Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 1 MONTH.
ON 06/07/2024 MORE THAN 2.101.500
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
18-07-2024
Meteor Exploded Over N.Y.C. at 38,000 MPH: 'Rare Daylight Fireball'
Meteor Exploded Over N.Y.C. at 38,000 MPH: 'Rare Daylight Fireball'
Story by Anna Lazarus Caplan
NASA said that it does not track small meteors at "significant" distances from Earth, but individuals in New York and New Jersey reported witnessing the event
A small meteor was responsible for a big fireball over New York City on Tuesday, July 16, authorities said.
The astronomical event was first detected about 49 miles above Upper Bay/New York Harbor and moved west towards New Jersey at 38,000 mph, passing over the Statue of Liberty before disintegrating about 29 miles above midtown Manhattan, NASA confirmed in a statement.
Witnesses described seeing a fireball, hearing “booms” and feeling “shakings” between 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. local time, NASA said.
It is unclear if the sounds were related to the meteor or were due to military operations happening at the same time in New Jersey, Bill Cooke, with NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office said, per ABC affiliate WABC-TV.
However, he added that the event was an unusual occurrence.
"Something when it's moving that fast it heats up,” Cooke said. “You expect to see meteors at night not during the day, so this was a rare daylight fireball."
While no meteorites were reported, the meteor gave pause to those underneath its trajectory.
Related video:
NASA Meteor Watch: 'Daylight fireball over New York City' around time of reported booms, shakings (News 12 (Video)
"It was long and really, really fast," Judah Bergman, who saw the meteor from his Lakewood, N.J. office, told WABC. "It looked like a flaming, long rod or something on fire and flying through the sky."
The meteor was not even on NASA’s radar, at first, according to the organization.
“We do keep track of asteroids that are capable of posing a danger to us Earth dwellers, but small rocks like the one producing this fireball are only about a foot in diameter, incapable of surviving all the way to the ground,” NASA said in its statement. “We do not (actually cannot) track things this small at significant distances from the Earth, so the only time we know about them is when they hit the atmosphere and generate a meteor or a fireball.”
While some seasoned New Yorkers were nonplussed, according to The New York Times, at least one resident who observed the moment reveled in its rarity.
“There’s something magical about it,” Tina Dang, a private chef, said. “You forget about these incredible moments in life, when so much else is going on.”
NASA's volgende doel is om de mens in 2026 terug te brengen naar de maan. In de tussentijd opent een ondergrondse grot op onze satelliet de deur naar nieuwe mogelijkheden.
De terugkeer van de mens naar de maan: de ondergrondse grot zou hem kunnen huisvesten
Meer dan 50 jaar zijn verstreken sinds de laatste mens op het maanoppervlak liep. Sinds 1972 heeft geen enkele andere bemanning onze natuurlijke satelliet bereikt, maar NASA bereidt zich voor op deze grote terugkeer en telt onder de astronauten op de missie de eerste vrouw en de eerste zwarte man met het Artemis-programma.
Nu heeft een nieuwe studie een ondergrondse grot op de maan ontdekt die nieuwe mogelijkheden opent: astronauten zouden daarin hun toevlucht kunnen zoeken voor een langdurig verblijf buiten de aarde. Wetenschappers hebben de aanwezigheid van de grot officieel gemaakt, gelegen op slechts 400 km van het punt waar Neil Armstrong in 1969 samen met Buzz Aldrin landde met de ruimtevlucht Apollo 11.
Bewijs voor het bestaan van maangrotten: de studie
Nature Astronomy
Het team van Italiaanse wetenschappers heeft bewijs gepubliceerd dat het bestaan bevestigt van de vrij grote grot, die toegankelijk zou kunnen zijn vanuit de diepst bekende maankuil. De grot bevindt zich in de Mare Tranquillitatis, de maanzee die zich bevindt op het halfrond dat altijd naar onze planeet is gericht. Tot nu toe zijn er tweehonderd mogelijk vergelijkbare grotten ontdekt, allemaal ontstaan door ingestorte lavabuizen.
Het onderzoek was erop gericht om de metingen van NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter te vergelijken met de lavabuizen op aarde. De radar mat alleen het eerste deel van de ondergrondse grot en detecteerde een breedte van ongeveer 40 meter en een lengte van tientallen meters. Leonardo Carrer en Lorenzo Bruzzone van de Universiteit van Trento, Italië, legden uit dat "maangrotten meer dan 50 jaar een mysterie zijn gebleven, dus het was spannend om eindelijk hun bestaan te kunnen bewijzen."
De ondergrondse maangrot zou astronauten kunnen huisvesten
De grot zou een potentiële maanbasis kunnen worden, volgens de wetenschappers, omdat het “beschutting biedt tegen de barre omstandigheden aan het oppervlak en de menselijke verkenning van de maan op de lange termijn zou kunnen ondersteunen”. De bouw van een nieuwe maanbasis, zo beweren de auteurs van het onderzoek, zou veel duurder en tijdrovender zijn, hoewel de muren van de groeve waarschijnlijk verstevigd zouden moeten worden om een mogelijke instorting te voorkomen.
Volgens Helen Sharman, een Britse astronaute, zouden mensen dankzij deze diepe ondergrondse schuilplaatsen over twee of drie decennia op de maan kunnen blijven en een soort lift installeren om naar het oppervlak terug te keren. Bovendien zijn de materialen in deze kuilen in de loop van eonen, oftewel miljarden jaren, niet veranderd en zouden ze waardevolle nieuwe informatie kunnen opleveren over de evolutie van de satelliet en zijn vulkanische activiteit.
Na meer dan een halve eeuw zal de mens dus terugkeren naar de maan met nieuwe mogelijkheden vergeleken met die van de twintigste eeuw, en zou hij lange tijd op de satelliet kunnen blijven, in ondergrondse grotten.
NASA zal dan toch geen "rover" (een rijdende robot) naar de zuidpool van de maan sturen om er water te zoeken. Dat heeft het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap woensdag bekendgemaakt. De kosten van de missie liepen te hoog op.
Het ruimtevaartagentschap gaf al 450 miljoen dollar uit aan de robot, waarvan de kosten oorspronkelijk waren geraamd op minder dan 430 miljoen dollar. De lancering was in eerste instantie voorzien voor 2022, maar was uitgesteld tot ten vroegste het voorjaar van 2025. Dat zou de totale kosten hebben opgedreven tot meer dan 600 miljoen dollar.
Het was volgens NASA een zeer moeilijke beslissing om de missie af te blazen, terwijl de rover al is opgetuigd. Het ruimtevaartagentschap heeft een oproep gelanceerd voor industriële of internationale partners die mogelijk geïnteresseerd zijn in de rover. Anders is NASA van plan om het toestel te ontmantelen om bepaalde onderdelen te hergebruiken, zoals batterijen en zonnepanelen.
This “penguin party” (called Arp 142) is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. The blue galaxy at upper right (near bright star) is a closer galaxie teeming with new stars. It's not part of the collision and lies closer to Earth than Arp 142.
What happens when a spiral and an elliptical galaxy collide? To celebrate the second anniversary of the “first light” for the Webb telescope, NASA released an amazing infrared view of two galaxies locked in a tight dance. They’re called the Penguin and the Egg and their dance will last hundreds of millions of years.
“In just two years, Webb has transformed our view of the universe, enabling the kind of world-class science that drove NASA to make this mission a reality,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Webb is providing insights into longstanding mysteries about the early Universe.”
Webb Witnesses a Galactic Dance
The telescope targeted a collision scene named Arp 142 containing both galaxies—a scene that the Hubble Space Telescope has also explored. They lie about 326 million light-years away. Their first close encounter began somewhere between 25 and 75 million years ago. That’s when two partner galaxies had the first of many passages that will distort their shapes more than they already appear here.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured visible light when observing Arp 142, nicknamed the Penguin and the Egg, in 2013. The Webb view (right) shows the near-infrared view. Courtesy NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Webb’s observations, which combine near- and mid-infrared light from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), respectively, clearly show that a hazy cloud of gas and stars (blue) links them together. The close approach also set off tremendous bursts of star birth in the colliding clouds of gas and dust.
Eventually, after several close approaches in their cosmic dance, these two galaxies will merge completely. Observers hundreds of millions of years in the future will look at Arp 142 and see one massive elliptical galaxy.
Interestingly, Webb’s sharp infrared eyes also picked out very distant galaxies. Some lie beyond this cosmic collision, although at least one lies about a hundred million light-years closer to Earth. It bristles with hot, young, newborn stars.
How The Arp 142 Galaxies Experience a Merger
The Penguin and Egg galaxies lie about 100,000 light-years apart but they affect each other. The Egg’s gravitational pull distorts the spiral and that interaction is “sculpting” the Penguin. The core makes up the eye of a penguin. The slowly unwinding spiral arms form a beak, head, backbone, and tail.
Webb’s infrared view reveals otherwise unseen activity between the two. For example, the Penguin is rich in dust. Webb’s view shows us how gravitational interactions pull that dust away from the Penguin. There are also scads of new stars in the galaxy, surrounded by what looks like smoke. Webb’s view shows this hydrogen cloud. It’s rich in carbon-based molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These are incredibly abundant in the Universe and astronomers find them just about everywhere they point a telescope.
Webb’s mid-infrared MIRI image shows the Egg as a small teal oval. Mid-infrared light predominantly shows the oldest stars in the elliptical galaxy, which has lost or used up most of its gas and dust. This is why the view is so different from the combined image, which includes near-infrared light. Courtesy: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
By contrast, in Webb’s view, the Egg looks like it’s hardly been touched—it’s still an egg-shaped elliptical. It has much older stars than the Penguin. Past epochs of star birth have pretty much used up the available star-making material. So, even though the two galaxies have about the same mass, the Egg just doesn’t have as much material to get stretched out or turned into stars.
