Planets aligned: how to see the astronomical phenomenon set to light up Australia’s sky

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Admin

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus will be in alignment near the moon and visible using binoculars from Tuesday evening

A planetary alignment is set to light up Australia’s night sky.

Five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus – will be in alignment near the moon from Tuesday evening.

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‘In awe’: New Zealand aurora hunters entranced by unusually bright southern lights display

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Admin

Recent auroras have been so intense they have been visible as far north as Auckland

The lure of unusually vibrant views of the southern lights in New Zealand has prompted aurora-hunters to drive for hours through the night to capture the “elusive” sight on camera, with social media groups devoted to swapping tips growing in size.

The aurora australis is always more visible in New Zealand and Australian skies during autumn and winter – beginning in March in the southern hemisphere – but this month, the southern lights have been more visible than usual, analysts say. Auroras – beautiful light shows in the night sky – are seen when sunspots erupt, causing solar storms which send material from the sun towards Earth.

Australian military looks to build crucial space capabilities that will support Aukus nuclear subs

Posted on March 22, 2023 by Admin

Defence department puts out call for satellites that can talk to each other and to the ground, are ‘scalable, rapidly deployable and re-constitutable’

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Defence is looking for a mesh of military space satellites that can talk to each other as well as to the ground, and is “scalable, rapidly deployable and re-constitutable”.

The system, in other words, would need to be able to be made bigger, to be quickly put into action, and to be repaired in case of attack or accident.

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James Webb space telescope captures rare image of dying star

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Admin

Picture released of star in Sagitta constellation on the cusp of going supernova

James Webb telescope gives a stunning look at galaxies far, far away

The James Webb space telescope has captured the rare and fleeting phase of a star on the cusp of death.

The observation was among the first made by the telescope following its launch in late 2021, but the picture was not released until this week. Webb’s infrared eyes observed all the gas and dust flung into space by a huge, hot star 15,000 light years away. A light-year is about 5.8tn miles.

Fragments of ‘Valentine’s fireball’ meteorite fall in southern Italy

Posted on February 19, 2023 by Admin

Object hit balcony in Matera and remnants in pristine condition – ‘almost as if we collected it directly from space’, says expert

Residents of southern Italy’s picturesque and ancient “city of stone” have been gripped by another rocky phenomenon after a meteorite crash-landed on the balcony of a home in Matera’s suburbs.

The space object, which had been travelling at about 200mph, was spotted in the skies above the Puglia and Basilicata regions on 14 February, becoming known as “Valentine’s fireball”, before falling on to the balcony of the home of brothers Gianfranco and Pino Losignore and their parents.

Bizarre ‘whirlpool’ appears in night sky above Hawaii

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Admin

Phenomenon believed to have origins in launch of military GPS satellite from SpaceX in Florida

A camera on top of Hawaii’s tallest mountain has captured what looks like a spiral swirling through the night sky.

Researchers believe the strange phenomenon is linked to a military GPS satellite that launched from a SpaceX rocket in Florida.

Dark energy ‘chameleon trap’ wins £100,000 prize for Nottingham scientist

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Admin

Ingeniously simple lab experiment led by Prof Clare Burrage recognised by Blavatnik awards

Dark energy is the enigma at the heart of modern physics: the universe is supposed to be awash with the stuff, but it has never been seen and its nature is unknown.

When faced with a mystery of such epic proportions, simply eliminating certain options is considered a success. This week such an advance, using an ingeniously simple desktop experiment, was recognised by the prestigious Blavatnik award for young scientists.

Over the moon! Buzz Aldrin marries ‘long-time love’ on his 93rd birthday

Posted on January 21, 2023 by Admin

Second man to walk on the moon says he and Anca Faur are ‘as excited as eloping teenagers’

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has announced that he got married to his long-term partner on his 93rd birthday.

The retired astronaut celebrated his birthday on Friday and said on Twitter that he “tied the knot” with Dr Anca Faur, 63, in a small ceremony in Los Angeles.

US government logs more than 500 UFO reports with hundreds unexplained

Posted on January 12, 2023 by Admin

Although many are attributed to drones or balloons, others point to the spying capabilities of rival nations

The US government is examining 510 UFO reports, more than triple the number in its 2021 file. While many were caused by drones or balloons, hundreds remain unexplained, according to a report released on Thursday.

The 2022 report (pdf) by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said that 247 “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAP reports have been filed with it since June 2021, when it revealed that it had records of 144 sightings of suspicious aerial objects under examination.

Attack from space would trigger collective defence, say US and Japan, amid China fears

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Admin

Antony Blinken says China is ‘greatest shared strategic challenge’ in the region as US backs Japan’s biggest military build-up since second world war

The US and Japan have said that an attack in space would trigger their security treaty, as senior officials from both countries warned that China represents the “greatest strategic challenge” to regional security.

“We agree that [China] is the greatest shared strategic challenge that we, our allies and partners face,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Thursday after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in Washington.

UK’s first orbital rocket mission takes off from Cornwall

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Admin

Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission heralded as start of new space era as Boeing 747 to deliver rocket carrying satellites into orbit

A historic rocket mission has set off from Cornwall as a specially converted Boeing 747 heads out over the Atlantic carrying a payload of nine satellites that it will propel into orbit.

Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission is the first launch of satellites from European soil and is being heralded as the start of a new space era for the UK.

Thousands expected in Cornwall for Europe’s first satellite launch

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Admin

Start Me Up mission will send nine civil and defence satellites into orbit from Newquay spaceport on Monday

Thousands of people are expected to descend on Cornwall to witness the first orbital rocket launch from UK soil in what is being heralded as the start of a “new era” for the British space industry.

As long as there are no last-minute technical hitches – and the Cornish weather does not spoil the party – the historic Start Me Up mission will take off on Monday night from Spaceport Cornwall, blasting nine satellites into orbit.

‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon

Posted on January 2, 2023 by Admin

Administrator Bill Nelson says Beijing could seek ‘own’ resource-rich areas and next two years could be key to US-China contest

The US is locked in a space race with China and the country needs to “watch out” that its rival does not gain a foothold and try to dominate lunar resources, Nasa’s top official has warned.

The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.

Nasa’s uncrewed Orion capsule splashes down after ‘historic’ moon mission

Posted on December 11, 2022 by Admin

US space agency rejoices after re-entry of spacecraft that should clear way for possible lunar landing of astronauts by 2025

Fifty years to the day after astronauts last walked on the moon, Nasa’s uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific on Sunday at the end of a mission that should clear the way for a possible lunar landing of astronauts by 2025.

The US space agency rejoiced in a near-perfect re-entry of the capsule which splashed down to the west of Mexico’s Baja California near Guadalupe Island. Though it carried no astronauts, the spacecraft did contain three test dummies wired with vibration sensors and radiation monitors to divine how humans would have fared.

Nasa’s Orion spacecraft enters lunar orbit as test flight nears halfway mark

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Admin

Nasa considers capsule’s flight a dress rehearsal for the next moon flyby in 2024, with astronauts

Nasa’s Orion capsule has entered an orbit stretching tens of thousands of miles around the moon, as it neared the halfway mark of its test flight.

The capsule and its three test dummies entered lunar orbit more than a week after launching on the $4bn demo that’s meant to pave the way for astronauts. It will remain in this broad but stable orbit for nearly a week, completing just half a lap before heading home.

Astronauts to live and work on the moon by 2030, Nasa official says

Posted on November 20, 2022 by Admin

Head of Orion lunar programme says Artemis 1 mission is ‘first step to long-term deep-space exploration’

Astronauts are on course to be living and working on the moon before the end of the decade, according to a Nasa official.

Howard Hu, the head of the US agency’s Orion lunar spacecraft programme, said humans could be active on the moon for “durations” before 2030, with habitats to live in and rovers to support their work.

Nasa’s rocket launch to the moon next week aims to close 50-year-long gap

Posted on November 13, 2022 by Admin

Barring technical issues and Florida’s weather, Artemis 1 will launch after midnight Wednesday on a 15-day, 1.3m-mile journey

Fifty years ago this month, mission managers at the US space agency Nasa gave the final go-ahead for what would turn out to be humanity’s most recent odyssey to the moon. Few realized at the time it would be more than half a century before Nasa would be ready to return, not least Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, whose belief as he stepped back into the lunar module in December 1972 was that it would be “not too long into the future” that astronauts were there again.

Four minutes after midnight Wednesday, late technical issues and Florida’s weather gods notwithstanding, Artemis 1, the most powerful rocket ship in history, will attempt to close that decades-long gap.

‘Blood moon’ total lunar eclipse to arrive on Tuesday

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Admin

Total eclipse to be visible in North America, Asia and the Pacific, but Africa, Middle East and Europe will have to wait until 2025

The moon is set to pull off a disappearing act on Tuesday, and those who miss it will have to wait three years for another chance to see something like it again.

A total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout North America before dawn on Tuesday, giving those further west the best view. In Asia, Australia and the rest of the Pacific, it will be visible after sunset.

Spanish airspace partially closed as Chinese rocket debris falls to Earth

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Admin

Huge chunk of Long March 5B rocket launched four days previously re-enters atmosphere

A hefty chunk of the massive rocket used to deliver the third module of China’s Tiangong space station has fallen back to Earth uncontrolled, triggering the closure of some of Spain’s airspace and leading to hundreds of flight delays.

Four days after blasting off from southern China, a large part of the Long March 5B (CZ-5B) rocket broke up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the south-central Pacific ocean at 10.01 UTC, according to European and US space authorities.

Ray of joy: Nasa captures image of the sun ‘smiling’

Posted on October 29, 2022 by Admin

Satellite photo shows what appears to be a happy face pattern on the sun with dark patches called ‘coronal holes’

A Nasa satellite captured an image of what appeared to be a happy face pattern on the sun earlier this week, prompting the US space agency to say the sun was seen “smiling”.

The agency released the image Wednesday on Twitter, writing: “Today, Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the sun ‘smiling.’ Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space.”

Roundup Newswires

Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network

Category Archives: Space

Planets aligned: how to see the astronomical phenomenon set to light up Australia’s sky

‘In awe’: New Zealand aurora hunters entranced by unusually bright southern lights display

Australian military looks to build crucial space capabilities that will support Aukus nuclear subs

James Webb space telescope captures rare image of dying star

Fragments of ‘Valentine’s fireball’ meteorite fall in southern Italy

Bizarre ‘whirlpool’ appears in night sky above Hawaii

Dark energy ‘chameleon trap’ wins £100,000 prize for Nottingham scientist

Over the moon! Buzz Aldrin marries ‘long-time love’ on his 93rd birthday

US government logs more than 500 UFO reports with hundreds unexplained

Attack from space would trigger collective defence, say US and Japan, amid China fears

UK’s first orbital rocket mission takes off from Cornwall

Thousands expected in Cornwall for Europe’s first satellite launch

‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon

Nasa’s uncrewed Orion capsule splashes down after ‘historic’ moon mission

Nasa’s Orion spacecraft enters lunar orbit as test flight nears halfway mark

Astronauts to live and work on the moon by 2030, Nasa official says

Nasa’s rocket launch to the moon next week aims to close 50-year-long gap

‘Blood moon’ total lunar eclipse to arrive on Tuesday

Spanish airspace partially closed as Chinese rocket debris falls to Earth

Ray of joy: Nasa captures image of the sun ‘smiling’