Science / 16

Launch of next generation Global Positioning System satellite postponed for 1 day

December 20, 2018

Meanwhile, Blue Origin is now targeting a Friday launch for its resuable New Shepard rocket and space capsule. The launch of a new Global Positioning System satellite was postponed for one day Tuesday because of an unspecified problem with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will put the satellite in orbit.

Virgin Galactic's first space flight is a soaring success

December 19, 2018

The spacecraft reached an altitude of 51.4 miles, or almost 83 kilometers, before performing a slow backflip and gliding back to land at Mojave. Rather than aiming for space using a NASA-esque vertically launched rocket, Virgin Galactic uses a rocket-powered space plane dubbed VSS Unity, a craft more comparable to the supersonic X planes developed by the United States military.

Saturn is Losing its Rings

December 19, 2018

Why is this happening? A 1986 paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters sought to explain this, theorizing that the ring particles were becoming entrained in Saturn's magnetic field, plunging toward the planet and creating what amounted to a " ring rain ", which cleared away haze and created the signature lines.

Climate deal close at marathon UN summit

December 19, 2018

The agreed " Katowice Climate Package " is created to operationalise the climate change regime contained in the Paris Agreement . Delegates at the United Nations summit, held this year in the Polish mining city of Katowice, must agree on a common rule book to put the pledges made at the landmark 2015 Paris talks into practice.

Astronomers Discover 'Farout,' the Most-Distant Solar System Object

December 18, 2018

The distance between the Earth and the sun is an AU, or astronomical unit - the equivalent of about 93 million miles. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units (AU). A walk from your place down to the shops might feel like a long distance, but it pales in comparison to the distance between, for instance, our handsome Earth and the Sun.

Poacher ordered to repeatedly watch ’Bambi’ after killing hundreds of deer

December 18, 2018

Official court records from the December 6 hearing say that Berry, of Springfield, Missouri , 'is to view the Walt Disney movie Bambi , with the first viewing being on or before December 23, 2018, and at least one such viewing each month thereafter , during defendant's incarceration in the Lawrence County Jail'.

Comet zooming by Earth will be visible this weekend

December 18, 2018

It makes flybys of Earth every 5.4 years, cycling in a short orbit that makes it a part of the Jupiter-class family of comets. He added: 'In fact, under a completely dark sky, free of light pollution, perhaps the best instruments for locating the comet will be your own two eyes.

Virgin Galactic successfully launches tourism rocket ship into space for first time

December 17, 2018

The Federal Aviation Administration's acting head Dan Elwell commended Virgin Galactic on its successful flight. Branson isn't alone in the space tourism business: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is planning to take space tourists on trips, using the more traditional method of a capsule atop a rocket that blasts off from a launch pad.

Virgin Galactic reaches space and is one step closer to space tourism

December 17, 2018

The mated jet and rocket ship lifted off from Mojave Air and Space Port shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday. That's where Earth's upper atmosphere ends, and it's about 62 miles, or 100 km, high. This May 29, 2018 photo provided by Virgin Galactic shows the VSS Unity craft during a supersonic flight test. On the December 13 test flight, SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket motor burned for 60 seconds, several seconds longer than the high end of estimates of the burn time company officials gave at a ...

When is the Geminid meteor shower tonight and how to see it?

December 15, 2018

That means that the best times to watch are when it's dark in your local time zone surrounding that peak, such as just before dawn on December 14. "The annual Geminid meteor shower is the richest of the year, even beating out the Perseids of August", amateur astronomer Bob King of the Duluth News Tribune wrote in his Astro Bob blog.

NASA's InSight Sends Back First Selfie On Mars

December 14, 2018

The selfie was taken on December 6, 2018 (Sol 10). Recall, November 26, the us space probe InSight has successfully sat on Mars in the highlands area Elysium, then the machine sent the first picture of the planet. The image scientists have of that workspace is also a mosaic, created out of 52 separate images. NASA will determine where to place InSight's instruments over the next few weeks .

Geminid meteor shower: Where, when and how to see it

December 14, 2018

Meteors can be seen under a dark and cloudless sky and just after midnight of its peak activity, PAGASA said. Instead, they tend to zip across the skies in clumps - about every five to seven minutes. "Little bits of rock will burn up as they zip through Earth's upper atmosphere", said Filippenko, and thereby create the poorly named phenomenon known as a "shooting star" or "falling star", which "are not stars at all, of course!" The streaks you'll see are actually debris soaring behind the ...