Zeroing in on Webb’s Two Views
If you look at both of Webb’s infrared views of the galaxy collision, you can see marked differences in them. That’s because each one prioritizes a different set of infrared wavelengths. In the mid-infrared view, the egg looks tiny and washed out. That’s because the instrument sees only the old stars in the Egg. By contrast, the Penguin’s distorted core and spiral arms are brimming with young stars embedded in the PAH-rich hydrogen clouds.
The combined near- and mid-infrared view shows more of the gas clouds as the Egg tears them away from the Penguin. These regions will glitter in the future with the light of newly formed stars. For now, however, only cooler, older stars are visible in the combined image. The younger ones are there, but the mid-infrared-sensitive instrument doesn’t spot them.
Here’s a flythrough visualization of Arp 142. NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI), Greg Bacon (STScI)
Why Does Webb Study Galaxy Collisions?
By studying this galactic collision site, the Webb telescope further probes the activity as galaxies evolve. Collisions are an integral part of this process. Our Milky Way Galaxy will dance with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, starting in about 5 billion years. Images and data from observations of other galaxies doing the same thing give astronomers a chance to understand the process and forecast the distant future when something called “Milkdromeda” will contain the stars and planets of two spirals that once were close neighbors.
A Hopping Robot Could Explore Europa Using Locally Harvested Water
Various forms of hopping robots have crept into development for us[e in different space exploration missions. We’ve reported on their use on asteroids and even our own Moon. But a study funded by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) in 2018 planned a mission to a type of world where hopping may not be as noticeable an advantage—Europa.
The mission, developed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Purdue University, and Honeybee Robotics, is known as the Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds, or SPARROW. It’s about the size and shape of a soccer ball, with the logic, power, and control systems inside a spherical outer hollow shell.
SPARROW wouldn’t be able to operate on its own, however. It would require a lander to deposit it onto the surface and serve as a refueling and sample collection storage base. Europa Clipper, the only currently planned NASA mission to the icy moon, would have been good for hitching a ride, but its lack of a lander made it unsuitable for SPARROW.
Budget constraints are always a problem for innovative missions – as Fraser explains with Dr. Manasvi Lingam.
However, the hopping robot itself is well suited for the environment in Europa. Its designers intended to make it “terrain agnostic,” meaning it could traverse even the harshest terrain the icy moon could throw at it. These would include penitentes, shards of ice that could be meters tall, and difficult for ground-based robots to traverse.
SPARROW could fly over them, collect interesting samples, and return to the lander to refuel and deposit them. Then, it could go out again in a different direction. To model this system architecture, the JPL team spent Phase I trying to determine the best propulsion system for the robot and modeling control algorithms for the flights.
First, let’s tackle the propulsion system. The lander accompanying SPARROW would have to mine ice off the moon’s surface, then heat it and store it as water. When SPARROW returned from a hop, it would use the water to refuel. Five different propulsion methods were considered as part of the study. Still, the best turned out to be a “hot water thruster,” where SPARROW would internally heat the water supplied by the lander, then eject that out in a burst of propulsive force to launch the robot off the surface.
Exploring the surface of Europa is only one part of its mystery – as Fraser explains.
The second major part of the paper was controlling that propulsion. Trajectory correction is critical to mission success, but in this case, the designers believe that no matter where the robot ends up, it will be able to collect a sample and return to the lander. This is due to its gimballed design, which allows the robot to consistently orient correctly, even after bouncing along a frozen surface for a while.
There is still much work to do before the mission is ready to go, though. Some of the most pressing questions are how to stop ice from forming in the robot’s propulsion nozzle and throughout its structural cage. Such blockages could easily throw off any existing trajectory calculations and theoretically immobilize the hopper entirely if they were severe enough.
However, no work is planned to solve those problems for now as the project has yet to receive Phase II funding from NIAC, and work on it appears to have stalled. Dr. Gareth Meirion-Griffith, the primary investigator on the project, has moved on from JPL to take a job at Collins Aerospace. Even so, someday, the author’s ideas might be integrated into a Europa lander mission—we’ll have to wait and see.
The Ariane 6 rocket promises to be Europe’s newest portal into space. On Tuesday, the rocket successfully reached orbit for the first time, taking off from Europe's Spaceport in northeastern South America. If all continues to go well on future flights, Ariane 6 will pick up after Ariane 5, the workhorse that flew for the last time in July 2023, and which delivered critical missions into space like the James Webb Space Telescope.
“Ariane 6 is Europe’s rocket for the needs of today, adaptable to our future ambitions,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General, shared via ESA.
When the new rocket is fully functioning, the ESA will be able to pay a European company to launch its projects. Today, it relies on U.S.-based private space companies such as SpaceX.
Ariane 6, unlike SpaceX’s Falcon fleet, isn’t a reusable rocket. However, the newly constructed spacecraft does come with some novel technology, including a special upper stage engine, called Vinci, that will be agile and friendly to the space environment.
“With many features brand new to Ariane 6, we’ll be able to carry more and take it further, while sustainably disposing of the launcher's upper stage to prevent it becoming space debris,” officials from the operator of the Ariane 6’s inaugural flight, the European Space Agency (ESA), wrote on Sunday.
An illustration of the Ariane 6 lifting off from French Guiana.
The 184-foot-tall spacecraft is a collaboration between Arianespace, its main customer ESA, and the French space agency CNES, which built out the Ariane 6 launchpad at Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana. Like Ariane 5, Ariane 6 will launch near the Equator, taking advantage of the boost from Earth’s rotation there to reach space.
MEET VINCI
The Vinci upper stage engine is the Ariane 6 feature with the most allure. For one, it can be reignited, which allows a single Ariane 6 launch to deliver multiple missions on different orbits.
“Reigniting an engine in zero gravity may not sound so difficult, but as fuels float freely inside the tanks, it is not as simple as you might think. The Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU) helps here, providing a small but steady amount of thrust to cause fuel in the Vinci tanks to settle ensuring it can fire again,” ESA officials added.
A final command tells Vinci to passivate, or remove energy, so that it can reenter the atmosphere and burn up with the least chance of an explosion. According to ESA, this reduces the chances that Vinci pieces will linger around as space debris.
With Ariane 6, the ESA can now envision missions both within Earth orbit and beyond to destinations like the Moon.
Researchers made a tantalizing discovery after they MacGyver-ed old data from a radar instrument on a satellite gathered 14 years ago from the Moon. When they used the mission data in a fresh new way, they found proof of a Moon cave hiding in plain sight.
The cave is inside a hole in the ground located in the Sea of Tranquility, which is the same region where the first Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon. This pit is named Mare Tranquillitatis pit (MTP) after the area’s Latin spelling.
The team behind the new work, which was published today in the journal Nature Astronomy, created an ad-hoc radar technique. This provided them a refreshing new look at observations made with the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2010, when it fired pulses at an inclined angle down towards the pit. This data was invisible to the satellite’s optical cameras.
When they analyzed the signals anew, and compared it with simulations, they saw that Mini-RF had detected something spectacular. From an observational angle of about 47 degrees, they saw evidence that the pit floor, which was always visible overhead, is flanked by something burrowed beneath the surface. The finding may have repercussions for future lunar explorers.
The Mare Tranquillitatis pit (MTP) on the Moon’s near side.
The Moon cave is a conduit, or a section of a longer tunnel where something once used to flow.
What formed it? Researchers think that beneath the ground, lava flow likely formed the tunnel in the ancient past. Then suddenly, for an unknown reason (potentially a meteorite strike or tectonic activity), one section of the tunnel’s roof caved in, allowing Moon debris to fall down and form a cone-shaped pile.
This is the most compelling evidence for Moon conduits so far. There are several other conduits suspected of existing. But MTP was the right size to reveal its hidden cavern.
“It was large enough that the Mini-RF instrument could collect significant amounts of data from within the pit and, fortuitously, the conduit was oriented such that the look angle of the instrument could see into it,” Wes Patterson, study author and Mini-RF principal investigator, tells Inverse.
WHY LOOK FOR WHAT’S LURKING ON THE MOON?
Subsurface Moon caves could be an exciting foray for lunar science.
Beyond the natural silvery satellite, data on these features could shape how astronomers interpret other data to recreate an idea of how the planets formed. It could sharpen our idea of how the Moon and our world are intertwined.
“The study of this conduit could enhance our understanding of the dynamic relationship between the Earth and the Moon,” the study’s lead author Leonardo Carrer tells Inverse.
There’s also a far-off application: refuge for NASA’s Artemis program astronauts. The space agency is funneling its resources towards returning humans to the Moon this decade. The first program flight to bring boots back to the Moon is seeking a landing site near the lunar south pole. Craters may offer refuge to the crew. The lunar south pole, unlike the Sea of Tranquility, offers another critical resource: frozen water.
There’s no evidence that the Sea of Tranquility offers frozen water. But that doesn’t mean it’s not there, Carrer explains. “The presence of water ice in the lunar subsurface is unknown because we have not had the opportunity to observe it directly. This is why our discovery of a likely accessible cave is so important; it provides a potential entry point to explore the lunar subsurface.”
But if MTP leads to a conduit, there may be more. There could be other caverns on more distant worlds where NASA seeks to place astronauts: Mars.
This pit may have just opened up a whole new world of Moon science.
Cassini Reveals Surface Properties of Titan’s Hydrocarbon Seas
Cassini Reveals Surface Properties of Titan’s Hydrocarbon Seas
Saturn’s moon Titan was explored by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft from 2004 to 2017. While Cassini revealed a lot about this Earth-like world, its radar observations could only provide limited information about Titan’s liquid hydrocarbons seas Kraken, Ligeia and Punga Mare. In anew paper in the journal Nature Communications, Cornell University researcher Valerio Poggiali and colleagues report the results of the analysis of the Cassini radar experiments data of Titan’s polar seas.
An artistic rendering of Kraken Mare, a large liquid methane sea on Titan.
