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Multi-resolution scanner
The challenge Tracking small changes in a complex space environment Life is demanding for humans living and working off-Earth. Food, materials, and other inventory must be tracked; damage monitored and repaired; and emergencies tended to. As we push forward to the Moon and Mars, astronauts’ time will become ever more precious. Limited crews will need…
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Using Sound To Unpack The History Of Astronomy
02/09/2024 17:07 minutes Credit: Shutterstock Looking into space can be pretty daunting. How do we make sense of the vast expanse above our heads, the millions of stars we might be able to see, and the billions more we can’t? Now, what about listening to space? That’s the task that Sam Harnett and Chris Hoff…
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Astronomers Discover Jupiter-sized Objects Drawn into Each Other’s Orbit
Newswise — In our most basic understanding of our Solar System, planets are drawn into the orbit of our massive star, the Sun. But what happens to planet-sized objects that don’t have a star? A team of astronomers studying Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs) in the Orion Nebula are gaining a new understanding of these unusual…
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Why isn’t there a device to clean the solar panels on Mars rovers?
NASA’s Mars InSight lander was powered by two solar panels, one of which is imaged here. The mission ended when the panels became so dust-covered that they could not generate sufficient power to sustain the craft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Inevitably, Mars rovers or landers get covered with dust and the solar panels no longer function, ending…
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An astronomer’s lament: Satellite megaconstellations are ruining space exploration
A composite of 29 individual exposures from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Maunakea, taken in August 2022. The horizontal and diagonal white lines are bright satellites that unexpectedly flew through the field of view during observations, covering any objects behind them. Credit: P. Cowan/W. Fraser/S. Lawler/CLASSY Survey Team/CFHT I used to love rocket launches when I…
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9 mind-blowing facts about the Universe
If you want facts about the Universe that will blow your mind, you don’t have to look very far. The Universe is astounding. Put it this way: all of its ordinary matter, all the particles that make us and everything we can see only make up 4% of its matter. We only discovered the Universe’s…
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The Unintended Consequences of the Corporate Space Race: A Threat to Astronomy and the Need for Regulatory Measures
The Corporate Space Race and Its Impact on Astronomy The dawn of the 21st century has witnessed an astounding surge in space exploration, not led by nations, but by corporate entities. The corporate space race, spearheaded by companies like SpaceX, has resulted in a swift increase in the number of satellites in Low Earth Orbit.…
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‘Cosmic time machines’: how space telescopes transformed our ability to understand the universe
If you’ve ever been blown away by an image of outer space, it’s a pretty safe bet it was taken by a spacecraft. That’s no surprise if we’re talking about the planets of our own solar system, where probes have been sending back spectacular closeups since the 1960s. But what about all those nebulae, star…
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Donated Renaissance-era astronomy book surprises university with hidden text
There might be an undiscovered treatise hidden within a Renaissance astronomy book. One of two astronomy books recently donated to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), located west of Buffalo in New York State, appears to be a palimpsest — a work written over top of previous material, which has been partially or entirely erased.…
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China is embarking on a science and exploration program of staggering scale
The space station Tiangong has been constructed over the course of multiple launches. It consists of a central core module named Tianhe and two lab modules named Wentian and Mengtian. In this rendering, a Tianzhou cargo craft is docked in the foreground, with a Shenzhou crew capsule docked in the background. Credit: gremlin/E+ collection/Getty Images.…