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Annular Solar Eclipse- The "ring of fire" 2023

2023-10-15T05:38:00.024-07:00

The "ring of fire" annular eclipse that crossed the United States was indeed a rare and dazzling event. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth while it is at its farthest point from Earth, which results in the Sun appearing as a ring or "ring of fire" around the moon.

~~This particular eclipse~~ occurred on a Saturday, and people across the United States, from Oregon to Texas, were able to witness this spectacular celestial event. However, this was the last annular solar eclipse that would be visible from American skies until June 21, 2039, as mentioned by NASA. The 2039 eclipse will have a more limited path, passing only over the skies in the state of Alaska.

The eclipse started in Oregon just after 8 a.m. local time and ended around midday in Texas, giving spectators a remarkable view of the "ring of fire."

For those who missed this eclipse or are eager for more celestial events, the next eclipse is set to take place in April 2024. Unlike the annular eclipse, this will be a total eclipse, meaning that it will become briefly dark during the middle of the day as the moon completely covers the Sun. This eclipse will be visible from Maine to Texas and is expected to be another awe-inspiring event for skywatchers.

This Saturday, A full moon of blue flower will appear in the night sky

2020-02-18T22:19:00.001-08:00

The full moon of May is typically known as the flower moon due to all the blooms of this month. This year coincides with a rare occurrence: a blue moon.

To see a dramatic full moon over the skyline of Rome, watch the live broadcast provided by the Virtual Telescope Project.Of course, this Saturday's moon will not really be blue. And the reason for the name is a bit confusing.

A blue moon is the second of two full moons in a month, but it can also be the third of four full moons in a single season. In this case, it is the third of four full moons this spring. These do not occur as often as two full moons in a month.

"The name 'Blue Moon' has nothing to do with the color of the Moon," Gianluca Masi, astrophysicist and director of the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome wrote in an email. “Every two or three years we have 13 full moons in one year. In this way, we can have four full moons during a given season or two full moons in a given month. ”

This is the last seasonal blue moon until August 2021.Very rarely, both types of blue moons occur in a year; This will occur in 2048, including a monthly blue moon in January and a seasonal one in August.

Sometimes, the moon may appear blue in certain sky conditions, but it cannot be predicted.

Then,enjoy the view of the beautiful moon with some appreciation for its meaning.

The record of the longest space journey by a woman

2020-02-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

The American astronaut Christina Koch has returned to Earth after a 328-day mission on the International Space Station (ISS) that has made her the woman who has made the longest space journey. But this is not the only milestone that has marked this trip. Last October Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made the first spacewalk for women only.

A Soyuz MS-13 has brought back the astronaut along with cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and the Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Koch's prolonged mission will allow researchers to study how prolonged space stays affect a woman's body. NASA is preparing new missions to the Moon, under the Artemis program, and also to Mars. According to current estimates, the outward journey will last for months, so studies have begun to evaluate the body's response and psychological cost to astronauts.

Christina Koch returns to Earth after exceeding the record of the longest space journey performed by a woman Meir and Koch, protagonists of the first women's spacewalk alone. "In support of NASA's goal of the upcoming moon landings, Koch has completed 5,248 orbits of the earth and a 139-mile trip, equivalent to approximately 291 round trips to the Moon," the US space agency said in a statement.

So far, only six men have made longer stays than Kosh, although Peggy Whitson is still the woman who has spent the most total time in space, 665 days, on different trips, Javier Salas reports. The record equivalent to Kosh's is Scott Kelly with 340 consecutive days in space. NASA currently has 48 astronauts active, of which 16 are women.

In these 328 days, Koch participated in various investigations carried out at the space station, such as a study of the vertebral force in space, which seeks to define the impact that space flights have on the muscular and bone degradation of the spine and the risk of bone breakage. With this work, NASA hopes to be able to remedy these problems and prevent them with new measures, such as reducing the forces that astronauts are exposed to take off from the ground.

However, of all the experiments of which this astronaut has been part, the US space agency highlights the one that developed on microgravity crystals, which consists of the crystallization of the membrane of a protein linked to tumor growth and survival at Cancer. An investigation with results with which NASA hopes to help in the development of treatments - which use this protein - against this disease and reduce the side effects of these.