Image credit: NASA’s John Glenn Research Center.
“The Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, from 2004 to 2017, revealing an Earth-like world with a diverse set of strange, yet very familiar, surface morphologies shaped by a methane-based hydrologic system, operating in a dense nitrogen atmosphere,” Dr. Poggiali and co-authors said.
“Winds in the lower atmosphere move sediments and shape them into vast dune fields that encircle Titan’s equatorial latitudes.”
“In the mid-latitudes, flat and relatively featureless plains mark a transition between the eolian-dominated equator and lacustrine-dominated poles.”
“In the polar regions, large seas and small lakes of liquid hydrocarbons dominate the terrain.”
“Precipitation-fed channels flow into the seas creating estuaries, in some cases deltas, and other familiar coastal sedimentary deposits.”
“While Cassini has revealed much about Titan, these discoveries have prompted more questions.”
In the study, the scientists used four bistatic radar observations, collected by Cassini during four flybys in 2014 (May 17, June 18, October 24) and 2016 (November 14).
For each, surface reflections were observed as the spacecraft neared its closest approach to Titan (ingress), and again as it moved away (egress).
The authors analyzed data from the egress observations of Titan’s three large polar seas: Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare and Punga Mare.
“A bistatic radar experiment involves aiming a radio beam from the spacecraft at the target — in this case Titan — where it is reflected toward the receiving antenna on Earth,” they explained.
“This surface reflection is polarized — meaning that it provides information collected from two independent perspectives, as opposed to the one provided by monostatic radar data, where the reflected signal returns to the spacecraft.”
“The main difference is that the bistatic information is a more complete dataset and is sensitive to both the composition of the reflecting surface and to its roughness.”
The team found differences in the composition of the hydrocarbon seas’ surface layers, dependent on latitude and location (near rivers and estuaries, for example).
Specifically, the southernmost portion of Kraken Mare shows the highest dielectric constant — a measure of a material’s ability to reflect a radio signal.
For example, water on Earth is very reflective, with a dielectric constant of around 80; the ethane and methane seas of Titan measure around 1.7.
The researchers also determined that all three seas were mostly calm at the time of the flybys, with surface waves no larger than 3.3 mm.
A slightly higher level of roughness — up to 5.2 mm — was detected near coastal areas, estuaries and interbasin straits, possible indications of tidal currents.
“We also have indications that the rivers feeding the seas are pure methane until they flow into the open liquid seas, which are more ethane-rich,” Dr. Poggiali said.
“It’s like on Earth, when fresh-water rivers flow into and mix with the salty water of the oceans.”
“This fits nicely with meteorological models for Titan, which predict that the ‘rain’ that falls from its skies is likely to be almost pure methane, but with trace amounts of ethane and other hydrocarbons,” said Cornell University’s Professor Philip Nicholson.
“More work is already underway on the data Cassini generated during its 13-year examination of Titan.”
“There is a mine of data that still waits to be fully analyzed in ways that should yield more discoveries. This is only the first step.”
V. Poggialiet al. 2024. Surface properties of the seas of Titan as revealed by Cassini mission bistatic radar experiments.Nat Commun15, 5454; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49837-2
This article is a version of a press-release provided by Cornell University.
ESA bereidt missie voor naar asteroïde die vlak langs aarde zal scheren: “Zoiets gebeurt maar eens om de 5.000 of 10.000 jaar”
Een asteroïde die vroeger beschouwd werd als de gevaarlijkste van alle bekende planetoïden, zal op 13 april 2029 langs de aarde scheren en dichter bij komen dan sommige satellieten die rondom onze planeet cirkelen. Het Europese ruimtevaartagentschap ESA bereidt een missie voor om de passage van ‘99942 Apophis’ - een erg uitzonderlijke gebeurtenis - van nabij te volgen. Dat moet helpen om eventuele toekomstige botsingen met asteroïden te kunnen voorkomen.
Voor alle duidelijkheid: Apophis zal langs de aarde vliegen, maar tot een botsing zal het niet komen, volgens de ESA. “Astronomen hebben berekend dat een botsing tussen de asteroïde en de aarde voor minstens de komende honderd jaar uitgesloten is”, aldus het ruimtevaartagentschap.
De asteroïde met een diameter van 375 meter zal wel op minder dan 32.000 kilometer van het aardoppervlak passeren en dat is dichterbij dan telecomsatellieten in een geostationaire baan.
Unieke kans
Het biedt een unieke kans voor onderzoek, zegt ESA. Dat zo’n grote brok zo rakelings langs de aarde scheert, gebeurt immers maar eens om de 5.000 of 10.000 jaar.
Het Europese ruimtevaartagentschap wil met de missie Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety) een ruimtetuig naar de asteroïde sturen om de passage te bestuderen. De verwachting is dat de aantrekkingskracht van de aarde een impact zal hebben op Apophis, met mogelijk aardbevingen of aardverschuivingen op de asteroïde tot gevolg. Ook de baan van de ruimtebrok kan veranderen.
“Door te analyseren hoe Apophis tijdens de passage verandert, zullen de wetenschappers veel te weten komen over de reactie van een asteroïde op externe krachten en over de samenstelling ervan, de interne structuur, de cohesie, de massa, de densiteit en de poreusheid”, stelt ESA. “Dat zijn allemaal belangrijke eigenschappen om te bepalen hoe een gevaarlijke asteroïde die op ramkoers ligt met de aarde, van baan kan worden veranderd.”
Gegevens die de Ramses-missie verzamelt, zullen ook meer inzicht geven in het ontstaan en de ontwikkeling van het zonnestelsel, “omdat asteroïden ook tijdcapsules zijn die ruim vier miljard jaar geleden gevormd werden”.
Experimenten
“Er is nog zo veel dat we moeten leren over asteroïden”, zegt Patrick Michel, onderzoeksdirecteur van het observatorium van de Côte d’Azur. “Tot nu toe moesten we ver in het zonnestelsel reizen om ze te bestuderen. We moesten zelf experimenten uitvoeren om in te werken op het oppervlak. Voor de eerste keer ooit brengt de natuur een asteroïde tot bij ons en voert die het experiment zelf uit.”
Ramses moet in april 2028 gelanceerd worden, zodat het ruimtetuig in februari 2029 bij Apophis kan aankomen, of twee maanden vóór de passage langs de aarde. De voorbereidingen voor de missie zijn nu gestart. In november 2025 moet tijdens een ministeriële top van ESA het licht definitief op groen worden gezet.
Blote oog
De passage van ‘99942 Apophis’ zal ook enkele uren met het blote oog te zien zijn in de nacht van 13 op 14 april 2029, als het weer het toelaat welteverstaan, en dat “voor ongeveer twee miljard mensen in het grootste deel van Europa en Afrika en delen van Azië”, aldus ESA.
De Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA stuurt ook een ruimtetuig - OSIRIS-REx - naar de asteroïde. Maar dat zal er pas een maand na de scheervlucht langs de aarde aankomen.
De ingang van de grot ligt op meer dan 100 meter diepte en de grot zelf zou zo'n 40 meter breed en tientallen meters lang zijn.
Foto: NASA, Universiteit van Trento
Grot gevonden op de maan: "Mogelijke uitvalsbasis voor toekomstige astronauten"
Wetenschappers hebben een grot ontdekt op de maan, niet ver van waar Neil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin in 1969 voor het eerst voet op de maan hebben gezet. Ze vermoeden dat er nog honderden andere grotten zijn die als uitvalsbasis voor astronauten zouden kunnen gebruikt worden.
Stien Schoofs
Op slechts 400 meter van waar Neil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin 55 jaar geleden zijn geland op de maan hebben Italiaanse en Amerikaanse wetenschappers een grot ontdekt die op meer dan 100 meter diepte ligt, onderin een diepe kuil.
De kuil, waarvan wetenschappers vermoeden dat er nog honderden andere zijn op de maan, zou miljoenen of miljarden jaren geleden ontstaan zijn toen lava op de maan stroomde en er zo een tunnel onder het gesteente ontstond.
De ingang van de grot ligt op meer dan 100 meter diepte en de grot zelf zou zo'n 40 meter breed en tientallen meters lang zijn. Dat staat allemaal beschreven in een onderzoek gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Nature Astronomy.
"Je kan er dus niet zomaar in wandelen", nuanceert ruimtevaartingenieur Stijn Ilsen. "Het is een soort van oude 'lavabuis'. Je kan het vergelijken met oude vulkanen op de aarde die ook buizen hebben waar vroeger de lava heeft doorgestroomd."
Maangrotten zijn al meer dan vijftig jaar een mysterie
De Maansatelliet Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter heeft in 2010 al beelden gemaakt van kuilen waarvan wetenschappers dachten dat het grotingangen konden zijn. Nu hebben ze echt bewijs door met een radar door te dringen in de opening van een kuil.
"Dat is een radar die die pulsen afvuurt naar de maan en zo kijkt wat er wordt teruggekaatst. Uit die terugkaatsing kunnen ze berekenen hoe het oppervlak zich gedraagt", legt Ilsen uit. "Nu hebben ze specifiek gemikt op een gebied waar ze een vermoeden hadden dat er een ingang van een grot zou zijn en daar hebben ze met een nauwkeurigheid van 25 centimeter die ingang gevonden."
"Maangrotten zijn al meer dan 50 jaar een mysterie. Het was dus spannend om eindelijk het bestaan ervan te kunnen bewijzen", zeggen onderzoekers Leonardo Carrer en Lorenzo Bruzzone van de Universiteit van Trento aan persbureau AP.
Uitvalsbasis voor astronauten
Wat kan zo’n grot betekenen voor een toekomstige Armstrong of Aldrin? Volgens de wetenschappers kan de grot gebruikt worden om een langere periode op de maan te overbruggen. De maangrot kan namelijk bescherming bieden tegen schadelijke straling, extreme temperatuurverschillen en kleine meteorietinslagen.
