FLORIDA–(ENEWSPF)–April 8, 2016. The SpaceX CRS-8 Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station sending a Dragon spacecraft on the company’s eighth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 4:43 p.m. EDT. NASA Cargo Headed to Space[Read More…]
Space
The Colour-changing Comet
The colour-changing comet EU–(ENEWSPF)–7 April 2016 -Rosetta’s comet has been seen changing colour and brightness in front of the ESA orbiter’s eyes, as the Sun’s heat strips away the older surface to reveal fresher material.Rosetta’s Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, VIRTIS, began to detect these changes in the sunlit[Read More…]
Behemoth Black Hole Found in an Unlikely Place
HAWAII–(ENEWSPF)–April 7, 2016. Astronomers have uncovered a near-record breaking supermassive black hole, weighing 17 billion suns, in an unlikely place: in the center of a galaxy in a sparsely populated area of the universe. The observations, made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemini Telescope in Hawaii, may indicate[Read More…]
NASA Progresses Toward SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), developed for NASA by Bigelow Aerospace, is lifted into SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft for transport to the International Space Station when the spacecraft launches at 4:43 p.m. Friday, April 8, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida Credits:[Read More…]
Science Papers Reveal New Aspects of Pluto and its Moons
This enhanced color view of Pluto’s surface diversity was created by merging Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) color imagery (650 meters or 2,132 feet per pixel) with Long Range Reconnaissance Imager panchromatic imagery (230 meters or 755 feet per pixel). At lower right, ancient, heavily cratered terrain is coated with[Read More…]
Astronaut Scott Kelly Returns to Houston after a Year in Space
Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA, right, is seen with (from left) NASA Administrator Charles Bolden; Dr. John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology; and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, after returning to Houston on March 3, 2016, following his[Read More…]
Footprints of a Martian Flood
Arda Valles EU–(ENEWSPF)–18 February 2016. Water has left its mark in a variety of ways in this martian scene captured by ESA’s Mars Express. Arda Valles context The region lies on the western rim of an ancient large impact basin, as seen in the context map. The image shows the[Read More…]
Galileo Signals Covering More of the Sky
Satnav signals EU–(ENEWSPF)–2 February 2016. Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites have started broadcasting working navigation messages.These two satellites were launched together on 11 September last year. Once safely in orbit and their systems activated, their navigation payloads and search and rescue transponders were subjected to a rigorous process of[Read More…]
Blast From Black Hole in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Radio Galaxy Pictor A –Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hertfordshire/M. Hardcastle et al.; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA. See full image Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–February 2, 2016. The Star Wars franchise has featured the fictitious “Death Star,” which can shoot powerful beams of radiation across space. The Universe, however, produces phenomena that often surpass what science[Read More…]
Integral X-rays Earth’s Aurora
Integral’s X-ray view of Earth’s aurora EU–(ENEWSPF)–26 January 2016. Normally busy with observing high-energy black holes, supernovas and neutron stars, ESA’s Integral space observatory recently had the chance to look back at our own planet’s aurora.Auroras are well known as the beautiful light shows at polar latitudes as the solar[Read More…]
