Copernical Team
James Webb Space Telescope more than three quarters through its journey
More than two weeks after the James Webb Space Telescope's launch on Christmas Day, the telescope has traveled more than 700,000 miles from Earth. JWST has successfully deployed its secondary mirror, a key element of the telescope's optics. Next, JWST will unfold its primary mirror segments.
U-M astronomer Michael Meyer says that observing the telescope's transformation has been fascinating.
"In the last week, the team has learned a great deal about the spacecraft that they couldn't have uncovered during testing on the ground. As a result, the tensioning of the sunshield was delayed in order to examine the power subsystems and motors in more detail. Anticipating such occurrences, a flexible plan was developed in order to adapt as things proceed. And that strategy seems to be paying off.
"So far, the deployment of JWST has been a spectacular success. There have been a few nerve-wracking moments, but the daily reports have been welcome good news in these uncertain times. A dedicated team of engineers is going through the to-do list, item by item: There is still a ways to go, but so far, so great.
The Incredible ASIM: Distant galaxy edition
The Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM for short, is a first-of-its-kind complement of instruments on the International Space Station. Dubbed the ‘space storm hunter’, ASIM measures electric events in Earth’s upper atmosphere with cameras, photometers and X- and gamma-ray detectors.
Ride into space on Vega-C secured for FLEX and Altius
A contract signed with Arianespace secures the joint launch for two satellites that will further knowledge of our home planet. Scheduled to lift off on a new class of rocket, ESA’s Vega-C, from Europe’s Spaceport in mid-2025, FLEX will yield new information about the health of the world’s plants and Altius will deliver profiles of ozone and other trace gases in the upper atmosphere to support services such as weather forecasting.
Preview 2022
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As always, a new year brings new and exciting missions and launches for ESA. In science the world looks forward to the first image releases of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and the third data release for Gaia, both teaching us more about our galaxy and Universe. ESA’s new Mars rover will be launched with the ExoMars mission, and we will also see the maiden flight of Vega-C and the Artemis I flight. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will return to the ISS for her second mission and a new class of astronauts will be presented to the world. After the groundwork has been
Live demonstration for cyber resilience
Modern society is growing ever-more reliant on services and data delivered via space. Cyber threats and disruptions to satellites are increasingly dangerous to citizens and economies, and it is vital to protect them and the crucial work they do. This is why ESA is supporting Swiss-based security firm Cysec in organising Europe’s first live cybersecurity demonstration for space systems. The demonstration will highlight the challenges in making space systems cybersecurity resilient vs modern hacking techniques and capabilities.
Earth's first giant
The two-meter skull of a newly discovered species of giant ichthyosaur, the earliest known, is shedding new light on the marine reptiles' rapid growth into behemoths of the Dinosaurian oceans, and helping us better understand the journey of modern cetaceans (whales and dolphins) to becoming the largest animals to ever inhabit the Earth.
While dinosaurs ruled the land, ichthyosaurs and othe Arianespace to launch eight new Galileo satellites
Arianespace will launch the first two satellites in 2022, leading to the Full Operational Capability of Galileo open service. Then, three successive launches on Ariane 62 in 2023, 2024 and 2025, will finalize the launch of the first generation of Galileo satellites and will increase the constellation resilience.
These will be the 13th to 16th Galileo missions by Arianespace, which has orbi Amazon helps develop Alexa-like Callisto system for Artemis moon mission
Lockheed Martin has teamed up with Amazon and Webex to demonstrate technology on NASA's lunar Orion space capsule that will use software similar to Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa.
The demonstration, called Callisto, will fly on the uncrewed Artemis 1 lunar mission that NASA hopes to launch in the next few months. It won't be able to control the spacecraft, but it will be able to turn Physicist seeks to understand dark matter with Webb Telescope
The much-anticipated launch of the James Webb Space Telescope will usher in a new era of research on our universe. Among the many researchers planning to take advantage of the data from the Hubble Space Telescope's successor is Carnegie Mellon University Associate Professor of Physics Matthew Walker, who is principal investigator of a program making use of data collected in telescope's first yea Hubble sees cosmic clues in a galactic duo
This spectacular image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While it looks like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a neighboring galaxy, this is just a circumstance of perspective. NGC 105's elongated neighbor is actually far more distant. Such visual associations are the result of 