"Het leven op aarde is ook begonnen in grotten, dus het is logisch dat mensen ook op de maan veel hebben aan die grotten", zegt professor Carrer nog.
De maangrotten lijken zich volgens wetenschappers vooral te bevinden in de oude lavavlaktes van de maan.
Foto: NASA
Hoewel de wanden van de grotten misschien nog verstevigd moeten worden om instorting te voorkomen, is het volgens de wetenschappers een betere optie dan zelf voorzieningen bouwen om een langere periode op de maan te blijven.
De maangrotten lijken zich volgens wetenschappers vooral te bevinden in de oude lavavlaktes van de maan. Toch vermoeden ze ook dat er een paar op de zuidpool van de maan zijn, de plek waar NASA nog astronautenlandingen plant in de toekomst.
"Waar ze de grot ontdekt hebben, is het ongeveer 14 dagen heel warm, met temperaturen rond de 100 graden Celsius. Dan komt er 14 dagen nacht, waar het 100 graden Celsius onder nul is. Die lage temperaturen overleven mensen niet. Dan is zo'n grot de ideale schuilplaats", denkt Ilsen.Helen Sharman, de eerste Britse astronaut die naar de ruimte reisde, vertelde aan de Britse openbare omroep BBC dat de nieuwe ontdekte grot een goede uitvalsbasis lijkt. Ze suggereerde zelfs dat mensen mogelijk binnen 20 tot 30 jaar in maankuilen zouden kunnen wonen.
Wel vermoedt ze dat er jetpacks of een lift nodig zijn om eruit te komen, net omdat de grot zo diep is.
Leven op Mars?
De grotten kunnen dus handig zijn voor mensen, maar de wetenschappers benadrukken dat ze ook kunnen helpen bij het beantwoorden van vragen over de geschiedenis van de maan en ons zonnestelsel.
"De maan wordt continu gebombardeerd door deeltjes van de zon en die gaan de stenen die aan het oppervlakte liggen wel veranderen. In zo'n oude tunnel ga je net gesteente vinden dat bij wijze van spreken miljoenen - zelfs miljarden - jaren onaangeroerd bleef", zegt Ilsen.
Volgens Francesco Sauro, de coördinator van het Topical Team Planetary Caves van ESA, kan het onderzoek zelfs helpen om grotten op Mars te onderzoeken. Dat vertelt hij aan BBC.
"Dat zou de deur kunnen openen naar het vinden van bewijs dat er leven is op Mars. Want als dat er geweest is, zou dat vrijwel zeker in grotten zijn geweest, net omdat die bescherming bieden tegen elementen op het oppervlak."
Bekijk:
Professor sterrenkunde Leen Decin over het belang van deze ontdekking
Voor het eerst grot gevonden op de maan: "Mogelijke uitvalsbasis voor toekomstige astronauten"
Voor het eerst grot gevonden op de maan: "Mogelijke uitvalsbasis voor toekomstige astronauten"
Artikel door Stien Schoofs
Op slechts 400 meter van waar Neil Armstrong en Buzz Aldrin 55 jaar geleden zijn geland op de maan hebben Italiaanse en Amerikaanse wetenschappers een grot ontdekt die op meer dan 100 meter diepte ligt, onderin een diepe kuil.
De kuil, waarvan wetenschappers vermoeden dat er nog honderden andere zijn op de maan, zou miljoenen of miljarden jaren geleden ontstaan zijn toen lava op de maan stroomde en er zo een tunnel onder het gesteende ontstond.
De ingang van de grot ligt op meer dan 100 meter diepte en de grot zelf zou zo'n 40 meter breed en tientallen meters lang zijn. Dat staat allemaal beschreven in een onderzoek gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Nature Astronomy.
De Maansatelliet Luna Reconnaissance Orbiter heeft in 2010 al beelden gemaakt van kuilen waarvan wetenschapper dachten dat het grondingangen konden zijn. Nu hebben ze echt bewijs door met een radar door te dringen in de opening van een kuil.
"Maangrotten zijn al meer dan 50 jaar een mysterie. Het was dus spannend om eindelijk het bestaan ervan te kunnen bewijzen", zeggen onderzoekers Leonardo Carrer en Lorenzo Bruzzone van de Universiteit van Trento aan persbureau AP.
Uitvalsbasis voor astronauten
Wat kan zo’n grot betekenen voor een toekomstige Armstrong of Aldrin? Volgens de wetenschappers kan de grot gebruikt worden om een langere periode op de maan te overbruggen. De maangrot kan namelijk bescherming bieden tegen schadelijke straling, extreme temperatuurverschillen en kleine meteorietinslagen.
"Het leven op aarde is ook begonnen in grotten, dus het is logisch dat mensen ook op de maan veel hebben aan die grotten", zegt professor Carrer nog.
De maangrotten lijken zich volgens wetenschappers vooral te bevinden in de oude lavavlaktes van de maan.
Hoewel de wanden van de grotten misschien nog verstevigd moeten worden om instorting te voorkomen, is het volgens de wetenschappers een betere optie dan zelf voorzieningen bouwen om een langere periode op de maan te blijven.
De maangrotten lijken zich volgens wetenschappers vooral te bevinden in de oude lavavlaktes van de maan. Toch vermoeden ze ook dat er een paar op de zuidpool van de maan zijn, de plek waar NASA nog astronautenlandingen plant in de toekomst.
Helen Sharman, de eerste Britse astronaut die naar de ruimte reisde, vertelde aan de Britse openbare omroep BBC dat de nieuwe ontdekte grot een goede uitvalsbasis lijkt. Ze suggereerde zelfs dat mensen mogelijk binnen 20 tot 30 jaar in maankuilen zouden kunnen wonen.
Wel vermoedt ze dat er jetpacks of een lift nodig zijn om eruit te komen, net omdat de grot zo diep is.
Leven op Mars?
De grotten kunnen dus handig zijn voor mensen, maar de wetenschappers benadrukken dat ze ook kunnen helpen bij het beantwoorden van vragen over de geschiedenis van de maan en ons zonnestelsel.
De rotsen in de grot zullen namelijk minder beschadigd zijn door het ruimteweer en kunnen de geologische geschiedenis van de maan beter weergeven.
Volgens Francesco Sauro, de coördinator van het Topical Team Planetary Caves van ESA, kan het onderzoek zelfs helpen om grotten op Mars te onderzoeken. Dat vertelt hij aan BBC.
"Dat zou de deur kunnen openen naar het vinden van bewijs dat er leven is op Mars. Want als dat er geweest is, zou dat vrijwel zeker in grotten zijn geweest, net omdat die bescherming bieden tegen elementen op het oppervlak."
The mysterious case of a UFO sighting at an African school nearly 20 years on
It wasn't the first high profile case of school children reporting to see a UFO
(Image: Getty Images)
The mysterious case of a UFO sighting at an African school nearly 20 years on
Almost 20 years ago 60 school children reported one of the now most famous alien sightings on record with detailed descriptions all the way down to wha the strange space creatures were wearing
By Danny Gutmann
A school in Africa is the scene of the most notoriousUFO sightings of all time.
In September 1994 Ruwa was only a tiny agricultural centre just 14 miles south east of the Zimbabwe's capital city Harare but ever since that day it has been a major talking point for all UFO enthusiasts.
It was a typically sunny early-afternoon on September 19 1994 when a group of 60 children at Ariel School made the shock claim to have witnessed aliens landing in their playground beside the school.
When asked by the BBC Zimbabwe correspondent Tim Leach one student said: "It looked like it was glinting in the trees. It looked like a disc, like a round...".
Some of the children claimed to have seen aliens alongside the spacecraft
( Image: BBC)
And when Leach asked the children whether they could have been mistaken and whether it could have been a 'Harrier Jump jet' or 'something the Zimbabwe Air Force have got?' they stuck to their guns and were adamant about what they had witnessed.
UFO enthusiast Cynthia Hinds had her interest peaked by the sighting and even travelled all the way from England to speak to the children.
She told the BBC: "I certainly believe the children. I've come across a similar type of thing in Broad Haven in Wales, 1979 and the British didn't believe it, although I went down three times. It's very similar to the whole incident here."
The headteacher at the school told the children to draw a picture of what they had seen
( Image: BBC)
Various different theories and explanations have been mused about what the children had actually seen or whether the in fact that had made the whole thing up.
But, in the days and weeks later a dramatic development was made in the case as more sightings were reported in nearby by areas.
One local woman said: "I saw a glow over my chicken run. A very orange glow."
Meanwhile 239 miles west in the town of Kariba, a man made a similar statement saying: "We suddenly looked up and we saw this this thing coming over the top of the hill. As it came abreast of us it suddenly changed from this glow to two big red orange balls."
The schoolkids who said they saw 'aliens'
A child’s drawing of what they saw during the Ariel School Phenomenon. /span> Ariel Phenomenon/Facebook
Any night now, a “new star” or nova will appear in the night sky. While it won’t set the sky ablaze, it’s a special opportunity to see a rare event that’s usually difficult to predict in advance.
The star in question is T Coronae Borealis (T CrB, pronounced “T Cor Bor”). It lies in the constellation of the Northern Crown, prominent in the Northern Hemisphere but also visible in the northern sky from Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand, over the next few months.
Most of the time T CrB, which is 3,000 light years away, is much too faint to be seen. But once every 80 years or so, it brightly erupts.
A brand new star suddenly seems to appear, although not for long. Just a few nights later, it will have rapidly faded, disappearing back into the darkness.
A BURST OF LIFE
During the prime of their lives, stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions deep inside their cores. Most commonly, hydrogen is turned into helium, which creates enough energy to keep the star stable and shining for billions of years.
But T CrB is well past its prime and is now a stellar remnant known as a white dwarf. Its internal nuclear fire has been quenched, allowing gravity to compress the dead star dramatically.
A white dwarf is about the same size as Earth but around 300,000 times more massive, generating a mighty gravitational field.
