Science Archives

January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 by Evan Gough

CHEOPS Just Opened Its Eyes to Start Studying Known Exoplanets, We Should See the First Picture in a Few Weeks

Artist's impression of CHEOPS © ESA / ATG medialab

The CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) spacecraft just opened the cover on its telescope. The spacecraft was launched on December 18th 2019 and has so far performed flawlessly. In one or two weeks we could get our first images from the instrument.

January 15, 2020January 15, 2020 by Evan Gough

Underwater Robot Captures its First Sample 500 Meters Below the Surface of the Ocean

The underwater robot Nereid Under Ice (NUI) being lowered into the Aegean Sea. NUI became the first underwater vehicle to take an automated sample from the sea floor. Image Credit: Evan Lubofsky, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) says their underwater robot has just completed the first-ever automated underwater sampling operation. The robot is called Nereid Under Ice (NEI) and it collected the sample in Greece. WHOI is developing Nereid in association with NASA’s Planetary Science and Technology from Analog Research (PSTAR) program.

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 by Evan Gough

ESA’s CHEOPS Just Launched. We’re About to Learn a LOT More About Exoplanets

The ESA's CHEOPS launching aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Image Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja

The CHEOPS mission is underway. On December 18th, the exoplanet-studying spacecraft launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana aboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Initial signals from CHEOPS show that the launch was a success.

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019 by Evan Gough

Mars Express Takes Photos of Phobos as it Flies Past

Phobos, a moon of Mars. — Japan is sending a spacecraft to Phobos to study it and collect samples for return to Earth. A German rover will be part of the fun. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter is no stranger to the Martian moon Phobos. The spacecraft was launched in June 2003 and has been in orbit around Mars for 16 years. During its long time at Mars, it’s captured detailed images of Phobos, and helped unlocked some of that Moon’s secrets.

In a new sequence of 41 images captured during a recent fly-by, the Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera imaged Phobos from different angles, capturing images of the moon’s surface features, including the Stickney crater.

October 30, 2019October 30, 2019 by Evan Gough

New Telescope Instrument Will Watch the Sky with 5,000 Eyes

DESI's 5000 spectroscopic "eyes" can cover an area of sky about 38 times larger than that of the full moon, as seen in this overlay of DESI's focal plane on the night sky (top). Each one of these robotically controlled eyes can fix a fiber-optic cable on a single object to gather its light. Credit: DESI Collaboration

Dark Energy is the mysterious force driving the expansion of the Universe. We don’t know what dark energy is, even though it makes up about 68% of the Universe. And the expansion is accelerating, which only adds to the mystery.

A new instrument called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will study dark energy. It’s doing so with 5,000 new robotic “eyes.”

October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 by Evan Gough

Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right Now

The usual six-astronaut crew of the International Space Station welcomed three more and a cargo vehicle last week, making for a full house on the orbital outpost. Image Credit: ESA

The International Space Station’s usual complement of six astronauts grew by 50% recently, making things a little crowded up there. The nine astronauts come from four separate space agencies, and for the first time, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is onboard the ISS.

The ISS is a multicultural place. Astronauts from around the world serve on the station to advance the scientific goals of humanity and to build cooperative ties between Earth’s different peoples. It’s kind of like Star Trek, but in space.

September 25, 2019September 25, 2019 by Evan Gough

Astronauts Explore Caves on Earth, Learning the Skills They’ll Need for the Moon and Mars

ESA astronauts from five different space agencies are pictured here training in caves in Slovenia, as part of the ESA's CAVES program. Image Credit: ESA–A. Romeo

We’re accustomed to astronauts pulling off their missions without a hitch. They head up to the International Space Station for months at a time and do what they do, then come home. But upcoming missions to the surface of the Moon, and maybe Mars, present a whole new set of challenges.

One way astronauts are preparing for those challenges is by exploring the extreme environment inside caves.

August 15, 2019August 15, 2019 by Evan Gough

An Astrophotographer Noticed a Chunk of Ice Orbiting Comet 67P in Rosetta’s Photos

"Churymoon," comet 67P/Churymuov-Gerasimenko's tiny, icy companion. It was brought to light by Spanish astrophotographer Jacint Roger who was working with the archive of images from the ESA's Rosetta mission. Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission spent two years at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At the end of September 2016, its mission was ended when the spacecraft was sent on a collision course into the comet. During its time at comet 67P, it captured a vast amount of images.

The ESA made all those images freely available at their Rosetta website, and now an astro-photographer working with those images has found something interesting: a chunk of ice travelling through space with 67P.

July 18, 2019July 18, 2019 by Evan Gough

Blankets of Silica Aerogel Could Make Parts of Mars Habitable

In Earth's atmosphere, CO2 lets sunlight in, but traps it in the atmosphere, warming the planet. The same thing, sort of, happens on Mars, where all the CO2 is frozen. Polar ice caps on Mars are a combination of water ice and frozen CO2. Just like its gaseous form here on Earth, frozen CO2 allows sunlight to penetrate while trapping heat. In the summer, this solid-state greenhouse effect creates pockets of warming under the ice, seen here as black dots in the ice. Image Credit: NASA

The idea of somehow terra-forming Mars to make it more habitable is a visionary, sci-fi dream. But though global terra-forming of Mars is out of reach, the idea persists. But now, a material called silica aerogel might make make the whole idea of terra-forming Mars slightly less impossible.

July 17, 2019July 17, 2019 by Evan Gough

Screaming Sounds Sent to the Edge of Space, Confirming That… “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream”

A unique, low-cost, and crowd-scream-sourced experiment has proven what all sci-fi movie fans know is true: In space, no one can hear you scream.”

That line is the tag line from the famous 1979 movie Alien, of course. And now an innovative experiment in Britain has shown that the writer of that movie was correct. To prove it, they used off-the-shelf electronics, an inexpensive balloon, and the recorded screams from a mother in South Africa.