Russian Cosmonauts Take Spacewalk to Check Site of Capsule Leak

December 14, 2018

Roscosmos said Tuesday's spacewalk would be a six-hour mission carried out from 1605 GMT by veteran cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev. Circled in red, the hole in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that corresponded to a pressure leak on the International Space Station in August 2018.

Virgin Galactic Says Its Tourism Spaceship Officials Flew into Space

December 13, 2018

In the meantime, a commercial space race is underway as companies rush to build spacecraft that can carry astronauts and tourists into microgravity. The rocket-powered plane, VSS Unity , was flown by two veteran pilots to a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles, surpassing the 50-mile mark that the United States government recognizes as the edge of space.

Geminid Meteor Shower 2018: Where and when to watch it peak tonight

December 13, 2018

The rock comet 3200 Phaethon is the source of the meteor shower and is a rare blue asteroid which behaves like a comet. The first recorded observation was from a riverboat on the Mississippi River in 1833, and it's got more intense each year since.

The Famous "Christmas Comet" Will Fly Through Skies Above Canada This Weekend

December 13, 2018

There is a zero per cent chance of the comet hitting Earth, according to astronomers at the University of Maryland, though it could remain visible in the night sky for several weeks after its December 16 peak. Usually, 46P/Wirtanen is too far away for us to see, so this is a real treat - the comet's closest approach in 70 years. The paper states that it will be brightest in the sky on December 12th.

Bright fireball lights up Texas night sky

December 13, 2018

Leonid meteors tend to be few and far between at early evening, but intensify in number as evening deepens into late night. The Leonid meteor shower originates from debris from comet Temple-Tuttle, which travels through our solar system every 33 years.

Surviving coral in Great Barrier Reef develops resilience

December 13, 2018

The reason why there was less bleaching a year ago was that the more susceptible species of corals died off in 2016. The film, Murder on the Reef , by Gold Coast based geochemist Allen Dobrovolsky and filmmaker Alex Fitzwater, compares poor management of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

Cosmonauts to examine mystery hole on ISS spacewalk

December 12, 2018

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko peels away thermal insulation from Soyuz MS-09 after slicing into it with a knife. The crew aboard the space station has, since the leak was discovered and repaired, conducted frequent leak detection work and pressure measurements to make sure that the leak stayed sealed and the pressure on the space station remained normal.

China space: China's daughter of the Moon is successfully launched

December 12, 2018

The dark side is very rugged and grooved with mountains. Scientists aim to land Chang'e-4 in a place that has many geological features, so they can receive more information about the far side of the moon's atmosphere. The lander will carry a German-developed radiation instrument, the Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry (LND), landing and terrain cameras, and a Low Frequency Spectrometer (LFS), as well as a biosphere experiment to test respiration and photosynthesis on the lunar surface.

Voyager 2 breaks through to interstellar space

December 10, 2018

According to Nasa, the Voyagers are still technically in our solar system. While both Voyagers have now departed the sun's heliosphere, they are still inside the solar system as it's currently defined. Non-essential instruments and systems such as the cameras aboard the twin spacecraft have been turned off to preserve power. Trades between power and thermal will continue to keep it operating as long as possible.

NASA Recorded the Sounds of Mars (And It's Almost All Creepy Bass)

December 10, 2018

The noise was produced due to the air blowing over the solar panels of the InSight lander as well as the motion of the spacecraft. "Humans are multisensor people, and now we have two of our sensors turned on with this mission", with both audio and visual data streaming back to Earth, Don Banfield, the science lead for the air pressure sensor, said during the news conference.

Mission to far side of moon

December 10, 2018

Its program also suffered a rare setback previous year with the failed launch of its Long March 5 rocket . China is set to attempt an ambitious mission to land on the far side of the moon, with the launch scheduled for early Saturday, informed sources told dpa.

China launches probe to explore dark side of Moon

December 10, 2018

Chang'e-4 comes five years after China sent Chang'e-3 lander to the moon's far side. It's also carrying a 3 kg (6.6 lb) container of seeds and silkworm larvae to study whether they can grow on the surface of the Moon - an experiment that could have long-term implications for a lunar colony.

SpaceX Rocket Misses Touchdown Pad and Falls into the Ocean

December 08, 2018

The CRS-16 mission launched supplies to the ISS on Wednesday, but the booster headed for the landing pad missed and landed in the water instead, ending SpaceX's flawless record of 12 previous successful landings. Later it became known that the ship was successfully launched into orbit. A video of the Falcon 9 rocket recovering from its spin and landing in the Atlantic Ocean is embedded below.

