Tag: space
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ESA & NASA Solar Orbiter captures first pictures of ‘campfires’ on the Sun
The first images taken by the spacecraft Solar Orbiter have been released, revealing many miniature solar flares near the surface of the Sun, which have been called ‘campfires’. An international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, Solar Orbiter was launched on 10 February 2020 and in mid-June completed its first close pass…
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Rewriting astronomy: have gravitational waves revealed an object to fill the mass gap?
When two massive objects collide in space, ripples in space-time are sent through the universe. These ripples – gravitational waves – can be detected, and give an insight into what they may have been. Last August, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration detected gravitational waves from what was reported as the collision of a black hole and a…
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Oldest galaxy disk yet to be observed: ‘Wolfe Disk’ formed soon after the Big Bang
Astronomers have found a galaxy with a disk that formed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang – early enough to challenge current ideas about galaxy formation. Massive disk galaxies, like our Milky Way, were expected to have formed around 3 or 4 billion years after the Big Bang. However, Marcel Neeleman at the…
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NASA x SpaceX Launch
After almost a decade, NASA is sending a crewed rocket into space from the US to the ISS (International Space Station). The Falcon-9 rocket has been designed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. This is the first time NASA has used a private firm for a US crew launch. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial…
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Black hole discovered 1,000 light years away
European astronomers have found a black hole about 1,000 light years away from Earth – closer than any other discovered to date. Whilst 9.5 thousand, million, million kilometres might not sound very close, the next closest black hole discovered is about three times as far away as this one. The black hole at the centre…
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SpaceX’s new Starship builds hopes for Mars missions
Recently, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, laid out his plans for the company’s new Starship and Super Heavy booster projects to reach orbit within the next six months. Their current aim is to get the rocket and booster to orbit the Earth as well as complete missions to the Moon and Mars. In the longer…