Koch's mission began on March 14, 2014, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hage and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin. During his 11 months in orbit, he has received and fired a dozen companions who have completed shorter missions in the IEE. In total, he has made six spacewalks and has spent 42 hours and 15 minutes outside the space laboratory.

Before leaving, he had left several images with his companions of his "space family" and the unique vision they have of La Tierra from the complex in which more than a dozen countries participate. "What will I miss the most? Both the exquisite beauty of planet Earth, and this wonder that has been created by incredible people," he tweeted.

Not to be missed the astronomical calendar in 2020

2020-02-03T22:53:00.001-08:00

In 2020 that shows a great lunar activity. The world experienced events such as the great solar eclipse in July that could be seen in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The scientists also left us pleasant news about space: the publication, for example, of the first image of a black hole,
which was presented by a group of NASA scientists, thanks to the collaboration of computer experts such as Katie Bouman.

But what will it bring us this year?

These are the four most striking phenomena that we will observe in the sky in 2020.

1. Total eclipse of Solar

We will have to wait until December 14 to be able to appreciate the only total solar eclipse of 2020, an event that occurs when the moon. The phenomenon can be appreciated, especially in the southern hemisphere, especially in some areas of New Zealand, Chile and Argentina.

It can also be seen partially in large areas of Brazil. In 2020 another solar eclipse will also be presented, but it will not be total but annular, which is when the Moon is not so close to the Earth as to completely block the solar disk that can be seen from the surface. The annular eclipse of 2020 will occur on June 21.

2. The Supermoon

On March 9 will present one of the most striking events of the year: the Superluna. This occurs when the natural satellite is closer to Earth and coincides with the phase of the full Moon. According to the calendars issued by several countries, the phenomenon can be observed in the morning and during the sunset.

In those days the Moon will look 7% larger and 15% brighter, but many non-expert observers may not perceive the difference. After the March Supermoon, the phenomenon will be repeated on April 7 and May 9. 2016 was the year that the one was closer to Earth since 1948 and will not return to that position until 2034.

3. Meteor shower

Although during the year there are several star rains (January, April, May, June) and all are worth it, perhaps the most striking for stellar fans are those that occur in August and December. Those that are presented in the eighth month of the year have been called Perseidas or tears of San Lorenzo (on August 10 the day of San Lorenzo is celebrated in several of the countries where the phenomenon can be seen).

The truth is that it is not technically a shower of stars, but the traces of cosmic dust left by the Swift-Tuttle comet, discovered in 1860, in its passage near the Sun and that can be observed on our planet. Although they will be registered throughout the month of August, the most active days of this phenomenon will be 12 and 13.

4. The Geminids

They are, for many, the best rain of stars that can be expected this year, thanks to about 120 flashes in the sky. "The rain of stars of Geminids is manifested with two different peaks, one with many meteors but not very bright and one with few meteors but leaving much more spectacular trails, " detailed in the blog portal Green.

It is the most recent meteorite rains, just towards the end of the 19th century, while other similar phenomena - such as the Perseids or Leonids - were described more than 1,000 years ago. L as dates to appreciate this phenomenon will be 13 on December 15, 2020.

The Solar Telescope technology captured the highest resolution images of the solar surface

2020-02-01T04:12:00.003-08:00

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has formed the highest resolution image of the Sun's surface ever taken located on the Hawaiian island of Maui. This image covers an area of 36,500 x 36,500 km. The Sun has been studied for many years. To unveil all its mysteries, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope - DIST,

for its acronym in English - works untiringly from Maui, Hawaii.

With a four-meter space, this solar telescope is the largest in the world and has just launched its machinery. The space technology behind this powerful device has allowed us to get to know our star a little more closely: the highest resolution images of the solar surface ever taken have been published, informative unprecedented details.

This unbelievable view of the Sun is the first of many images that DKIST is going to provide us and that will help reveal “a new era of solar science and a leap forward in understanding the Sun and its impacts on our planet,” they say in a statement from the National Science Foundation -NSF- , entity behind the telescope.

The Inouye is expected to gather more information about our star during the first five years of life than all the solar data collected since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the Sun in 1612.

The first images of the telescope show a close-up view of the solar surface. It is a pattern of turbulent plasma 'boiling' covering the entire sun. The structures in the form of 'cells' - each one the size of Texas - are the 'signature' of the violent movements that transport heat from the interior of the Sun to its surface.

