sunshine will get diverted. Sometimes, when the supply, gravitational lens and observing factor are all in good alignment this causes the sunshine to seem as a hoop. In this picture, the sunshine originates from the distant galaxy SPT-S J041839-4751.8. The galaxy is round 12 billion light-years away from our planet, which additionally implies that it is among the oldest galaxies within the universe.

    Hubble captured this picture of two galaxies over a billion years away from out planet. (Image credit score: ESA/Hubble)
    Hubble captures two galaxies ‘overlapping’

    This picture of two spiral galaxies seemingly overlapping was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The two galaxies within the picture are known as SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461 they usually lie greater than a billion gentle years away from Earth. Although it appears like each the galaxies are colliding within the picture, they aren’t actually interacting in any respect and simply appear to be aligned from Hubble’s viewpoint.

    This picture was taken based mostly on the highlights from NASA’s Galaxy Zoo venture. Established in 2007, the venture is an enormous citizen science venture which crowdsources galaxy classifications from hundreds of volunteers. This venture helps scientists type by way of huge quantities of knowledge and allocate useful telescope time based mostly on the outcomes.

    The picture of the Sun’s chromosphere captured by Inouye has an 18-kilometre decision. (Image credit score: NSO/AURA/NSF)
    The Sun in a brand new gentle

    The US National Science Foundation (NSF) launched this picture of the Sun in beautiful element. It was captured by the inspiration’s new Daniel Okay Inouye Solar Telescope on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The picture captures the Sun’s chromosphere, the second of the three predominant layers within the Sun’s ambiance.

    What appears just like the threads of a shag carpet within the picture is definitely fiery plasma flowing into the star’s corona. The blobs of matter that may be seen are granules which can be about 1,600 kilometres. The picture covers a area of over 82,500 kilometres of the Sun’s floor and has a decision of about 18 kilometres, making it one of many highest definition photos captured of the Sun.

    Engineers carry out checks on Europe’s new MTG-I1 satellite tv for pc designed to enhance climate forecasting on the Thales Alenia Space plant in Cannes, France September 7, 2022. (Image credit score: REUTERS/Tim Hepher)
    Europe’s new satellite tv for pc for quicker excessive climate warnings

    Europe unveiled the primary of a 4-billion-euro household of satellites which can be designed to provide earlier warning of maximum climate that has been inflicting havoc throughout the globe. The MTG-I1 satellite tv for pc is the results of 12 years for the European Space Agency and the 30-nation EUMETSAT. IT will probably be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket by the tip of this 12 months.

    The 3.8-tonne satellite tv for pc will probably be joined in its geostationary orbit by three extra MTG-I1 imaging satellites and two MTG-S “sounding” satellites that may “slice the atmosphere” like a medical scanner. All 4 satellites needs to be in operation by 2030.

    China has ramped up its ambitions in house in recent times, sending probes to the moon, constructing its personal house station and setting its sights on Mars, plans which have put it in direct competitors with the US. (Image credit score: Getty / File picture)
    China finds new lunar mineral and plans extra Moon missions

    China stated it found a brand new lunar mineral known as Changesite-(Y) through samples retrieved by its Chang’e-5 mission. Shortly afterwards, Bloomberg reported that China’s National Space Administration, the nation’s NASA equal, acquired approval to ship three orbiters to the Moon as a part of the Chang’e lunar program.

    China has been ramping up its house ambitions in recent times. Apart from sending probes to the Moon and constructing its personal house station, the nation has additionally set its sights on Mars, with plans which have put it in direct competitors with the United States. Space mining might be the subsequent supply of stress with each nations eyeing the Moon’s minerals.

    Artist’s impression of the house junk cloud round Earth based mostly on precise density information. Debris objects proven at an exaggerated measurement. (Image credit score: ESA)
    US FCC to deal with house particles

    Reuters studies that the American Federal Communications Commission stated that it’ll vote this month on new guidelines to deal with the danger of rising orbital particles. The company at the moment recommends that operators of satellites in low-Earth orbit be sure that their spacecraft will re-enter our planet’s ambiance inside 25 years after mission completion.

    The new guidelines could be an replace over its 2004 laws and shrink the time-frame required for post-mission satellite tv for pc disposal. These laws will apply to each US-licensed satellites in addition to non-US satellites that search US market entry.

  • James Webb Space Telescope: Mirror deployment course of accomplished

    The largest and strongest area telescope has efficiently deployed its golden mirrors and the testing of the person mirror segments is now full.

    Our mirror phase deployments are full! 🎉
    Using motors, every phase was moved out about half the size of a paper clip to clear the mirrors from their launch restraints and provides every phase sufficient area for mirror alignment. https://t.co/XWbVLQuch1 #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/d121DHldiX
    — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) January 19, 2022
    Erin Wolf, Webb program supervisor at Ball Aerospace, defined how the mirrors have been moved and examined. “The motors made over a million revolutions this week…The mirror deployment team incrementally moved all 132 actuators located on the back of the primary mirror segments and secondary mirror…Using six motors that deploy each segment approximately half the length of a paper clip, these actuators clear the mirrors from their launch restraints and give each segment enough space to later be adjusted in other directions,” Wolf mentioned.

