Palomar survey instrument analyzes impact of Starlink satellites
Monday, 17 January 2022 16:57
Since 2019, SpaceX has been launching an increasing number of internet satellites into orbit around Earth. The satellite constellation, called Starlink, now includes nearly 1,800 members orbiting at altitudes of about 550 kilometers. Astronomers have expressed concerns that that these objects, which can appear as streaks in telescope images, could hamper their scientific observations.
To quantify these effects, a team of researchers studied archival images captured by the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), an instrument that operates from Caltech's Palomar Observatory near San Diego. ZTF scans the entire night sky every two days, cataloging cosmic objects that explode, blink, or otherwise change over time. This includes everything from supernovae to near-Earth asteroids. The Zwicky team members say they decided to specifically study the effects of Starlink satellites because they currently represent the largest low-Earth orbit, or LEO, constellation, and they have well-characterized orbits.
The findings, reported in the January 17 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, shows 5,301 satellite streaks appear in archival images taken between November 2019 and September 2021. The streaks are most apparent in so-called twilight observations, those taken at dawn or dusk, which are important for finding near-Earth asteroids that appear close to the sun in the sky.
Space Force signals demand for commercial weather data, but will the industry deliver?
Monday, 17 January 2022 14:16
Military needs for weather data such as cloud coverage and theater weather imagery currently cannot be met by the commercial industry and likely will require significant new investment.
Industry offers cautious optimism about state of space investment
Monday, 17 January 2022 14:02
After a year that saw the rise and potential fall of one tool for space companies to raise money, executives and investors have varying degrees of optimism about the state of the industry heading into 2022.
Space Station communications infographic
Monday, 17 January 2022 13:37
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Space Station communications infographic Watch Director General's annual press conference 2022
Monday, 17 January 2022 09:28
Watch live: our start-of-year press conference looking ahead at 2022, with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Directors, from 10:00 CET on 18 January.
China’s first launch of 2022 puts classified Shiyan-13 satellite into orbit
Monday, 17 January 2022 09:03
A Long March 2D carried the classified Shiyan-13 test satellite into orbit late Sunday, marking the start of what is planned to be a busy year of launches for China.
Data-relay system connects astronauts direct to Europe
Monday, 17 January 2022 08:41
Astronauts on board the International Space Station are connecting straight to Europe at light speed, thanks to the European Data Relay System.
Space science in 360° | Cosmic Kiss
Monday, 17 January 2022 08:00
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Immerse yourself in 360° of science with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer as he prepares an experiment to examine how human cells behave in weightlessness.
The Cytoskeleton experiment is a biological study that aims to determine the changing function of RhoGTPases when in vitro cell cultures are exposed to weightlessness. It will run in the Biolab facility of Europe’s Columbus laboratory.
In this video, we see Matthias remove Cytoskeleton cell cultures from the Minus Eighty Lab Freezer ISS (MELFI) and prepare them in the Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) before installing the experiment in Columbus’s BioLab.
Matthias was launched to the International
Stratolaunch plane flies again as company prepares for hypersonic tests
Monday, 17 January 2022 02:29
Stratolaunch flew its giant aircraft Jan. 16 for just the third time as company executives promise a higher rate of flight activities this year, including the first flight of a hypersonic test vehicle.
Crown aurora borealis
Sunday, 16 January 2022 17:30
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Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha” around 4 November 2021. The camera was setup to take pictures at intervals of two a second, and the pictures are then edited into this video that plays at 25 pictures a second. The video is around 12 times faster than real speed.
Thomas shared this video on social media explaining that the pictures were taken from the docked Crew Dragon spacecraft windows and it was the strongest aurora the crew had seen during their six months ins space.
Over 200 experiments were
DESI maps more galaxies than all previous surveys combined
Sunday, 16 January 2022 01:43
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has cataloged more galaxies than all other previous three-dimensional redshift surveys combined, measuring 7.5 million galaxies in only seven months since beginning science operations. The US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory leads DESI, which is installed at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF's NOIRLab, on Understanding the "cold spot" in the cosmic microwave background
Sunday, 16 January 2022 01:43
After the Big Bang, the universe, glowing brightly, was opaque and so hot that atoms could not form. Eventually cooling down to about minus 454 degrees Fahrenheit (-270 degrees Celsius), much of the energy from the Big Bang took the form of light. This afterglow, known as the cosmic microwave background, can now be seen with telescopes at microwave frequencies invisible to human eyes. It has tin Intelsat buys 2 Software-Defined Satellites from Thales Alenia Space to boost 5G solution
Sunday, 16 January 2022 01:43
Intelsat, operator of the world's largest integrated satellite and terrestrial network, and Thales Alenia Space, Joint Venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) have signed an agreement to build two software-defined satellites designed to advance Intelsat's global fabric of software-defined GEO connectivity as part of its 5G software-defined network.
The addition of the Thales Alenia SES Government Solutions Launches On-Demand X-band Service Platform
Sunday, 16 January 2022 01:43
SES Government Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES, announced the launch of tactiXs, a mission-specific managed service platform in partnership with Network Innovations and GovSat, a public-private joint venture between the Government of Luxembourg and SES.
The full end-to-end managed service provides practical, cost-effective solutions to mission parameters by allowing the custome Agency Addresses Hypersonic Vehicle Detection, Satellite Survivability
Sunday, 16 January 2022 01:43
The Space Development Agency will be fielding satellites that will provide eyes-on capability to detect maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles during flight, and those satellites will be affordable and prolific, the SDA director said.
Speaking at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies' Schriever Spacepower Forum, Derek Tournear said satellites in low-Earth orbit, or LEO, will make up the