Tag: Astrophysics
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Astronauts complete bonus objectives in first in series of AMS repair spacewalks
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is perched on the end of the space station’s robotic arm during Friday’s spacewalk. Credit: NASA Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, breezing through work to prep…
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Complex spacewalk repair work begins Friday
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano are gearing up for a spacewalk Friday to begin repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument outside the International Space Station. Credit: NASA After four years of brainstorming, custom tool development and training, two astronauts plan to venture…
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Repair equipment for particle physics experiment aboard next station cargo launch
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument has been collecting data on the International Space Station since 2011. Credit: NASA Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship set for liftoff Saturday will deliver to the International Space Station the final hardware for a series of ambitious spacewalks later this month to install a new coolant system on the Alpha…
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German X-ray telescope achieves ‘first light’
This image shows our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, observed in a series of exposures with all seven eROSITA telescope modules taken Oct. 18 to Oct. 19, 2019. The diffuse emission originates from the hot gas between the stars with temperatures typically a few million degrees. The more compact nebulous structures in the image…
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Egyptian satellite, ESA science probe share plane ride to launch base
These photos show the loading of Egypt’s TIBA 1 communications satellite (left) and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS scientific satellite (right) on an Antonov An-124 cargo plane at Toulouse-Blagnac airport in France for transport to Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: Airbus Defense and Space/P. Masclet/Master Films A European-built communications satellite, manufactured in secret for the Egyptian…
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Japan’s KAGRA detector joins LIGO and Virgo in global hunt for gravitational waves
An illustration provides a cutaway view of the underground KAGRA gravitational-wave detector in Japan. (ICRR / Univ. of Tokyo Illustration) Japan’s Kamioka Gravitational-Wave Detector, or KAGRA, is due to start teaming up with similar detectors in Washington state, Louisiana and Italy in December, boosting scientists’ ability to triangulate on the origins of cataclysmic cosmic events…
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James Webb Space Telescope fully assembled in California
Teams have connected James Webb Space Telescope’s science and spacecraft segments for the first time. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn Teams working in Northrop Grumman’s spacecraft factory in Southern California have connected the spacecraft and science modules of the James Webb Space Telescope for the first time, a major milestone as engineers prepare to verify a fix…
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A double whammy of gravitational waves sparks a burst of black hole speculation
Artwork shows the merger of two black holes, which gives off a burst of gravitational waves. (SXS Graphic) Two detections of gravitational waves, separated by a mere 21 minutes, set off a flurry of excitement among astronomers today. Was it a binary black-hole merger? A double observation of a single black-hole merger, created by gravitational…
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Halfway through all-sky survey, NASA’s planet-hunting TESS mission gets extension
Artist’s concept of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Credit: NASA NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, fresh off a two-year extension to keep operating through 2022, has turned its cameras to image the northern sky after cataloguing nearly 1,000 candidate planets around other stars in the first year of its mission. The TESS mission reached the…
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Russia launches international X-ray astronomy mission
A Proton rocket and Block DM upper stage climbed into space Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Spektr-RG, an astronomical observatory with dual X-ray telescopes developed by Russian and German scientists on the hunt for the signature of dark energy. The new observatory will detect X-ray emissions from across the sky, including those…