    He added that the method of telescope alignment will take roughly three months.
    On January 24, the workforce is anticipated to fireside Webb’s thrusters to insert the telescope into its orbit across the Sun. The telescope can be practically 1 million miles from Earth.

    We’re gearing as much as insert #NASAWebb into its orbit!
    What to count on on Jan. 24:⏰ 3pm ET (20:00 UTC) NASA Science Live: Ask questions with #UnfoldTheUniverse 🌟⏰ 4pm ET (21:00 UTC) Media teleconference with @NASAGoddard & @northropgrumman specialistshttps://t.co/6MhQ60Mxzz pic.twitter.com/ReB8umJQLB
    — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) January 20, 2022
    Webb’s scientists and engineers can even reply questions in regards to the newest milestones at 3 pm EST on Monday (1.30 am IST Tuesday). It can be broadcasted dwell on the NASA Science Live web site, NASA’s YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter pages.

  • NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope set for blastoff from French Guiana

    The James Webb Space Telescope, a NASA instrument designed to permit humankind’s first glimpse of the toddler universe because it existed when the earliest galaxies are believed to have fashioned, was set for launch on Saturday from the northeastern coast of South America.
    The revolutionary $9 billion infrared telescope, hailed by NASA because the premiere space-science observatory of the following decade, was bundled contained in the cargo bay of an Ariane 5 rocket poised for blastoff at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) launch base in French Guiana.
    If all goes as deliberate, the 14,000-pound instrument, which is able to unfurl to almost the dimensions of a tennis courtroom, shall be launched from the French-built rocket after a 26-minute trip into house.

    Over the next month, the Webb telescope will coast to its vacation spot in photo voltaic orbit roughly 1 million miles from Earth – about 4 occasions farther away than the moon. Webb’s particular orbital path will preserve it in fixed alignment with Earth because the planet and telescope circle the solar in tandem.
    By comparability, Webb’s 30-year-old predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, orbits Earth itself from 340 miles away, passing out and in of the planet’s shadow each 90 minutes.
    Ariane 5 Rollout with James Webb Space Telescope on Dec. 23, 2021, at Europe’s Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
    Named for NASA’s chief throughout a lot of the company’s formative decade of the Nineteen Sixties, Webb is about 100 occasions extra delicate than Hubble and is predicted to profoundly remodel scientists’ understanding of the universe and our place in it.Webb primarily will view the cosmos within the infrared spectrum, permitting it to look by clouds of gasoline and mud the place stars are being born, whereas Hubble has operated primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.

    ☀️ The newest climate forecast has arrived, and we’re nonetheless GO for launch of #NASAWebb tomorrow, Dec. 25 at 7:20 am ET (12:20 UTC)! Watch dwell at https://t.co/E0iKHwugcn 📺
    More information: https://t.co/uJ870FimeI
    📷 : NASA/Chris Gunn, captured Dec 23. pic.twitter.com/i4dg9Nro6y
    — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) December 24, 2021
     
    COSMOLOGICAL HISTORY LESSON
    The new telescope’s main mirror – consisting of 18 hexagonal segments of gold-coated beryllium steel – additionally has a a lot greater light-collecting space, enabling it to watch objects at better distances, thus farther again into time, than Hubble or some other telescope.
    That, astronomers say, will convey into view a glimpse of the cosmos by no means beforehand seen – courting to only 100 million years after the Big Bang, the theoretical flashpoint that set in movement the enlargement of the observable universe an estimated 13.8 billion years in the past.
    Hubble’s view reaches again to roughly 400 million years following the Big Bang, a interval simply after the very first galaxies – sprawling clusters and stars, gases and different interstellar matter – are believed to have taken form.
    A photograph offered by NASA, of the first mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in 2016. (Chris Gunn/NASA)
    Aside from analyzing the formation of the earliest stars and galaxies within the universe with better readability, astronomers are keen to review super-massive black holes believed to occupy the facilities of distant galaxies.
    Webb’s devices additionally make it best to seek for proof of probably life-supporting atmospheres round scores of newly documented exoplanets – celestial our bodies orbiting distant stars – and to watch worlds a lot nearer to house, comparable to Mars and Saturn’s icy moon Titan.
    The telescope is a global collaboration led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian house companies. Northrop Grumman Corp was the first contractor. The Arianespace launch automobile is a part of the European contribution.
    Webb was developed at a price of $8.8 billion, with operational bills projected to convey its complete price ticket  to about $9.66 billion, far increased than deliberate when NASA was beforehand aiming for a 2011 launch.
    Astronomical operation of the telescope, to be managed from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, is predicted to start in the summertime of 2022, following about six months of alignment and calibration of Webb’s mirrors and devices. The house observatory is designed to last as long as 10 years. (Reporting by Steve Gorman Editing by Leslie Adler)