A Canadian company wants to build a 20-kilometer-long elevator to space

2020-01-31T23:02:00.000-08:00

In 2015, an exclusive patent for the creation of an elevator to space received a Canadian company Thoth Technology Inc.. The tower ThothX Tower will be 20 kilometers - is almost 25 times higher than the tallest building in the world, the skyscraper "Burj Khalifa" in the United Arab Emirates. The upper area of the tower will host the start and refueling of spacecraft; they would not require energy-intensive run vertically, which will save up to 30% of the fuel.

Some skepticism currently there is no material that can withstand such a design height. However, experts Thoth Technology Inc., will present its project and received a patent, confident of success. It is known that some of the towers will be inflatable and pneumatic, and to reduce the impact of wind power structure will be equipped with a flywheel. It also allows ThothX Tower independently produce electricity.

Project ThothX Tower is conceptually different from other "space elevator," which humanity is considering options for the past decades. Expressed Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895, the idea was based on the use of rope, stretched from the surface of the Earth (or any other planet) to the orbital station located in geostationary orbit. One of the unsolved problems still is the material for the cable: it must have a very high ratio of tensile strength to specific gravity. And in the United States since 2005, annual contest Space Elevator Games, organized by the Spaceward Foundation with support from NASA. In this competition there are two nominations: "The best rope" and "the best robot (lift)."

China sets a world record 370-day for human life on the moon

2018-05-15T04:50:00.001-07:00

The Beijing University of Aviation and Cosmonautics completed a 370-day experiment to simulate the lives of people on the moon, setting a world record for its duration. This was reported on Tuesday by the newspaper China Daily .

There are eight volunteers, boys and girls, replacing each other in each of the three stages of the project,

four people were in a special capsule with an area of just over 150 square meters. meters, which is located on the university region and is a copy of the lunar module "Yuegun-1"

"The system proved its self-sufficiency by 98% - it functioned gradually, ensuring the life of the crew with a high degree of efficiency," said Liu Hong, the chief designer of the Yuegong-1. He celebrated that the longest experiment in history has become a good test for both man and technology.

It is expected that in the near future, thanks to this project, China will be able to proceed more efficiently to the next, key stage in creating a base on the Moon.

From the experiment, students watched the work of an independent bioregenerative human life support system inside the module, through which cosmonauts can get everything they need to survive without living being connected to the outside world. Periodic change of participants allowed to check how well the cabin is suitable for people with different metabolic cycles. Volunteers were also offered to work out different action plans in the event of emergencies, for example, when electricity is cut off.

"Yuegun-1" is divided into a residential zone and two "greenhouses" - compartments for growing plants. Each of them is a specially equipped room of 50 and 60 square meters. meters, respectively, with a ceiling height of 3.5 meters. The area of the residential module is 42 square meters. meter. In this space there are four single bedrooms, a common room, a bathroom, as well as a misuse treatment room and a compartment for growing animals.

In January, the project contributor announced a 200-day record on the duration of "stay on the moon." Before it was delivered to the USSR in the 1970s, when a group of three people were in isolated space for 180 days.

NASA decided plants that can grow and bear fruits in space

2018-05-14T07:38:00.001-07:00

NASA has decided plants develop for future generation of researchers who will need to feed themselves on travel to the Moon or Mars for several months or years. It is no easy to develop plants in space. The plant seeds can spread out in different directions. Water, instead of draining down through the earth, is collected in dewdrop and can flood the roots.
Artificial lighting and fans should be set up appropriately to simulate the sun and wind.

Essential nutrients, such as vitamins C and K, eventually dissolve in the food composition, prepared by freeze-drying. In the absence of these vitamins, astronauts become vulnerable to transferable diseases, their blood coagulability worsens, and the risk of cardiac and oncological diseases increases.

Hence, the US space agency asked for help from professional botanists and novice gardeners - students of higher educational institutions.

Located in Miami, USA, the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden horticultural farm recognized 106 plant species that can be grown in space to produce good results, including crispy cabbage and a salad with wide plants.

Project leaders attracted 15,000 botanists from 150 educational institutions to contribute in the program, who were asked to grow plants in conditions at the space station, in their own classrooms and laboratories.

This 4-year project is currently running for about two years, and the total of funding it has expected from NASA is $ 1.24 million.