ESA/NASA
T CrB also has a stellar companion – a red giant that has puffed up as it enters old age. The white dwarf mops up the swollen red giant’s gas, and this forms what’s known as an accretion disc around the dead star.
The matter keeps piling up on a star that’s already compressed to its limit, forcing a continual rise in pressure and temperature. Conditions become so extreme they mimic what once would’ve been found inside the star’s core. Its surface ignites in a runaway thermonuclear reaction.
When this happens, the energy released makes T CrB shine 1,500 times brighter than usual. Here on Earth, it briefly appears in the night sky. With this dramatic reset, the star has then expelled the gas, and the cycle can begin all over again.
Animation of a nova erupting as thermonuclear reactions ignite on the smaller white dwarf star.
Credit: NASA/Conceptual Image Lab/Goddard Space Flight Center.
HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S DUE?
T CrB is the brightest of a rare class of recurrent novae that repeat within a hundred years — a time scale that allows astronomers to detect their recurrent nature.
Only ten recurrent novae are currently known, although more novae may be recurrent — just on much greater timescales that aren’t as easily tracked.
The earliest known date of T CrB erupting is from the year 1217, based on observations recorded in a medieval monastic chronicle. It’s remarkable that astronomers can now predict its eruptions so precisely as long as the nova follows its usual pattern.
The star’s two most recent eruptions — in 1866 and 1946 — showed the exact same features. About ten years prior to the eruption, T CrB’s brightness increased a little (known as a high state), followed by a short fading or dip about a year after the explosion.
The light curve of T CrB during the nova event of 1946, compiled from 6,597 observations logged with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/AAVSO
T CrB entered its high state in 2015, and the pre-eruption dip was spotted in March 2023, setting astronomers on alert. What causes these phenomena are just some of the current mysteries surrounding T CrB.
The recent light curve of T CrB shown in two filters or bands – V (green) and B (blue) – and compiled using 95,901 observations from the AAVSO. It’s possible, especially in the B band, to see T CrB enter the high state in 2015 and currently experiencing the pre-eruption dip.
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/AAVSO
HOW CAN I SEE IT?
Start stargazing now! It’s a good idea to get used to seeing Corona Borealis as it is now so that you get the full impact of the “new” star.
Corona Borealis currently reaches its best observing position (known as a meridian transit) around 8:30 pm to 9 pm local time across Australia and Aotearoa. The farther north you are located, the higher the constellation will be in the sky.
The farther north you are located, the higher Corona Borealis will appear in the northern sky. The new star will be about as bright as Alphecca in Corona Borealis or the nearby Rasalhague in Ophiuchus.
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/STELLARIUM
Whereas down south in Hobart, Corona Borealis stays low in the north. The bright star Arcturus acts as a good guide.
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/STELLARIUM
Across Aotearoa, T CrB is best seen around 9pm throughout July. Additional constellations are shown for reference.
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/STELLARIUM
The nova is expected to be a reasonable brightness (magnitude 2.5): about as bright as Imai (Delta Crucis), the fourth brightest star in the Southern Cross. So it will be easy to see even from a city location, if you know where to look.
During July evenings, the Southern Crux can be found on its side, high in the southwest from Australia and Aotearoa.
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/STELLARIUM
WE WON’T HAVE MUCH TIME
We won’t have long once it goes off. The maximum brightness will only last a few hours; within a week T CrB will have faded and you’ll need binoculars to see it.
It almost certainly will be an amateur astronomer that alerts the professional community to the moment when T CrB outbursts.
These dedicated and knowledgeable people routinely monitor stars from their backyards on the chance of “what if” and, therefore, fill an important gap in night sky observations.
The American Association of Variable Star Observing (AAVSO) has a log of over 270,000 submitted observations on T CrB alone. Amateur astronomers are collaborating here and around the world to continually monitor T CrB for the first signs of eruption.
By September, Corona Borealis will be moving lower into the northwest sky and best seen between 7:30 pm to 8 pm local time.
MUSEUMS VICTORIA/STELLARIUM
Hopefully, the nova will erupt as expected sometime before October because, after that, Corona Borealis leaves our evening sky in the Southern Hemisphere.
This article was originally published onThe Conversation by Tanya Hill at Museums Victoria Research Institute and Amanda Karakas at Monash University. Read theoriginal article here.
The Ariane 6 is here. On Tuesday, the European Space Agency launched the 184-foot-tall spacecraft on its inaugural flight from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The feat comesyears behind scheduleand one year after its predecessor, the workhorse Ariane 5, flew for the last time.
The Ariane 6 will take the Arianespace fleet to the next level. The modular design enables the rocket to take on light and heavy launches, adapting to the client’s needs. It can lift off with the power of either two or four boosters. It also offers two lengths for its fairing, the tip of the rocket that carries satellites into space. Ariane 6’s upper stage Vinci engine can also reignite in space, which means that on a single launch, the rocket can deliver several different missions into their orbits. ESA expects it to be a lot cheaper to launch than its predecessors.
But Arianespace still faces tough competition from SpaceX, which currently operates its semi-reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets to provide launch services. SpaceX is already looking ahead to the fully-reusable Starship, which can lift more than ever into space. The Ariane family, unfortunately, is not reusable..
CEO Elon Musk has previously criticized European efforts in the emergent new space race. In March 2021, he wrote on X: “They are aiming too low. Only rockets that are fully & rapidly reusable will be competitive. Everything else will seem like a cloth biplane in the age of jets.”
Here’s what you need to know about how they compare.
An artist's rendering of the two Ariane 5 configurations.
ARIANE 6 VS SPACEX: HOW MUCH CAN IT SEND TO LOW-EARTH ORBIT?
The Ariane 6 will send up varying amounts depending on the booster configuration. The two-booster version, known as Ariane 62, can launch 4,500 to 5,000 kg (9,920 to 11,023 pounds) to geostationary transfer orbit — where the Vinci engine would place a satellite on into the first leg so the mission can transfer towards its final orbit — or 6,500 kilograms (14,330 pounds) to a nearly polar, low-Earth orbit.
In the four-booster configuration, known as Ariane 64, the rocket can launch payloads of around 11,500 kg (25,353 pounds) into geostationary transfer orbit and 21,600 kg (47,620 pounds) into low-Earth orbit.
In its expendable configuration, the Falcon 9 Block 5 (the only variant in operation at the moment) can launch a similar amount to the four-booster Ariane 6. It can send 8,300 kg (18,300 pounds) to geostationary transfer orbit and 22,800 kg (50,265 pounds) to low-Earth orbit. The Falcon Heavy expands on this with the ability to launch 63,800 kilograms (140,660 pounds) to low-Earth orbit.
The Starship is set to blow these figures out of the water, with the ability to send 100,000 to 150,000 kgs (220,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit. Its most recent launch test flew in June 2024.
In 2014, SpaceX first successfully landed a Falcon 9 booster. This component of the rocket, Musk has claimed, comprises around three-quarters of the total rocket price. By 2021, SpaceX was recovering 30 boosters successfully in a year. In April 2024, SpaceX hit a major milestone: 300 total booster recoveries. SpaceX also recovers the boosters used with the Falcon Heavy rocket.
The company has also started attempting to recover the protective fairing that protects the satellite during launch. SpaceX first successfully recovered a fairing in 2019, and it successfully recovered 13 in 2021.
The upcoming Starship should take this to the next level. SpaceX has designed the rocket to be entirely reusable, which means that the booster and ship can return to Earth for re-use after a flight.
The Ariane 6 is not reusable. It stems back to a design decision in 2014, when the space agency chose to stick with expendability. France’s economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, admitted at a 2020 conference that “in 2014 there was a fork in the road, and we didn’t take the right path.”
“We should have made the choice of the reusable launcher,” Le Maire said. “We should have had this audacity.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
ANADOLU AGENCY/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
ARIANE 6 VS. SPACEX: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO LAUNCH?
In January 2021, Politicoreported that the Ariane 6 could launch for as little as $77 million. That’s a steep discount from the $177 million price tag for the Ariane 5.
In October 2023, Ars Technica reported that the Ariane 6 price cut won’t be that large, and roughly $98 million per flight instead. Inflation is partly to blame, according to Arianespace leadership.
SpaceX’s website previously listed the cost of a Falcon 9 launch at $62 million. But CNBC noted in 2020 that the United States Air Force contracts paid around $95 million per Falcon 9 launch. SpaceX estimated the costs for each launch at around $30 million each.
In November 2019, Musk suggested that a Starship could launch for around $2 million each. He’s held that stance into 2024, according to Space News, and still projects a price tag of $2 million to $3 million. If Starship reaches that price point, it will be impressively competitive.
ARIANE 6 VS. SPACEX: WHERE DO THEY LAUNCH FROM?
The Ariane 6, like its predecessor, will launch from Europe’s Spaceport, located around 10 miles from the town of Kourou, French Guiana.
SpaceX has launched the Falcon 9 from three locations:
Florida’s Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral
Florida’s Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center
California’s Space Launch Complex 4E at the Vandenberg Space Force Base
SpaceX has flown four Starship tests from launchpads near its Starbase facility, which hosts development operations, in Cameron County, Texas. The launchpad is located on the Gulf of Mexico, roughly three miles north of the Mexican border.
For the long term, Musk has also suggested that SpaceX could build ocean spaceports to enable point-to-point travel around the Earth using the Starship.
ARIANE 6 VS. SPACEX: CAN IT POWER MISSIONS TO MARS?
ESA expects to send its Earth Return Orbiter mission to Mars in 2027 aboard an Ariane 6. The mission, which will use the Ariane 64 (four-booster) configuration, will be the final part of a multi-phase plan to retrieve samples from Mars:
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which sent the Perseverance rover in February 2021, captures samples in canisters.
NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander mission will land on Mars, and use Sample Recovery Helicopters to collect the samples and a Mars Ascent Vehicle to launch the samples back to space.
