Space News thread

[Takeovers]

It seems that it is not a perfect sphere, by any means. Hadn't expected that.

Well, it has been argued it is the decomissioned Imperial Death Star. But there is no positive proof of that yet. Don't rule out the possibility it really is a near perfect sphere with some very dark spots.

We will know more when pictures from the closest encounter will become available.

[Luigi]

Philae comet lander wakes up - BBC News

Philae comet lander wakes up

The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth.

Philae was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November.

It worked for 60 hours before going to sleep when its solar-powered battery ran flat.

The comet has since moved nearer to the sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

The Rosetta probe took 10 years to reach the comet, and the lander - about the size of a washing-machine - bounced at least a kilometre when it touched down.
Its exact location on the comet has since been a mystery.

However, Esa said on Thursday that it might have located it from images and other data from the mothership.

[Takeovers]

Philae comet lander wakes up

Wow, I checked on Philae just 2 hours ago and the message was not out at that time.
I know from people connected to the program that they still have hope but that hope was slowly dwindling. The failure of landing and working as planned may be a blessing in disguise after all. Philae active so much nearer to the sun may give better data than had been hoped for. If it had worked as planned it would be long dead by now due to increasing heat from the sun. So much covered from the sun may get philae through the closest approach to the sun (aphelion).

Let's hope it can work for a long time and the scientific instruments are still working nominally.

[Takeovers]

BTW we have three different missions in the outer solar system in active phases of their voyage this year.

New Horizons to Pluto

The comet probe Rosetta with its lander Philae at comet 67P/Tschurjumow-Gerasimenko

Dawn now circling around dwarf planet Ceres


That's not counting the two Voyager probes still sending trickles of information after many decades of service.

[Luigi]

Lead (banner) story on Sky News.

Europe's Comet Probe Philae Has Woken Up

[Luigi]

"The European Space Agency says the comet probe Philae has woken up seven months after scientists lost contact."

Wow. 7 months.

Seems like 7 days ago.

[harrybarracuda]

"The European Space Agency says the comet probe Philae has woken up seven months after scientists lost contact."

Wow. 7 months.

Seems like 7 days ago.

Doesn't it just. Time flies when you're having fun.

[Neo]

European Space Agency

[Neo]

Browse All - NASA Image


NASA Image Gallery Brings All the Best Space Photos Under One Roof

By Maddie Stone on 22 Jun 2015 at 9:00AM

Ever come across a gorgeous Hubble image, or an article showing some of NASA’s cool new Mars lander tech, and wish you could remember where those lovely photos live? Rejoice, space nerds: NASA is making your life easier than ever, with the launch of a new mega gallery where you can browse all of the space agency’s astronomical eye candy.

The NASA Images collection, built and unveiled last week by Luna Imaging, combines over 70 NASA Image galleries into a single, searchable source. These includes familiar collections such as NASA’s Image of the Day Gallery and the Jet Propulsion Image Gallery, but also plenty of obscure treasures. In total, the collection contains over 100,000 photographs that range from historic documentation of the Apollo moon missions to the latest shots of distant quasars by the Hubble Space Telescope.

“We envision that NASA Images will appeal to space fans, STEM educators, visual resource fans, archive fans, people who appreciate open collections,” a Luna spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email. “We’ve already had some interest in the site from people with GIS and geospatial interests because of the satellite imagery the collection includes.”

As someone who loves to write about space and to simply enjoy new images of the great beyond, I find this to be a splendid idea. Here’s the link one more time, now off with you, you’ve got things to discover!

Top image via NASA

Browse All - NASA Image

[Cujo]

Those moonwalk photos are faked don't you know.

[Takeovers]

SpaceX CRS-7 just disintegrated 2 minutes into launch. This is the third loss of cargo to the ISS in less than a year. May be a very serious situation for the ISS. Supplys are going to run low. Next suply run will be another progress on Soyuz. I do wonder if they will now launch the next Soyus capsule with 3 crew or will they keep the station with only 3 crew to stretch supplies?

And of course a harsh blow to SpaceX. Their first loss after 3 losses of their first 3 launchers in the early phase of their development.

[OhOh]

^Video of the above.

