Space and astronomy news
Image credit: Energia An unmanned Russian Progress 11 cargo ship lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday, carrying more than two tonnes of food, fuel, water, supplies, and scientific equipment for the International Space Station. The Progress launched at 1043 GMT (6:34am EDT) and then reached orbit nine minutes later. It’s expected to reach …
Continue reading “Progress Launches to Resupply Space Station”
Image credit: NASA The Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Cape Canaveral yesterday, carrying the first Israeli astronaut and six crewmates on a scientific mission. Columbia blasted off at 1539 GMT (10:39 am EST) and reached orbit 9 minutes later. The astronauts have a total of 80 experiments to perform over the next 16 days. …
Image credit: ESO A team of astronomers have spotted an otherwise normal star make a close pass with the supermassive black hole that lurks at the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. At its closest approach, the star was only 17 light-hours away from the black hole (three times the distance of the Sun to …
Image credit: NASA With the weather finally on side for NASA, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Wednesday afternoon from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. The shuttle launched at 2122 GMT (5:22 EDT) carrying the crew of Expedition 5 into orbit, bound for the International Space Station. Endeavour will dock with the station on Friday and relieve …
Image credit: Hubble Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are using ancient stars in the Milky Way to come up with an independent estimate about the age of the Universe. In the past, astronomers have calculated this age using its rate of expansion, and pegged it between 13-14 billion years old. Under this new …
Continue reading “Hubble Helps with New Measurement for Universe’s Age”
Image credit: NASA The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral this morning, carrying seven astronauts and headed for the International Space Station. Liftoff occurred at 2044 GMT (4:44pm EDT), four days late because of a leaky fuel line on the shuttle’s launch pad. The shuttle is expected to dock with the station on …