Copernical Team
Hubble celebrates 34th anniversary
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In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of the legendary NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 24 April, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Messier 76, M76, or NGC 650/651) located 3400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The photogenic nebula is a favourite target of amateur astronomers.
ESA’s astronaut class of 2022 graduate
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On Monday 22 April ESA celebrated the graduation of its class of 2022 astronaut candidates. The ceremony, held at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, signified the successful completion of basic training for the five European astronaut graduates and the Australian Space Agency’s first astronaut, all now eligible for spaceflight assignments.
Large cargo landers to boost Moon missions for Artemis
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NASA has commenced the development of large cargo landers under its Artemis program, with the aim of enhancing the scientific exploration capabilities of the Moon. The initiative involves collaboration between NASA and its human landing system providers, SpaceX and Blue Origin, to create landers capable of delivering substantial equipment payloads to the lunar surface.
These landers, which Exploring methane mysteries on Mars: Curiosity Rover's new findings
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NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover has revealed that methane is emerging from Gale Crater's surface, presenting a puzzling scenario for scientists. On Earth, most methane is biologically produced, yet Mars shows no clear signs of life, past or present, making this discovery unexpected. Curiosity's onboard laboratory, Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), has consistently detected methane traces, suggesting a Health science in orbit
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Missions to the International Space Station focus on conducting science at Earth’s orbiting laboratory. One of the science pillars for Andreas Mogensen’s Huginn mission was health where researchers study the effects of microgravity on the human body in space. Here is an overview of some of the science that Andreas performed during his six-month mission.
Meteor shower to peak today: Here's when and the best way to watch
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One of the oldest known meteor showers is streaking through the sky above California. The Lyrid meteor shower was first recorded in 687 B.C. and has been studied for more than 2,000 years, according to NASA. The meteor shower occurs every April, peaking this year on April 22.
Question: What is a meteor?
Answer: Meteors are essentially debris in the sky. They come from leftover comets and broken asteroids, NASA states.
When the Earth makes passes through the meteors each year, they disintegrate.
"As they burn up in Earth's atmosphere, the meteors leave bright streaks in the sky commonly referred to as 'shooting stars,'" NASA said on its website.
This is the reason meteor showers occur around the same time of year, according to NASA.
Q: When is the Lyrid meteor shower?
A: The Lyrid meteor shower occurs every year between April 16 and April 25, according to NASA.
This year, it will peak on Monday night.
"As with most meteor showers, the peak viewing time will be before dawn, but the Lyrids will become visible beginning at about 10:30 p.m.
European Space Agency adds 5 new astronauts in only fourth class since 1978. Over 20,000 applied
Simulated microgravity affects sleep and physiological rhythms, study finds
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NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth
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For the first time since November, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).
Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft's three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS).
Six mind-blowing facts about Galileo
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Did you know Galileo was born in the Netherlands in the 1990s? Europe’s own global navigation satellite system was developed in ESA’s technological heart, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, almost three decades ago. Since then, it has grown to become one of the most complex and critical infrastructures ever built in Europe, as well as the largest European satellite constellation and ground segment.