NASA is plans to send a mini helicopter to Mars

2018-05-14T07:09:00.002-07:00

The American space agency said, a plans for the first time in the world to send to Mars in 2020 a mini helicopter - a miniature unmanned vehicle, which is designed to significantly deepen our understanding of the Red Planet.

The Mars Helicopter, this device weights less than 1.8 kilograms, and its fuselage is about the size of a standard grapefruit.

This helicopter will be based on the bottom of the new Martian rover Mars 2020, the wheeled all-terrain vehicle, whose main goals are to determine the potential fitness for Martian life, search for traces of extraterrestrial life, and assess the availability of natural resources and threats to future researchers of the Red Planet.

It is planned that the mission of Mars 2020 will be sent to the Red Planet in 2020, and will arrive in February 2021. In order to fly in a thin Martian atmosphere, the helicopter should be very light and powerful. NASA engineers propose to equip the helicopter with a pair of coaxial screws, the rotation speed of which will be almost 3000 rpm - about 10 times higher than the helicopter propeller speed flying in the atmosphere of our planet.

This helicopter will be prepared with solar panels, through which it can recharge your lithium-ion batteries.The helicopter will be controlled by operators from the Earth. It is planned to perform test flights of this apparatus within 30 days, each subsequent of the five flights scheduled for this period will last longer than the previous one. Thus, it is planned to reach the last test flight of a helicopter moving without recharging for a distance of approximately 100 meters.

According to NASA, this helicopter will become an easy calculation to the cross-country mission Mars 2020 - if the helicopter tests are successful, NASA will acquire a valuable tool for inspection and management of the rover, and in case of unsuccessful tests the loss of the helicopter will not affect the scientific performance of the main mission.

Astronomers found a pair of dead stars that can be placed between the Earth and the Moon

2018-05-13T00:31:00.001-07:00

Astronomers using the NICER telescope found in the group of the Altar a pair of dead stars that could easily be placed between the Earth and the Moon. White dwarf and pulsar are located at a distance of 300 thousand kilometers from each other. The findings of the researchers were published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The NICER telescope was put into orbit and installed at the International Space Station last year. Its main task is to search for pulsars and study their structure by the way X-ray flashes appear on the surface of pulsars at the time when they begin to "steal" matter from their neighbors.

In the course of the study, scientists observed the double star IGR J17062-6143, which was discovered in 2006. It is a relatively unusual pair of white dwarf and pulsar, stealing the matter of a neighbor and periodically generating unusually long and frequent X-ray flares.

Astronomers long ago knew that the "halves" of IGR J17062-6143 are very close to each other, but they could not calculate the distance between them because of insufficiently long observations and the absence of telescopes capable of very accurately measuring the length of "dips" in the x-ray signal , generated by the rotation of the pulsar.

The launch of NICER solved this problem, and in the autumn of last year NASA astronomers for the first time were able to accurately measure both the rotation frequency of the pulsar, and the distance between it and its companion, watching IGR J17062-6143 for five days. As it turned out, they are separated only 300 thousand kilometers, a scant distance by the standards of space.

Due to this, the white dwarf makes one revolution around the pulsar in just 38 minutes, moving at the same time with a huge speed, close to light. The pulsar moves in a similar way, but its movement is difficult to notice, since it is two orders of magnitude heavier than the dwarf.

Read also: Astronomers first discovered helium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet

Earlier it was reported that scientists discovered the brightest supernova in the universe . ASASSN-15lh is twice as bright as the previously fixed maximum for supernovae, thousands of times brighter than the "normal" supernovae and 50 times brighter than our Milky Way galaxy.

Astronaut NASA published a lights of fishing vessels from space

2018-05-13T00:22:00.003-07:00

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold, who is currently on the International Space Station , posted a Bangkok snapshot from space on his Twitter page. On the picture were also the lights of fishing vessels in the Gulf of Thailand.

"The lights of fishing vessels seem like the stars that were nailed to the shore of the Gulf of Thailand,

while the lights of Bangkok illuminate the distant shores," Arnold wrote.

The Siamese or Thailand Gulf is part of the South China Sea, which is washed in the west and north of the coast of Thailand, in the east - Cambodia and Vietnam, in the south-west of Malaysia.