ESA designed the Astris kick stage to better support Ariane 6’s missions to Mars. The optional extra will help move payloads into their final positions in orbit.
SpaceX claims that the Falcon 9 can send 4,020 kg (8,860 pounds) to Mars. The company also claims the Falcon Heavy can send 16,800 kilograms (37,040 pounds) to Mars. The latter rocket sent Musk’s red Tesla Roadster into space back in 2018.
Starship may take all this to the next level. The stainless steel rocket is designed to send both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. A version of Starship will ferry the Artemis III astronauts from lunar orbit down to the lunar surface. This mission could fly later this decade.
De ruimte van het zonnestelsel is bijna helemaal leeg, zelfs als je rekening houdt met de hemellichamen die rond de zon draaien, maar minder dan 0,15 procent van de massa van het hele stelsel uitmaken. Toch is het niet zo onwaarschijnlijk dat twee hemellichamen heel dicht bij elkaar kunnen zijn, zoals gebeurde met twee asteroïden die dicht bij de aarde passeerden, slechts een paar dagen na elkaar. De ontdekking werd gedaan door wetenschappers van JPL dankzij de Goldstone Solar System Radar, die er ook in slaagde om enkele beelden van deze asteroïden, die beide potentieel gevaarlijk zijn, vast te leggen.
Eerste waarneming: asteroïde van 1,5 kilometer passeerde dicht bij de aarde
Eén van de doelstellingen van op de ruimte gerichte radars is het relatief vroeg detecteren van de passage van asteroïden vlakbij de aarde. Onlangs werd bijvoorbeeld asteroïde 2011 UL21 slechts 13 dagen vóór zijn dichtste nadering tot onze planeet gedetecteerd. Nu hebben we het over een relatief groot hemellichaam, ongeveer 1,5 kilometer breed en potentieel gevaarlijk voor de aarde.
Gelukkig zijn er momenteel geen risico's, zoals bevestigd door wetenschappers van het Jet Propulsion Laboratory van NASA. 2011 UL21 passeerde feitelijk op 27 juni 2024 op een afstand van ongeveer 6,6 miljoen kilometer, oftewel ongeveer 17 keer de afstand tussen de aarde en de maan. Maar dat is nog niet alles: dankzij de Goldston Solar System Radar heeft JPL ontdekt dat 2011 UL21 niet één enkele asteroïde is, maar een systeem van twee asteroïden in een baan om de aarde. Een beetje zoals wat er gebeurde met Dinkinesh, het kleine binaire systeem dat werd geïdentificeerd door de Lucy-missie die eind 2023 richting Jupiter reisde.
Tweede waarneming: asteroïde passeerde veel dichter bij onze planeet
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Slechts twee dagen na de waarneming van 2011 UL21 op zo'n 6,6 miljoen kilometer van de aarde, hebben wetenschappers van JPL een tweede asteroïde gezien, dit keer veel dichter bij onze planeet. Het gaat om asteroïde 2024 MK, die slechts 150 meter breed is en dus veel kleiner dan het hemellichaam dat eerder werd waargenomen. 2024 MK wordt echter ook beschouwd als een potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïde en deze asteroïde passeerde slechts 295.000 kilometer van de aarde. Met andere woorden, ongeveer driekwart van de afstand die ons van de maan scheidt.
Dergelijke naderingen zijn vrij zeldzaam en komen ongeveer elke 20 jaar voor. Hoewel ze in strikte zin niet gevaarlijk zijn voor onze planeet, zijn ze essentiële informatiebronnen voor ons begrip van het zonnestelsel. De eenvoudige passage naar 295 duizend kilometer van de aarde verminderde bijvoorbeeld de baan van 2024 MK rond de zon met ongeveer 24 dagen.
Potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïden: wat betekent dat?
Er zijn verschillende factoren waarmee wetenschappers bij NASA en andere ruimtevaartorganisaties rekening houden om een asteroïde als "potentieel gevaarlijk" te definiëren. Hiervan zijn de volgende zeer belangrijk:
de afmetingen, met een diameter van minimaal 140 meter;
de afstand tot de aarde, binnen 0,05 Astronomische Eenheden, of ongeveer 7,5 miljoen kilometer;
de naderingssnelheid, de onregelmatige vorm en samenstelling, als secundaire factoren.
Zoals je kunt zien, zijn potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïden niet de asteroïden die een gevaar in de strikte zin van het woord voor de aarde inhouden, een beetje zoals in het geval van 2011 UL21 en 2024 MK. Kortom, we hebben het niet over Chicxulub dat 66 miljoen jaar geleden leidde tot het uitsterven van niet-aviaanse dinosaurussen, maar over hemellichamen die NASA van plan is te observeren tijdens hun passage op een bepaalde afstand van onze planeet. In de hoop dat deze afstand altijd groter zal zijn.
These seven radar observations by the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Solar System Radar shows the mile-wide asteroid 2011 UL21 during its June 27 close approach with Earth from about 4 million miles away. The asteroid and its small moon (a bright dot at the bottom of the image) are circled in white.
Assembled into this animation, observations from NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar show the tumbling asteroid 2024 MK shortly after it made closest approach with our planet on June 29. The 150-meter-wide asteroid’s orbit was slightly altered by Earth’s gravity as it passed.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Did you ever wonder how NASA spots asteroids that maybe getting too close to Earth for comfort? Watch and learn. Find out more about NASA finds, studies and tracks near-Earth objects by visiting
Astronomers don’t just detectexoplanets, or planets that orbit other stars, with today’s sharp telescopes. They can also feel them.
Prior data from the atmosphere of the Jupiter-sized world HD 189733 b, for instance, revealed its harsh, rapidly-blowing rain of glass, and that it is scorchingly hot. A new NASA-supported study found the exoplanet also reeks like rotten eggs.
A study published Monday in the journal Nature shows evidence for the presence of the toxic, nasty-smelling gas hydrogen sulfide in HD 189733 b. The knowledge isn’t just for sensorial space exploration: It shapes how astronomers understand the evolution of all planets under the Sun – err, stars.
An illustration of the Jupiter-sized exoplanet HD 189733 b.
Sewer gas on another world is a helpful clue. The chemical compound aids the construction of more complex molecules, including those essential to life. “Sulfur is a vital element for building more complex molecules, and — like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphate — scientists need to study it more to fully understand how planets are made and what they’re made of,” Guangwei Fu, lead researcher and astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, said in an announcement about the new paper.
In the case of this particular exoplanet, Fu said, researchers aren’t looking for life. Astronomers already know this world, located 64 light years away from Earth, is inhospitable. Temperatures reach 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit there, and its glass-filled wind would humble any terrestrial storm, thanks to its 5,000 mph winds.
“We’re not looking for life on this planet because it’s way too hot, but finding hydrogen sulfide is a stepping stone for finding this molecule on other planets and gaining more understanding of how different types of planets form,” Fu added.
HD 189733 b is one of many exoplanets analyzed through a technique called the transit method. Astronomers glean details about it as the gas giant passes in front of its parent star. HD 189733 b is one of the nearest known “hot Jupiters” to Earth, making it a scientifically-rich object.
According to NASA, there are now more than 5,600 confirmed exoplanets in the Milky Way.
Secretive U-2 test flights caused a spike in UFO sightings, baffling pilots.
U-2 pilots wear NASA-like space suits & must endure challenging takeoff and landing.
U-2 pilots eat through a feeding port to avoid instant death from blood boiling.
With its sleek design and technological prowess, the U-2 spy plane, often referred to as the "Dragon Lady," represents one of the most iconic aircraft in military aviation history. Developed in the early 1950s in response to increasing nuclear and long-range nuclear missile threats from the USSR during the Cold War, the high-flying aircraft changed the landscape of aerial reconnaissance and espionage, providing the United States with unmatched intelligence-gathering capabilities. In this article, we take a look at a healthy handful of interesting facts about the legendary Dragon Lady.
1. Secretive U-2 test flights caused a spike in UFO sightings
Fiery objects in the sky baffle pilots below
When given just eight months to design an aircraft capable of flight above 70,000 feet (21,336 m), Lockheed Chief Engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (pictured below) and his team at the secret Skunk Works plant in California delivered what was essentially a jet-powered glider, the CL-282, which would later be dubbed the U-2. As time was of the essence, the design was quickly approved by the CIA, and production was immediately underway.
Photo: US Air Force
The "U" in U-2 stands for "utility," a deliberately misleading categorization of the then-secretive aircraft's purpose.
Completed units were delivered to the highly classified Nevada Test and Training Range, also known as Area 51, for testing under tremendous secrecy. According to the CIA, high-altitude testing of the aircraft led to a significant spike in UFO reports. With most commercial flights flying under 20,000 ft (6,096 m) and military aircraft below 40,000 ft (12,192 m), pilots of these aircraft were dumbfounded by the object flying above them at 60,000 ft (18,288 m), a feat considered impossible at the time
Under certain conditions, the sun would reflect off the then-silver wings of the U-2, which made them appear as "fiery objects" flying high above to pilots below. The overwhelming reports of UFOs led to the USAF's Operation Blue Book, also known asProject Blue Book, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Photo: US Air Force
Operation Blue Book gathered all the reports of UFOs and cross-referenced them against U-2 flight logs. USAF investigators would subsequently dismiss the reports as "natural phenomena," unable to reveal the truth behind these sightings. U-2 (and later OXCART) are believed to have been the source of over half of the UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s.
The U-2 spy plane has had a long career, although it appears to be finally approaching the end of it.
Photo: US Air Force
2. Suited for space travel
U-2 pilots wear space suits similar to those worn by NASA astronauts
Photo: Senior Airman Alexander Recupero | US Air Force
Soaring to the edge of space at altitudes over 70,000 feet (21,336 m), U-2 pilots are required to wear specialized space suits, also known as full-pressure suits, made by the same company that supplies NASA, to ensure their survival in the harsh environment of the upper atmosphere. The model S1034 space suit serve as a personal life support system, should the cockpit pressurization system fail, and are key to safeguarding the pilots against decompression sickness, hypoxia, and exposure to the near-vacuum conditions of high altitudes.