NASA InSight hears 'haunting low rumble' on Mars

December 08, 2018

This is the only time when vibrations from the lander will be recorded by the seismometer, since it will be moved by the craft's robotic armed and placed on the Martian surface, along with other instruments. " Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat ", Bruce Banerdt, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a press release. Image from NASA's InSight showing the surface of Mars.

Christmas dinner is on its way to the International Space Station

December 08, 2018

However, the launch was marred by a system failure on the rocket which caused it to land in the sea, instead of on land SpaceX at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station , Florida, as planned. Other experiments among the more than 250 on board include a new kind of mustard green lettuce that astronauts will grow in space. According to NASA officials, there are two Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which bring crewmembers to the station; two Russian Progress spacecraft; and Northrop ...

Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at its fastest rate in 350 years

December 07, 2018

At lower heights melt water directly runs off the ice sheet, but at escalated heights some percolates down porous compressed snow vociferated firn prior to refreezing to constitute layer not as same as the growth layers discovered in trees.

Seal with eel stuck up its snout gets help from nosy scientists

December 07, 2018

Researchers first spotted a seal with an eel nasal appendage in the summer of 2016, emailing colleagues who initially thought it was a joke. "Mondays...it might not have been a good one for you but it had to have been better than an eel in your nose", the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program captioned the freakish photo this week.

US Companies Are Going to the Moon! Here Are NASA's New Partners

December 07, 2018

In the press release announcing the winning companies, NASA said the companies are eligible for up to $2.6 billion in awards over the next ten years. Working with US companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Under Space Policy Directive-1, the agency will lead an innovative and sustainable exploration of the Moon together with commercial and worldwide partners.

Astronauts to try for space station on Russian rocket after October crash

December 06, 2018

The three new space travellers - Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacquesof the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of Russian space agency Roscosmos - are preparing to launch aboard the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft at 5.31 p.m. By the end of his 6 1/2-month space mission, Saint-Jacques, 48, will have set a record for longest space trip for a Canadian - a record now held by Thirsk.

Here’s how to watch SpaceX’s Dragon take off for the space station

December 06, 2018

The sight triggered a mixture of anxious "oohs" and "aahs" from SpaceX employees who were watching, then the booster's video feed cut out from the broadcast. "Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data". Musk says the new "block 5" Falcon 9 stages are designed fly dozens of times with minimal refurbishment between launchings, a key element in the company's drive to lower launch costs by recovering and re-flying recovered stages.

Rex Mission Arrives At Asteroid Bennu After 2 Years

December 06, 2018

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft met Bennu on Monday after travelling through space for more than two years and over two billion kilometres, NASA said .

David Attenborough warns civilisations will COLLAPSE if climate change not addressed

December 05, 2018

The world is "way off course" in its plan to prevent catastrophic climate change, the United Nations warned Monday as nations gathered in Poland to chart a way for mankind to avert runaway global warming. "They want you, the decision-makers, to act now", Attenborough said . Fiji's prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, who presided over last year's United Nations climate summit, said the "just transition" proposal shouldn't just consider the fate of fossil fuel workers but all people ...

MCC. Soyuz MS-11 crew transfers to ISS

December 05, 2018

Roscosmos "Concerned" Over NASA Commercial Crew Program The Russian space agency dispelled doubts about its space program after it had successfully launched astronauts from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the orbiting outpost on Monday, Dec. On Oct. 11, a Soyuz rocket carrying two astronauts - one American and one Russian - malfunctioned, forcing the crew to abort the mission . The Soyuz capsule carrying the astronaut reached the ISS six hours later.

Soyuz MS-11 Blasts Off to ISS From Baikonur Cosmodrome

December 05, 2018

The Soyuz was "successfully launched into orbit", Roscosmos wrote on Twitter. Cosmonaut of Roscosmos Oleg Kononenko , astronauts of NASA and the Canadian space agency Ann McClain and David Saint-Jacques will head to the ISS . But the rocket launch on Monday went smoothly. "Looking forward to having a full crew of six up here again, at least for a few weeks". This was the first time people rode on one of the Russian rockets since October 11, when two and a half minutes after takeoff, ...

David Attenborough's Dire Climate Warning: ‘Our Greatest Threat In Thousands Of Years'

December 04, 2018

Famed British naturalist Sir David Attenborough issued a dire warning Monday at the climate summit in Poland. "Time is running out", Attenborough said . "We have a collective responsibility to invest in averting global climate chaos", he said. To maximize the chances of success, technical talks began on Sunday, a day earlier than planned, with delegates from almost 200 nations haggling over how to implement the broad promises of the Paris deal on moving away from fossil fuel.