In May 2016, NASA astronauts deployed to the ISS experimental helium balloon module VEAM , intended for the residence of the crew members of the station. It is planned that the tests of BEAM will be conducted for a minimum of two years . During this time, astronauts will appreciate his ability to protect against radiation, maintain temperature, and also resist the impacts of micrometeorites, the action of dust and other factors of the space environment.

SpaceX launched a new version of Falcon 9

2018-05-13T00:08:00.002-07:00

Falcon 9 launched vehicle will put into orbit a satellite for Bangladesh.Company Ilona Mask SpaceX has launched into space a new modification of the rocket Falcon 9 Block 5 which is to bring into orbit the Earth satellite Bangabandhu Satellite-1 commissioned by the Government of Bangladesh. The launch was carried out at 23:14 on Friday, May 11, in Kyiv time.

The satellite should be put into orbit 33 minutes after launching the rocket, the company's press service reported .

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 took off from the launch pad LC-39A of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. According to the launch plan, the first stage of the rocket should land on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

An asteroid on the cold outer edge of the solar system

2018-05-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

The international team of astronomers discovered in the Kuiper belt an extraordinary object that turned out to be, as it turned out, a carbon-rich asteroid. This asteroid became the first of its kind object identified on the cold outer edge of the solar system. Probably, this mysterious object formed in the Main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter,

and then was pushed out of its place and after a journey of billions of kilometers it turned out to be in the Kuiper belt.

In the early era in the solar system there were a large number of intense displacements and collisions. According to theoretical models during this period, giant planets could push small objects from the inner part of the Solar System far to its periphery. In particular, according to these models, in the Kuiper belt-encompassing the solar system along its outer boundary-there may be a small number of asteroids pushed out of the Main asteroid belt, such as carbon-rich asteroids, called carbonaceous asteroids.

In a new study, a team led by Tom Seccull of the University of Queens in Belfast, Northern Ireland, conducted observations of an unusual Kuiper belt object called EW95 with the help of a very large telescope located in Chile and was able to show that the observed object is carbonaceous asteroid. These findings are an important argument in favor of the theory of "stormy youth" of the solar system, characterized by a large number of migrations, since, most likely, the site of the primary formation of the EW95 is the Main Asteroid Belt.

The first time that an "exploding pulsar" was a slow-pulsating transient pulsar

2018-05-10T05:35:00.001-07:00

The University of Southampton, Great Britain, discovered that a unique "exploding pulsar" - a neutron star that "pulls" matter from a companion star - may also be the slowest transient pulsar known to science. Transient pulsars are a rare class of neutron stars that perform transitions from x-ray to radio pulsations and back for several years.

A magistracy student at the University of Southampton, Jamie Court, together with her colleagues, also discovered for the first time that an exploding pulsar (GRO J1744-28) demonstrates something of a kind of "hiccups" in the absorption of matter flowing onto it from the side of the companion star. This fact can be explained by the fact that the flow of matter from the side of the companion star is gradually drying up, and during this period the absorption of matter becomes uneven, Kort and her colleagues believe.

In addition, Court and her team discovered that the "exploding pulsar" demonstrates other unusual properties. This neutron star rotates about an axis about two turns in one second, while other transient pulsars, discovered by scientists to date, rotate about their own axis about 100 times faster. This suggests that the "streaming" neutron star matter stream for some reason cannot perform this function. And this, in turn, suggests that the knowledge of modern astronomers regarding the design and evolution of these incredibly dense stars is not yet deep enough.

The helium for the first time on a planet outside of our solar system

2018-05-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

The international teams of astronomers have detected helium in the atmosphere of WASP-107b. It is the first time that this chemical element has been detected in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.

The astronomers, led by Jessica Spake, of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, used

the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA and ESA, to perform such detection.

Helium is the most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. It is also one of the main components of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system. However, until now no helium had been detected in exoplanets, despite having sought it.

Spake's team made the detection by analyzing the infrared spectrum of the atmosphere of WASP-107b. Previous detections of exoplanet atmospheres as extensive as this one had been done by studying the spectrum at wavelengths of the ultraviolet band and that of visible light; this detection, therefore, demonstrates that exoplanetary atmospheres like this can also be studied at longer wavelengths.

The artistic activity of the exoplanet WASP-107b here seen as like as a black ball with its star just behind.

The measurement of the atmosphere of an exoplanet is carried out when it passes in front of its star. The greater the amount of an element present in the atmosphere, the easier the detection is.