Photo: US Air Force
The suit's engineering is nothing short of remarkable, meticulously designed to balance safety, functionality, and comfort, highlighting the extreme conditions U-2 pilots face. It features a distinct helmet equipped with a communications system, a visor that can be heated to prevent fogging and an oxygen supply system that guarantees the pilot has a steady flow of breathable air. Furthermore, the suit includes a cooling garment integrated with tubing to circulate temperature-controlled water, ensuring the pilot remains comfortable during long missions.
The space suit worn by U-2 pilots costs about $250,000.
3. It's like riding a bicycle...that weighs 16,000 pounds with massive wings
The U-2 has a very unique set of wheels
Photo: US Air Force
Designed to minimize aircraft weight and promote higher altitude, the U-2's unique landing gear configuration distinguishes it from most conventional aircraft. Unlike typical aircraft that utilize a tricycle arrangement, the U-2 employs a bicycle-style arrangement with two sets of wheels positioned along the longitudinal axis of the fuselage.
This setup includes a forward main landing gear located just behind the cockpit and an aft main landing gear near the tail and connected to the rudder to provide steering functionality during taxiing.
The U-2 was named "The Dragon Lady" after a character in the comic strip, "Terry and the Pirates," drawn by Milton Caniff in 1934.
To maintain balance during takeoff, the U-2 utilizes outrigger gears, known colloquially as "pogos." These removable wheels are attached to mid-wing sockets and jettisoned during takeoff, falling to the runway. Upon landing, once the aircraft comes to rest on its wingtip, the pogos are reinstalled for taxiing. Suffice it to say that U-2 takeoff and landing procedures are not for the faint of heart, as shown in the X link below.
The U-2 is widely considered the most difficult airplane to fly. Mastery of the U-2 requires an exceptional level of expertise, dexterity, and resilience, qualities that define the elite group of pilots (fewer than 1500) capable of taming the "Dragon Lady." There are several factors contributing to its notoriously difficult handling, making it a true test of a pilot's skill and endurance.
Firstly, the U-2 operates at extreme altitudes, often above 70,000 ft (21,336 m), where the air is thin and the margin for error is minimal. The aircraft's design prioritizes performance at these altitudes over ease of control, leading to a unique combination of a highly sensitive control system and low maneuverability.
"A lot of the earlier guys described it as like, wrestling the dragon...I describe it as like trying to fly a dump truck with wings."
Secondly, the U-2's takeoff and landing phases are particularly challenging. During takeoff, the aircraft's massive wings and lightweight frame make it highly susceptible to crosswinds and other atmospheric disturbances.
Landing the U-2 is equally daunting due to the bicycle-like landing gear configuration, as described above. Landing the U-2 requires exceptional skill and coordination, as the pilot must balance on the bicycle gear while reducing speed and altitude, with the assistance of a chase car driven by another pilot as shown below, providing real-time feedback and assistance. To make matters worse, visibility is limited during the landing because of the plane's unique design.
Moreover, pilots must endure long missions that can extend beyond ten hours, confined to a pressurized suit similar to those worn by astronauts. This suit is necessary due to the harsh conditions at cruising altitude and introduces additional challenges in terms of physical comfort, fatigue management, and sustenance.
The U-2 is still in service but the US Air Force plans to retire the iconic aircraft in 2026.
5. What do U-2 pilots eat during flight?
Hint: The Dragon Lady isn't much of a cook
Photo: David Kamm | US Army
Flying sorties up to and beyond ten hours, U-2 pilots often need to eat and drink during flight. However, at such extreme altitudes, doing so isn't as simple as it sounds. According to U-2 Support Launch and Recovery Supervisor Staff Sergeant David Labarge, U-2 pilots are instructed that once their helmet is locked down, they are not to open it until they land. Failure to heed this warning could have disastrous consequences.
As long as the cockpit is pressurized, theoretically, a U-2 pilot could safely open their helmet to eat, scratch their nose, or have a sip of water. However, Sgt. Labarge cautions that, at such high altitudes, were a pilot to open their helmet and the cockpit pressurization system suddenly failed, "the blood in their body would instantaneously boil, leading to instantaneous death."
"The blood in their body would instantaneously boil, leading to instantaneous death."
As such, the helmet is designed with a feeding port through which pilots can drink from a gravity-fed water bottle and eat "tube food, made by the same people who make traditional meals-ready-to-eat (MRE).
Photo: Airman 1st Class Drew Buchanan | US Air Force
The food is squeezed from a toothpaste-like tube through the helmet's feeding port directly into the pilot's mouth.
Photo: Jeff Sisto | US Army
Dinner service aboard a U-2 offers a variety of choices, including beef stroganoff, truffle mac and cheese, chicken alfredo, peaches, pears, chocolate pudding, and even caffeinated cinnamon applesauce. A heater inside the aircraft ensures their meatloaf-in-a-tube is nice and hot. Bon Appétit!
The Starliner crew is on the International Space Station for the long haul, according to NASA in a press conference today.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is already on day 35 of what was originally supposed to be a nine-day mission, and it won’t leave the International Space Station (ISS) before the end of July, NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich and Boeing VP for commercial crew Mark Nappi told the press during a call earlier today. Engineers and technicians on the ground are finishing tests — and analyzing a mountain of data — on the spacecraft’s thrusters and a helium leak, and it could be at least another two or three weeks before they’re ready to bring Starliner home for anything short of an (unlikely) emergency evacuation from ISS.
Inverse has all the details about why it’s taking so long to bring Starliner home, how the not-stranded-but-definitely-delayed crew is spending their time in orbit, and why the spacecraft has to leave ISS by mid-August.
A satellite in orbit took this photo of the Starliner capsule docked to the forward port of the International Space Station. We live in the future.
MAXAR/MAXAR/GETTY IMAGES
AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION
Boeing and NASA don’t believe that any of Starliner’s thrusters are damaged, say Stich and Nappi speaking at a press conference on Wednesday. If Starliner had to leave the International Space Station immediately (maybe because of a collision with a piece of satellite debris, like the near-miss that caused the crew to take shelter aboard Starliner earlier this week), the ship could get its crew home safely, according to Nappi.
“If we were to have to do that today, we would just perform a nominal undocking and return,” Nappi told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.
The extensive tests keeping the spacecraft docked at ISS, they said at the press conference, are a chance for engineers to figure out exactly why five of Starliner’s 28 maneuvering thrusters (technically called the Reaction Control System, or RCS) failed while the spacecraft was docking with the International Space Station on June 6. Starliner’s service module — which houses the thrusters — is designed to burn up during re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere, so once the ship heads home, engineers will lose their chance to poke at the problem.
Boeing and NASA also want to be extremely sure there’s actually nothing wrong. “We don’t believe that we have damaged thrusters, but we want to fill in the blanks and run these tests to assure ourselves of this,” Nappi says.
Stich adds, “Really, what we're doing is just taking the time to make sure that we have looked under every rock and every stone, just to make sure that there's nothing that would surprise us.”
STARLINER RECAP: FAILED THRUSTERS AND HELIUM LEAKS
During its rendezvous with ISS on June 6, five of Starliner's 28 maneuvering thrusters failed. The crew and mission control managed to get four of them back online, but one (thruster B1A3) refused to cooperate, first sputtering out just 11 percent of its normal thrust, and then nothing at all. B1A3 will remain shut off for the rest of the mission.
The thruster issues appeared after Starliner had to fire its thruster more — and more often, in several short pulses — than engineers had expected.
And then there are the helium leaks. Starliner uses helium to pressurize its thrusters, and some of that helium is leaking out around the O-rings used to seal the area where the helium — and two lines that carry rocket propellant — pass through a flange and into the thruster.
"Helium was getting out from that flange area and somehow getting around that O-ring," says Nappi "The design should have been sufficient, but there's obviously something going on in that cavity that we don't understand."
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the first crew to fly aboard Starliner.
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES NEWS/GETTY IMAGES
SO MUCH TESTING, SO LITTLE TIME
Last week, Starliner test-fired its thrusters while docked to the ISS, using the station’s flight control system to measure how much thrust the thrusters were actually thrusting (Inverse would certainly not like to apologize for that sentence, thank you).
Meanwhile, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, engineers have test fired several thrusters, trying to re-create the extreme temperatures and workload Starliner’s thrusters faced during flight. Those tests are now complete, but engineers still need to physically check the tested thrusters for damage and analyze a tremendous collection of data about their performance. Next, engineers will be repeating the process — but this time they’ll be simulating the “downhill” phase of the mission, or the return to Earth.
“We really wanted to get that testing completed and actually physically inspect the thruster before we committed to the nominal undocking,” says Stich. “I think there's ways from what we've learned from this flight to change the number of pulses required for the rendezvous and docking phase to not put such demand on the thrusters.”
Engineers are also working on the helium leak, which means smearing grease on spare flanges, tossing debris into them, and blasting them with heat to test possible causes for the leak. They also need to make sure that the thrusters are still getting enough helium to keep them pressurized — at least enough to work reliably and safely.
“We would like to duplicate that flange design on the ground under a controlled test and see if we can't make it leak, and experiment with some larger seals or maybe a different seal material that might not be as susceptible to degradation from the propellant,” said Nappi.
“THE NATURE OF WHAT WE DO”
To bystanders, it seems like an alarming situation: a new spacecraft launches with its first crew, only for its thrusters to fail and start leaking helium pressurizer. But for test pilots like Starliner test commander Butch Wilmore, it’s another day at the office.
“Human spaceflight is not easy. There have been multiple issues with every spacecraft that has ever been designed, and that's the nature of what we do,” said Wilmore.