SpaceX rocket to ISS disintegrates 2 minutes after launch (VIDEO) ? RT USA

[Takeovers]

Some info from the post flight press conference. ISS will be OK. There is still enough supplies to continue normal operation. Another Progress cargo vehicle will launch early July. The issue with the last Progress is not yet resolved but they have an older version of the launchvehicle available for this launch. A japanese HTV cargo vessel will launch soon too.

A slow motion video of the desintegration of the second stage shows that the oxygen tank ruptured. No explosion of fuel, only much later in the process there is some limited fire.

I am trying to locate another video of the event that shows more detail and looks really weird. It shows that the tank comes apart at two directly opposed locations like two seams came apart separately over the full length of the tank.

Nothing known about root cause except Elon Musk tweeted:

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

[Takeovers]

Found it:



While this happened, the first stage still fired nominally and kept its position.

[Latindancer]

A gigantic black hole has been discovered with an astonishing mass 12 billion times bigger than the sun’s. Its age – it was formed 900 million years after the Big Bang – undermines modern scientific theories.

12bn suns, 13bn light years away: Ancient black hole blows scientists? minds ? RT News

[harrybarracuda]

Jupiter And Venus Set To Collide In Illusion

Monday, 29th June 2015 15:59

The two brightest planets Jupiter and Venus will appear unusually close together in a "beautiful sight" tomorrow night.

The spectacle, in which Jupiter will sit almost directly above Venus, will be visible through a small telescope or binoculars between 10.30pm to 11pm.

The planets may look they are about to collide due to an illusion caused by line-of-sight but will in fact be hundreds of millions of miles apart ? roughly two thirds of a full moon's width apart.

After tomorrow they will start to go their separate ways again, with Venus below Jupiter.

Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: "The spectacle of the two brightest planets so close together is beautiful and really unusual.

"Many people will wonder what they are seeing - but it's just a natural coincidence."

He added that the pair would make a "striking sight" for an evening or two on either side.

The planets will be seen slightly later in the north and west of the UK because it gets dark later.

Venus is now around 56 million miles from Earth and Jupiter almost 559 million miles.

Tomorrow night they will appear just 22 minutes of arc apart. For comparison, the full moon is 30 minutes of arc across.

At relatively low magnification Jupiter can be seen as a small circular disc accompanied by four bright moons. Venus will be a fat crescent.

A similar conjunction between the two planets will not be seen again from the UK until November 2019.

[OhOh]

What direction and altitude/angle in Thailand?

Just realised it's Wednesday now!

[Takeovers]

What direction and altitude/angle in Thailand?

Look at roughly the direction where the sun went down. Somewhere there up from the horizon you will see the two planets. They are easily distingiushed as they are very bright.

[harrybarracuda]

NASA have released new video of a fairly impressive solar fart:

Huge arching eruption on sun's surface captured by Nasa ? video | Science | The Guardian

[Sumocakewalk]

We're having off and on rain currently in Prachuap, but the view of the two planets is in between clouds at the moment.

Venus and Jupiter are still very close together in their apparent positions again tonight. On Tuesday evening Jupiter was just above Venus. Right now Jupiter is just to the right of Venus.

[OhOh]

Look at roughly the direction where the sun went down.

Thanks

[Takeovers]

New Horizon is getting nearer its closest approach to Pluto and its moons.

Closest approach pictures will be amazing.

Here are two pictures. One as the camera can get it right now. The second with some picture enhancement software run over it.

[Takeovers]

New Horizons gave the operating scientists a good scare just before the decisive Pluto flyby.

New Horizons enters safe mode 10 days before Pluto flyby [UPDATED] | The Planetary Society

It went into a safe mode because of some computer glitch. It is not too bad, they are confident they can get it back to normal operation on July 7 in time for the crucial flyby event. Safe modes are rare, the last one happened some time before 2010. For the mission decisive event they will switch off entering safe mode. They need to operate all instruments no matter what, even at the risk of losing the vehicle because that is what it has been sent to do. There will be no second try.

The timeframe for the best observations is as short as one day before the distance to Pluto becomes too large again.

No need to say that the news triggered conspiracy theories that it was done intentionally at this time because New Horizons was on the verge of discoveries that need to be suppressed. Not that any sane person like the good people on Teak Door would entertain such preposteous ideas.

[OhOh]

So does the "Safe Mode" include turning off the laser gun or not?

[beazalbob69]

So does the "Safe Mode" include turning off the laser gun or not?

Nah, its to keep humanity from seeing things that it's not allowed to see.