WASP-107b is one of the planets with lower density among all known: although the planet is similar in size to Jupiter, it only has 12 percent of its mass. The exoplanet is about 200 light-years from Earth and it takes less than six days to turn its star around, due to how close it is to it.

The rings of Saturn crossed an impossible way

2018-05-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

At first momentary look, the rings of Saturn seem to cross each other in an impossible way. In fact, what this view of the Cassini international ship shows are the rings that pass in front of the planet, on which they project their shadow. And because the rings like those of the A ring and the Cassini division,

which appear in the center, are not totally obscure, the outline of Saturn and the shadow of those rings can be seen through them.

Saturn's rings have multifaceted structures and full of details, many of which can be seen in the image. In some cases it is known what is the cause of the divisions and sub-rings: for example, the Pan moon, 28 km wide and which is seen near the center of the image, is responsible for the division of Encke. However, in other cases, the origins and nature of the divisions and sub-rings are not easy to understand.

This observation looks towards the illuminated face of the rings at about 14 ° above its plane. The image was taken in visible light by the telephoto lens of the Cassini camera on February 11, 2016 and appears highlighted in an article published on April 25, 2016. The view was captured 1.9 million kilometers away from Pan and with an angle Sun-Pan-ship of 85º. The scale of the image is 10 km / pixel.

On Wednesday, May 9, a large dangerous asteroid will pass by Earth

2018-05-06T23:52:00.001-07:00

A large dangerous asteroid, most probably about 300 meters in diameter, will pass by the Earth on Wednesday, May 9. This cosmic stone, called the 2008 TZ3, will fly ancient times our planet at 10:06 UTC, staying away from it at a safe distance of about 6.5 distances, the Earth-Moon (lunar distance, LD), which is 2.5 million kilometers.

Asteroid 2008 TZ3 is a near-Earth object of the Apollo family, which was first discovered by a survey of Mount-Lemmon sky on October 6, 2008. Sky-survey of Mount-Lemmon uses a 1.52-meter Cassegrain reflector installed at the Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, and USA. It is one of the most fruitful sky surveys to discover new near-Earth objects. To date, more than 50,000 minor planets have been detected with this sky survey.

According to astronomers, the asteroid 2008 TZ3 has an absolute stellar magnitude of 20.4 and a period of rotation around its own axis of 44.2 hours. This object revolves around the Sun with a period of two years, remaining at a distance of 1.59 astronomical units (1 AU is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun) from our luminary.

On Wednesday, the 2008 TZ3 asteroid will clear past our planet at a relative speed of 9 kilometers per second. The next approach of the asteroid to the Earth is expected on May 10, 2020, when the cosmic stone will be located at a distance of 7.28 LD from our planet.

The world's first satellites outside the earth's orbit transmit a radio signal to our planet

2018-05-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

NASA indicating a radio signals received that the world's first satellites of the "kubsat" format, moving in outer space beyond the limits of the orbit of our planet, are in good working order and operate in the regular mode. The first signal was received yesterday at 20:15 UTC, and the second - almost two hours after the first - at 21:58 UTC.

Now the engineers are conducting a series of checks, after which the "kubsat" will be ready for a long space trip.

The Mars Cube One, or MarCO, is a pair of small satellites the size of a small suitcase that were launched into space along with the Martian NASA InSight landing gear at 11:05 GMT yesterday from the site of the USS Vandenberg Space Base Cosmodrome located in Central California, USA . The InSight device (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a scientific mission that will first explore the depths of the Red Planet.

Meanwhile, Marco's miniature twin satellites will perform their own separate mission: instead of collecting scientific data, they will accompany the InSight device on its way to Mars, allowing engineers to carry out in the way the testing of new equipment and technologies developed for miniature spacecraft.

Both satellites were programmed for the deployment of solar panels shortly after launch, followed by the sending of a radio signal about the successful completion of the operation and the absence of any malfunctions. It was this "Polo!" Signal was received from each of the two spacecraft by ground controllers of the US space agency.

Dragon's company SpaceX successfully disconnected from ISS and disappeared in the specified area

2018-05-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, May 5, the American company Dragon's SpaceX, the cargo space shuttle had successfully disconnected from the International Space Station, and then safely disappeared in the specified area of the Pacific Ocean. The cargo shuttle delivered about two tons of cargo to the Earth with the ISS.

