Copernical Team
Seventh shooting star ever spotted before strike
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For the seventh time, a small asteroid – a meteoroid as astronomers call it – was discovered in space as it raced towards Earth for impact. The predicted time and location of the impact (02:50 - 03:03 UTC, above northern France) were made possible with observations by European astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky using the 60 cm Schmidt telescope from the Piszkéstető Observatory in Hungary. 2023 CX1 is the second impactor discovered by Krisztián, after the impact of 2022 EB5 less than a year ago.
The last three predicted impacts have
Saudi Arabia to send its first woman into space
Saudi Arabia will send its first ever woman astronaut on a space mission later this year, state media has reported, in the latest move to revamp the kingdom's ultra-conservative image.
Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) "during the second quarter of 2023", the official Saudi Press Agency said on Sunday.
The astronauts "will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission" and the space flight will "launch from the USA", the agency said.
The oil-rich country will be following in the footsteps of the neighbouring United Arab Emirates which in 2019 became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space.
At the time, astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori spent eight days on the ISS. Another fellow Emirati, Sultan al-Neyadi, will also make a voyage later this month.
Nicknamed the "Sultan of Space", 41-year-old Neyadi will become the first Arab astronaut to spend six months in space when he blasts off for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Gulf monarchies have been seeking to diversify their energy-reliant economies through a plethora of projects.
NASA's Lucy asteroid target gets a name
Introducing Juice’s odyssey of exploration
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ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, has an ambitious mission ahead. Juice will observe Jupiter and its three largest moons: Callisto, Europa, and in particular Ganymede. The moons’ buried oceans could tell us whether life can arise in different environments across the cosmos. Juice will examine Jupiter and its complex environment to transform our understanding of how the planet works. Its discoveries may also shed new light on solar system evolution, both in our home system and in the diverse array of exoplanet systems beyond our own.
Juice will launch on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou,
Euclid in a nutshell
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ESA's Euclid mission is designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. The space telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Euclid is a fully European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from
Satellites support impact assessment after Türkiye–Syria earthquakes
Türkiye and Syria are reeling from one of the worst earthquakes to strike the region in almost a century. Tens of thousands of people have been killed with many more injured in this tragedy.
Satellite data are being used to help emergency aid organisations, while scientists have begun to analyse ground movement – aiding risk assessments that authorities will use as they plan recovery and reconstruction, as well as long-term research to better model such events.
Researchers build more detailed picture of the movement of Greenland Ice Sheet
Researchers have found that the movement of glaciers in Greenland is more complex than previously thought, with deformation in regions of warmer ice containing small amounts of water accounting for motion that had often been assumed to be caused by sliding where the ice meets the bedrock beneath.
The international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, used computer model DLR supports emergency responders in Turkey
The German Aerospace Center is supporting rescue teams in areas affected by the recent earthquakes in Turkey. Two researchers from the DLR Institute of Optical Sensor Systems arrived in the area on 7 February 2023, together with a team from International Search And Rescue (I.S.A.R.) Germany. DLR is providing the new Modular Aerial Camera System (MACS) to assist with situational awareness on site NASA's satellites help with Turkey, Syria earthquake response
Following the magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and western Syria Feb. 6, NASA is working to share its aerial views and data from space in ways that can aid relief and recovery workers in the region, as well as improve its ability to model and predict such events.
"NASA's hearts and minds are with those impacted by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria," said NASA US shoots down another object, this time over Lake Huron
A US warplane shot down another flying object on Sunday, this time over Lake Huron on the US-Canadian border, the fourth in a dramatic series that began with the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon a week ago.
Jittery Americans have been watching the skies as the mysterious incursions unfolded against a backdrop of acute tensions with China - although only the first object has so far