Medicine & TechnologyDo you remember that comet we landed on last year? It seems this comet has unexpectedly become more active showing signs of "waking up" as it zooms towards the sun at almost 47,800 miles per hour.
It’s not a new sight, in fact it’s estimated to be 2 million years old, but with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope astronomers are taking a glimpse at a new view of the “Pillars of Creation” sitting deep within the iconic Eagle Nebula 7,000 light years away.
The European Space Agency compiled the five months' worth of pictures down to a 6 minute video that, while depicting space in the most accurate way, feels like science fiction to watch. The video shows natural phenomena such as auroras, lightening and other intense weather patterns like us earth-dwellers have never seen before. It even shows the most breathtaking views of lit-up cities, deep blue oceans, stars and clouds.
While many were not quite surprised to hear the European Space Agency (ESA) clenched the win for journal Physics World’s Breakthrough of the Year 2014 for its landing of the Rosetta mission’s Philae Lander on a speeding comet 511 million km away, most are also not aware that the list doesn’t just end there.
While many were not quite surprised to hear the European Space Agency (ESA) clenched the win for journal Physics World’s Breakthrough of the Year 2014 for its landing of the Rosetta mission’s Philae Lander on a speeding comet 511 million km away, most are also not aware that the list doesn’t just end there.
It’s no big surprise that this year when reporters and editors of the journal Physics World came together to award the top-10 revolutionary breakthroughs of the year, that the team would have many breakthroughs to consider for the year of 2014. And though perhaps not necessarily the most technically successful mission this year, on account of the vast distances between Earth and itself as well as it bouncy landing, the team narrowed down the prospective list down to one to name the November 12, 2014 touchdown of the Philae Lander to be the most historic moment of the year.
While the ever elusive “dark matter” was first proposed by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the early 1930s, a team of European scientists this week believe that they may have detected the first ever evidence of dark matter in mysterious photo emissions of the X-ray spectra, emitting from the Andromeda galaxy, the Draco dwarf galaxy, and other galactic clusters far outside our own solar system.
While some parts of the nation are fighting Winter storms of snow and sleet, eyes this week are o water of the liquid variety. And more specifically, researchers and reporters are looking towards the molecule’s importance in developing life, as well as its origins story too. News this week of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission, revealed a recently published study reporting that the sustenance of our Earth and of all life, water, may in fact have not originated on comets from the Kuiper Belt as once believed. And what’s more, now that researchers have debunked false origin stories of the miracle molecule, they’re now beginning to question whether water alone can make a planet habitable for life, or if there are other mitigating conditions as well.
After an arduous ten year journey throughout some tough terrain of space, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission set records this past summer for being the first spacecraft to orbit a comet in mid-flight. And while many expected the mission to reveal a bit more insight into the behavior and composition of comets from the outer edges of our solar system, no one expected to learn exactly how Earth came to be so unique and the perfect host to life, only three planets away from our sun.
Rounding out the crew of six, who have been short-staffed since the return of three members earlier this summer, three new replacements for Expedition 42 aboard the International Space Station arrived late Sunday, Nov. 23, bringing the orbiting space lab’s population back to full strength.
In a time when space missions take the cover pages of nearly every news source, and the headlines pull readers in, the general public would be shocked to learn that many government space agencies are struggling to keep their satellites and spacecrafts up in the sky. And knowing the financial struggle all too well, a group of British researchers from the Lunar Mission Trust, a non-profit think-tank for astronomers and space buffs alike, have decided to crowd-fund their newest adventure to the moon. And with only 24 days left to go, many are questioning whether the team will be able to reach their lofty goals.
For ten years, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission has been on a path towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in hopes of finding answers to the origins of our solar system. And when the Rosetta Mission’s Philae Lander landed Nov. 12, researchers thought they’d find their answers. But with a myriad of errors and strange complications added to the mixture, the Philae Lander had a tough, short time to collect all of its data.
Yet, even in spite of all the difficulties thrown into the mix, researchers at the ESA announced today that an analysis of Philae’s data reveals “organic” molecules on Comet 67P, much like those found here on Earth.
It’s a $1.62 billion mission who’s fighting against the clock. For more than a decade now, researchers have been hoping that the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission would give them a better understand and an unseen view of what lies beneath the surface of a comet. And now that they’re there, they fear that time is not on their side.
It’s been a 310 million mile journey from the Earth to its destination Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, so what does the famed Philae lander probe do once it’s made history by being the first to touch down on the surface of a speeding comet? The answer may surprise you.
It’s been a mission ten years in the making, and after a final green light from mission control tonight, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission will deploy its handy little lander named “Philae” onto the surface of the far off Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko it met up with earlier this summer.