"The successful casting of Dragon is confirmed, the third mission of SpaceX was completed to deliver cargo to the space station and return back, using a proven spacecraft," - said in SpaceX.

The company took advantage of the information provided by NASA - in the agency in advance calculated that the Dragon is wrecked in the Pacific Ocean, west of the California peninsula. Further it should be transported to the port of Long Beach, California.

Dragon delivered to the Earth materials of research concerning the influence of weightlessness on plants, as well as on the components of a number of medications. To bring the Dragon into orbit, SpaceX used the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster, which had already been used for another launch.

Recall, on April 3, the company SpaceX launched a carrier rocket Falcon 9 with cargo spacecraft Dragon. The mission was to deliver 2.6 tons of cargo, in particular, food and basic necessities, as well as equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).

In early February, it became known that the US Air Force destroyed part of the Falcon 9 missile, which fell into the Atlantic Ocean after the launch of the SES-16 / GovSat-1 communications satellite into orbit. SpaceX was not going to keep the first stage after launch, according to calculations, the rocket had to collapse, but survived.

The media reported that the Falcon 9 booster rocket could not deliver the secret government satellite Zuma into orbit. According to preliminary information from the interlocutors of journalists, due to a malfunction, the satellite could not separate from the second stage of the launch vehicle and fell with it into the ocean.

Delta IV rocket put into orbit a satellite for the US military

2017-03-20T07:03:00.002-07:00

United Launch Alliance Company successfully conducted the launch of a rocket Delta IV, which brought with it the WGS-9 satellite for military use.

A start was made from Cape Canaveral, located in Florida.

WGS-9 satellite, created by Boeing, is designed for transmission of signals between the military ships, submarines, aircraft, ground troops, as well as to provide a video conference in the protected mode and receive weather reports.

Access to the new satellite in addition to the United States will be provided for the Armed Forces of Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and Luxembourg.

SpaceX ship will return to Earth the results of experiments on the ISS

2017-03-20T06:58:00.002-07:00

The spacecraft SpaceX Dragon US company made a successful soft landing on Earth, splashed down off the coast of southern California near San Diego.

For five hours earlier unmanned transport craft undocked from the International Space Station and began to decline.

He will return to Earth a series of scientific and laboratory materials.

It is reported by " BBC Russian Service ".

Dragon arrived at the ISS last month, starting from the same pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida, which sent NASA lunar expedition.

On board were about 2.5 tons of food and water. On the way back the ship was loaded with about the same number of used equipment and medical research materials.

The other private, commercial company that NASA signed a contract for the delivery of cargo to the ISS, Orbital ATK going on Friday to launch its own craft this week, also from Cape Canaveral in Florida. However, it will be disposable ship, not intended for a soft landing on Earth. It will burn in the atmosphere after use.

Currently, the ISS is a crew of three Russians, two Americans and a Frenchman.

Migration of Mars will require radical changes in the body and mind of astronauts

2017-03-13T01:13:00.001-07:00

In 2016, two astronauts completed the International Space Station mission duration of one year. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (Scott Kelly) and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko during the stay at the station were under the close supervision of doctors who monitored the smallest changes of the physical

and psychological condition of the astronauts.

NASA has positioned this medical experiment as part of their program "Journey to Mars (Journey to Mars), in which planned to send man to Mars in the 2030s. However, in a new study conducted by a research team headed by Konrad Shotsikom (Konrad Szocik) from the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów, Poland,

"We can not simulate exactly Martian conditions in the world, I am referring to such features as the Mars microgravity or cosmic radiation - Shotsik explains. - Therefore, we cannot predict the physical and biological consequences of human life on Mars. "

He denies the possibility of recreating "the dangers of traveling [to Mars] at one end of the" on-board the International Space Station, or even in the Antarctic, often becoming the place in which the simulated space conditions. According Shotsiku flight to Mars requires special training astronauts - the changes their bodies and mind.

The scientist believes that the modification of the senses with the help of electronic or special medications can help alleviate the emotional reactions that can run wild at a meeting future Martian colonists with unexpected dangers.

In addition, Shotsik draws attention to the problem of the reproduction of the Martian settlers as inevitable incest among the colonists would lead to a significant deterioration of the gene pool. As the scientist, to the threat of extinction of the Martian colonies due to genetic diseases can be ruled out, the colony must have at least 500 settlers.