Rare blitz of tornadoes in Illinois damages town, leaves injuries

December 04, 2018

Damage surveys for the two tornadoes are ongoing but officials said dozens of homes were damaged. Preliminary estimates indicate that storm may have produced winds of up to 130 mph (209 kilometres per hour). Sitting about 25 miles southeast of the state capital of Springfield, the Christian County town of Taylorville was among the hardest hit areas, with major damage to at least 100 buildings reported.

NASA's first asteroid sample-collector arrives at target, Bennu

December 04, 2018

Asteroid Bennu, which Osiris-Rex will spend the next few years studying, is said to be a carbon-rich hunk of rock that might contain organic materials or molecular precursors to life. About the size of an SUV, the spacecraft will shadow the asteroid for a year, before scooping up some gravel for return to Earth in 2023. If all goes well, the craft will bring the sample back to Earth in September 2023.

3 astronauts dock safely at International Space Station

December 04, 2018

Their Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft entered a designated orbit just under nine minutes after the launch and is set to dock at the space outpost in about six hours. "We are psychologically and technically prepared for blast-off and any situation which, God forbid, may occur on board". It is the first mission since an aborted launch in October.

Keep an eye on the sky for another SpaceX launch this week

December 03, 2018

The rocket carried 64 small satellites into orbit for customers all over the world, according to a news release from SpaceX. The Hawk's Nest gates will open on Sunday at 9:00 a.m. SpaceX has postponed the rocket's mission since mid-November due to booster checks and bad weather at the lift-off area. The mission is billed as the "largest dedicated rideshare mission on a US launch vehicle".

NASA, Russia launch Soyuz rocket to ISS just weeks after failure

December 03, 2018

Last month, Roscosmos tweeted a video of the October 11 failed Soyuz rocket launch that forced NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin into making a harrowing emergency landing. Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques blasted off from Kazakhstan this morning aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station.

Stay Ahead of Your Career with the CSM Course

December 03, 2018

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Over 100 scientists say baby gene editing is ‘crazy’

December 03, 2018

Twin girls were born a few weeks ago , purportedly protected from HIV when CRISPR disabled a gene that would otherwise allow HIV to enter their cells. In this October 9, 2018 photo, a microplate containing embryos that have been injected with Cas9 protein and PCSK9 sgRNA is seen in a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province.

European Union aims to go 'climate neutral' by 2050

December 01, 2018

But he noted that the European Union executive had shied away from setting any new emissions targets by 2030. They are not prophesy to culminate by 2030 let aside 2020. The UNEP also warned in its annual report on the gap between national commitments and the measures needed to keep global warming within agreed limits.

NASA spacecraft lands on Mars

December 01, 2018

Now, after six months and 301 million miles (485 million kilometers), InSight is set to touch down on the Red Planet's surface at 2:54 P.M. Eastern Time this afternoon. There are two almost identical MarCO spacecraft that launched with InSight last May, and have been trailing the probe on its flight to Mars. This probe is nicknamed "the mole" as it is self-penetrating: Once placed on the surface, it can dig a hold as deep as 5 metres, gradually using a tether to descend and measure how ...

Private Companies to Make Next Moon Landing

December 01, 2018

As The Next Web pointed out , the stars and stripes, stuck into the rocky landscape almost 50 years ago, remains the only territorial banner on the Moon's surface. Work could start as soon as 2025, according to a statement by Yevgeny Mikrin, head designer at the country's space program. The theme of encouraging interest in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) was strongly highlighted during Thursday's announcement with the FIRST Robotics students and other educational groups ...

Next U.S. moon landing will be by private firms

November 30, 2018

In an announcement Thursday , the space agency named the organizations that are now eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the lunar surface. "Working with US companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and Mars", NASA said in a statement.

Next U.S. Moon Landing by Private Companies, Not NASA

November 30, 2018

NASA believes the first missions could head for the moon as soon as next year, and it already has some payloads in mind. The first missions under CLPS could take place in 2019, NASA said in its announcement, although many industry sources expect 2020 to be a more reasonable date for a first mission under the program.

New Zealand: 145 pilot whales dead in latest stranding

November 30, 2018

Long-finned pilot whales are the most common pilot whale species in the waters around New Zealand, according to the DOC. Authorities have chose to kill the remaining whales because they are in unreachable areas of the island. The condition of the two pilot whale carcasses suggested they had been dead for a while before being found, Orbost Incident Control Centre's Stephen Young said.

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