Nappi and Stich repeated a similar message to reporters.
“We knew that there would be some learning from this flight test. We've learned a great deal from how the hardware works, how our processes work, and how we can improve the things that we're doing,” said Nappi. “As engineers, we test, we learn, we fix, and that’s exactly what we’re going through.”
Starliner launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, following several delays.
ANADOLU/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES
MAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM!
The testing and analysis are likely to take another couple of weeks, at least, which means Wilmore and Starliner test pilot Suni Williams probably won’t be bidding farewell to the ISS until at least the end of July – and Stich described that possible timeframe as optimistic. But Starliner needs to be on its way by mid-August, when a SpaceX Crew Dragon is set to bring a new quartet of spacefarers (astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, as well as Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov) to the ISS.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that carried Crew-8 (astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin) to the ISS is still docked at the station, waiting for Crew-8 to hop aboard and fly it home. Before they leave, though, they need to meet and brief their replacements, a process NASA calls a handover. Crew-9 will dock their Crew Dragonwith ISS and come aboard before Crew-8 leaves. At the moment, that’s a problem, because Starliner is sitting in Crew-9’s parking spot.
That gives NASA and Boeing a deadline for finishing their tests and either deeming Starliner fit to fly home or making other arrangements.
“The beautiful thing about the commercial crew program is that we have two vehicles, two different systems, that we could use to return the crew,” said Stich, referring to Starliner and Crew Dragon. “We have a little more time to go through the data and decide whether we need to do anything different but the prime option today is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner.”
“LIKE COMING BACK HOME”
For now, Wilmore and Williams are safe and sound on the ISS, where they’ve been pitching in with maintenance and science experiments.
“Butch and I have been up here before, and it feels like coming back home,” says Williams. “We've been integrated right into Expedition 71. We've been doing science with them, maintenance, and some major maintenance that has been waiting for a little while.”
Wilmore recently tested NASA’s Moon Microscope, a handheld 3D-printed microscope that’s part of a medical kit that could help future lunar explorers diagnose illnesses and make sure their food, water, and quarters aren’t contaminated. And Williams sequenced DNA while zipping around Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. The pair also helped swap out a urine processor pump. (Never a dull moment aboard ISS, and no lack of variety, either.)
Stich says the whole ISS crew is comfortable and has plenty of supplies — including things like food and clothing — to last the duration. A Northrop-Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch in early August, bringing new supplies and probably some extra items from home for the Starliner crew, if they’re still aboard. Meanwhile, this isn’t even close to the most crowded the ISS has ever been.
In fact, situations like this one may become more common over the next few years. Stich, paraphrasing retired astronaut Ken Bowersox, said earlier today that now that ISS can provide electricity to docked spacecraft, it can serve as a sort of temporary hangar for engineers to troubleshoot spacecraft in orbit.
Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore sound calm and confident – which is also part of their job.
“I have a really good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home,” says Williams.
Astronomen hebben niet al te ver weg een veelbelovende superaarde ontdekt, waar het in ieder geval best lekker weer is. De exoplaneet is een ijs- of waterwereld, dat weten ze nog niet.
An artist’s impression of exoplanet LHS 1140 orbiting a red dwarf star 41 light-years distant. ESO/SpaceEngine.org
LHS 1140 b, die op zo’n 48 lichtjaar van de aarde staat, is een van de meest veelbelovende exoplaneten met een leefbare zone. Hij heeft zelfs mogelijk een atmosfeer en een oceaan met vloeibaar water, blijkt uit de data van de James Webb-telescoop.
Mogelijk water “Dit is de eerste keer dat we een hint van een atmosfeer hebben gezien op een rotsachtige of ijzige exoplaneet met een bewoonbare zone. Het vinden van een atmosfeer op kleine, rotsachtige werelden is een belangrijk doel voor James Webb, maar dat is veel moeilijker dan op grote planeten”, vertelt Ryan MacDonald van NASA. “LHS 1140 b is een van de beste kleine exoplaneten met een bewoonbare zone waar een dikke atmosfeer kan zijn, en we hebben daar mogelijk net bewijs van gevonden.”
LHS 1140 b, een exoplaneet die om een rode dwergster draait die ongeveer een vijfde zo groot is als onze zon, is zo interessant, omdat het een van de dichtstbijzijnde exoplaneten is die binnen de bewoonbare zone van zijn ster ligt. Dat wil zeggen dat de temperatuur dusdanig gematigd is dat er vloeibaar water kan bestaan, een cruciaal element voor leven.
Superaarde of mini-Neptunus? De vraag was in eerste instantie of LHS 1140 b een mini-Neptunus zou zijn of een superaarde, dus een kleine ijsreus met een waterstofrijke atmosfeer of een rotsachtige, waterrijke planeet, die groter is dan de aarde. Maar uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de pas ontdekte exoplaneet eigenlijk geen ijsreus kan zijn. Het lijkt er veel meer op dat LHS 1140 b inderdaad een superaarde is met mogelijk zelfs een stikstofrijke atmosfeer, zoals onze planeet ook heeft.
Maar er is meer: volgens de eerste metingen is de dichtheid van de planeet kleiner dan verwacht, wat erop kan wijzen dat 10 tot 20 procent van zijn massa uit water bestaat. Het maakt LHS 1140 b een overtuigende kandidaat als waterwereld. Mogelijk lijkt de planeet op een sneeuwbal of ijsplaneet met een vloeibare oceaan op het stuk dat altijd naar zijn ster wijst.
Beste gok op water “Van alle momenteel bekende gematigde exoplaneten zou LHS 1140 b wel eens onze beste gok kunnen zijn om op een dag vloeibaar water op het oppervlak van een wereld buiten ons zonnestelsel te vinden”, aldus hoofdonderzoeker Charles Cadieux van de Université de Montréal. “Dit zou een belangrijke mijlpaal zijn in de zoektocht naar potentieel bewoonbare exoplaneten.”
De aanwezigheid van stikstof toont aan dat de planeet wellicht een substantiële atmosfeer heeft behouden, waardoor omstandigheden ontstaan die vloeibaar water mogelijk maken. De huidige modellen laten zien dat als LHS 1140 b een aarde-achtige atmosfeer heeft, het een sneeuwbalplaneet zou zijn met een oceaan met een diameter van zo’n 4000 kilometer, ongeveer half zo groot als de Atlantische Oceaan. De oppervlaktetemperatuur in het midden van deze buitenaardse oceaan zou zelfs een comfortabele 20 graden Celsius kunnen zijn.
Uitzonderlijke planeet De potentiële atmosfeer en gunstige omstandigheden voor vloeibaar water maken de planeet een uitzonderlijk goede kandidaat voor mogelijk leven. “Dit is onze eerste glimp van een atmosfeer op een superaarde in de bewoonbare zone. Vergeleken met andere bekende exoplaneten, zoals die in het TRAPPIST-1-systeem, lijkt de ster LHS 1140 rustiger en minder actief, waardoor het minder ingewikkeld is om de atmosfeer te onderscheiden van signalen die worden veroorzaakt door sterrenvlekken”, vertelt MacDonald.
Volgens de wetenschapper is LHS 1140 b misschien wel de beste planeet met een bewoonbare zone die tot nu toe bekend is. “Hoewel we meer James Webb-waarnemingen nodig hebben om de stikstofrijke atmosfeer te bevestigen en om naar andere gassen te zoeken, is dit een heel veelbelovende start.”
SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket suffered a rare anomaly on Thursday night (July 11).
The incident occurred during a launch of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites fromVandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 performed well initially; its two stages separated on time, and the first stage came down for a landing on a drone ship about eight minutes after liftoff as planned.
But the rocket's upper stage, which was hauling 20 Starlink spacecraft to low Earth orbit, encountered a problem — a leak of liquid oxygen, which had serious repercussions for the mission.
Screenshot from the webcast of a SpaceX Starlink satellite launch on July 11, 2024, showing a buildup of liquid-oxygen ice on the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket. (Image credit: SpaceX)
"After a planned relight of the upper-stage engine to raise perigee — or the lowest point of orbit — the Merlin Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete its second burn," SpaceX wrote in an update today (July 12). (The Falcon 9's upper stage is powered by that single engine; the first stage sports nine Merlins, which explains the rocket's name.)
SpaceX engineers worked to get the 20 Starlink satellites — 13 of which were capable of beaming service directly to cell phones — to raise their orbits using their onboard ion thrusters. But the hill was too steep to climb, according to the company.
"At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites," SpaceX wrote in the update. "As such, the satellites will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise. They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety."
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a ship at sea shortly after launching 20 Starlink satellites to orbit from California on July 11, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The Falcon 9 is the most prolific rocket flying today, with 69 launches under its belt already in 2024. It's known for its reliability; before Thursday night, the Falcon 9 had suffered only one full in-flight failure in its storied history, which occurred during the launch of a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2015.
The Falcon 9 is also human-rated; it has launched 13 crewed missions to date, nine of which have sent astronauts to the ISS for NASA. It's unclear how Thursday's failure will affect the rocket and its manifest at this point; SpaceX will first need to figure out exactly what happened and how to address the issue — an effort that's already underway.
"SpaceX will perform a full investigation in coordination with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration], determine root cause, and make corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions," SpaceX wrote in today's update. "With a robust satellite and rocket production capability, and a high launch cadence, we’re positioned to rapidly recover and continue our pace as the world’s most active launch services provider."
Most Falcon 9 missions these days service the giant and ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 6,100 operational satellites; 49 of the 69 Falcon 9 launches so far in 2024 have been dedicated Starlink missions.
Editor's note:This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. ET on July 12 with the news from SpaceX that all 20 Starlink satellites will be lost due to the Falcon 9 upper-stage failure.
A stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites, which included the first six featuring Direct to Cell capabilities. The batch launched on the Starlink 7-9 mission, which lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Jan. 2, 2024.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
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