The study is published in the journal Space Policy.

At Titan's surface may be present in life forms unknown to us

2017-03-13T01:00:00.002-07:00

The following month, the NASA spacecraft "Cassini" will make his 126th and final passage by Saturn's largest moon Titan. Over its lifetime, the probe "Cassini" allowed scientists to draw up a detailed map of Titan's geologically active as a celestial body, the surface of which flow rivers of liquid hydrocarbons, which the atmosphere has a complex chemical composition, and under the icy crust are probably hiding a saltwater ocean.

However, the main issue related to the Titan still and remains unanswered: whether on the surface of Titan, which resembles the ancient Earth, life, exist?

"The combination of organic substance and liquid in the form of water in the subsurface ocean, and in the form of methane / ethane surface lakes and seas, it means that titanium can be regarded as an ideal location in the solar system to test hypotheses about habitability, prebiotic chemistry, and prevalence of life in the universe, "says Sarah Horst (Sarah Hörst), a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, and one of the authors of the new study.

Titan, whose size is comparable to the size of Mercury, is the only celestial body of the solar system, except for the Earth has a dense atmosphere and stable pools of liquid on the surface. However, instead of water in the lakes of Titan poured with rain the liquid hydrocarbons of which are possible in principle to the formation of organic life.

"Titan may give us the opportunity to discover life in an unfamiliar form us, can exist not only in aqueous solutions, but also in hydrocarbon solvents", - said Elizabeth Turtle (Elizabeth Turtle), a planetary scientist from the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

The study accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research magazine.

SpaceX is testing life-support system of the manned version of the Dragon capsule

2017-03-13T00:55:00.000-07:00

NASA engineers evaluate the functioning of life support systems, which will be equipped with a spaceship of Dragon, to ensure a safe journey to its astronauts to the International Space Station.

The company SpaceX has built ECLSS (environmental control and life support system ) module for the evaluation of the key elements of life support systems for the manned spacecraft Dragon Company,
which plans to start the transportation of astronauts to the orbiting laboratory at the beginning of 2018.

This module is the first model Dragon spacecraft in which the company's engineers have tried to reflect all the essential features of a real machine to be able to eliminate most of the disadvantages before you're ready version for the flight, NASA officials said in a published statement.

While NASA engineers are assessing ECLSS module, SpaceX company specialists continue the development and construction of the systems of the spacecraft launch and flight control. After the representatives of the company SpaceX, NASA will give the appropriate license for the capsule, the manned spacecraft Dragon version will go to the ISS aboard the Falcon 9 rocket from the platform at Kennedy Space Center, located in Florida, United States, the agency said.

ECLSS Module is a complex network of machinery, pipes, tanks and sensors controlled by computer software, allows you to automatically monitor conditions inside the spacecraft and astronauts to ensure safety throughout the flight. However, "the astronauts will have to at some stages of the mission to wear spacesuits when picked up inside the capsule in order to protect themselves from possible leaks and other emergencies," said a spokesman for NASA.

An exhibition committed to the new space telescope, "James Webb" In the US

2017-03-13T00:34:00.003-07:00

Interactive exhibition dedicated flagship space observatory NASA's next-generation telescope "James Webb» (James Webb Space Telescope, JWST ), is open now on the South by Southwest annual event (SXSW), which takes place in Austin, Texas, USA .

NASA, STScI (Space Telescope Science Institute) and the corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation acted as the organizers of this exhibition, which started on March 12 and will run until Saturday, March 18, NASA officials said in a published statement.

Space Telescope, "James Webb", whose value is about USD 8.8 billion, will be launched into space in 2018. The exhibition SXSW festival guests will be able to communicate with scientists and engineers involved in the project development and construction of the telescope.

"In this exhibition, held in the framework of the festival the SXSW, is a model of the telescope," James Webb ", created with the application of the principles of augmented reality, demonstrated an infrared camera, a 3-D animation of the telescope deployment, as well as the unique materials used in the creation of a space telescope" James Webb, "said representatives of NASA.

Tuesday, March 14, at 12:30 local time, the Texas scientists CDT project JWST will hold a roundtable titled "A New Look at the solar system: Nasa telescope next generation (New Eyes on Our Home System : NASA "s Next Telescope ), which will discuss the interesting questions related to this space telescope.