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Lost in space: $100,000 tool bag from NASA spacewalk
Nov. 13 (UPI) — Every construction worker who ever accidentally left their tools at their worksite now has something in common with NASA astronauts, who lost a tool bag worth $100,000 during a spacewalk on Nov. 1, the space agency announced. The white satchel, which can now be seen orbiting the Earth with a telescope…
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GSOA publishes space sustainability Code of Conduct
The report calls on operators to implement responsible practices that mitigate the risk of in-orbit collision, minimise the threat of non-trackable debris, protect humans in space and limit effects on optical astronomy. “Satellites in all orbits deliver vital satellite connectivity and high throughput broadband services. While they offer great promises in bridging the digital divide,…
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Using eclipses to calculate the transparency of Saturn’s rings
A Lancaster University PhD student has measured the optical depth of Saturn’s rings using a new method based on how much sunlight reached the Cassini spacecraft while it was in the shadow of the rings. The optical depth is connected to the transparency of an object and a measure of how far light can travel…
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How Aditya L-1 is helping in detecting and monitoring solar flares?
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced that it had reached a groundbreaking milestone in solar research when its High-Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) aboard India’s first solar space observatory, Aditya L1, “recorded the impulsive phase of a high-energy solar flare” during its maiden observation on October 29, 2023. HELIOS was developed by…
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Asteroids named after two local space enthusiasts
Two Victorians who’ve devoted their lifelong passion for the stars to teaching its mysteries have been given a rare, out-of-this-world honour: They’ve had asteroids named after them. Author-historian Chris Gainor and educator-volunteer Lauri Roche are among 40 people who last week learned orbiting leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago…
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Quad-Cities Popular Astronomy Club: PV teacher’s passion for physics and astronomy sticks with students
The following article was originally published in the Spartan Shield, the newsletter of Pleasant Valley High School. The original article can be found on the Spartan Shield website at spartanshield.org. Permission has been received from PV to publish this in the local newspaper. The article also appeared in Reflections, the newsletter of the Popular Astronomy Club.…
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Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument Overview and Status
The major subsystems of the Coronagraph Instrument.2 The optical bench sits above the electronics pallet. The Electronics Heat Transport System (EHTS) transports heat from the electronics to the warm radiator. The Cryogenic Thermal Subsystem provides passive cooling to the detectors. Multi-layer insulation (MLI) provides additional thermal shielding. The Instrument Carrier (IC) is the observatory structure…
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57 years ago, two astronauts saw the first solar eclipse from space
The total solar eclipse of November 1966, as seen by the Gemini 12 astronauts while in space. Credit: NASA On Nov. 12, 1966, totality sliced across South America. Its progress began north of Peru’s capital, Lima, before forging a 52-mile-wide (84 kilometers) southeasterly swath of totality to plunge northern Chile and Bolivia, the foothills of…
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Foxconn sends satellites to space as the business of making iPhones and laptops slows, diversification effort accelerates
The world’s biggest producer of iPhones is going to outer space. Two prototype low-Earth orbit satellites made by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn, took off aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in southern California on Saturday. The launch of the LEO satellites marks a key moment for the Taiwanese…
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Tiny galaxies that had their stars stolen could be a ‘missing link’ in cosmic evolution
Astronomers have spotted the eroding remains of 100 dwarf galaxies that have been violently stripped of their outer layer of stars by larger galaxies. These disrupted galaxies represent the “missing link” in the evolution of a puzzling type of galaxy called ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs). The discovery shows that UCDs — which are among the…
