This time, astronomers will see all the way to the Milky Way’s edge.
The upcoming release will add some previously unavailable information, including about the chemical compositions, ages and masses of millions of stars.
Related: 4 big Milky Way mysteries the next Gaia mission data dump may solve.
NASA will launch a mission that will both fly by Venus and descend through its harsh atmosphere in 2029. Called DAVINCI, the Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging mission will be the first to study Venus through both flybys and descent.
The spacecraft is expected to explore the layered Venusian atmosphere and reach its surface by June 2031. The DAVINCI mission will be able to capture data about Venus that scientists have been eager to measure since the early 1980s.
Only two NASA missions have previously visited the second planet from our sun – Pioneer in 1978 and Magellan in the early ’90s.
NASA’s Artemis mission has the chief goals of sending astronauts to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon and learning what is necessary to send the first astronauts to Mars. But it’s also planning to do so much more than that.
One of its many scientific mission will see the agency send the Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) and the Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA) to the Moon in order to explore the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes, geological features that have puzzled scientists for years.
A China military publication says the Starlink internet service may be used by the US to bring “chaos or calamity’’ to the world.
For all the fuss it caused, it is only about a foot high.
The “door” was imaged by NASA’s Curiosity rover on May 7 on the slopes of Mount Sharp, the central massif within Gale crater, where it landed in 2012. Described on one website as a “pharaonic tomb door” because of its resemblance to some ancient Egyptian remains, it is, in fact, only about one foot high.
It is hard to spot on the panoramic image mosaic of the hillside above, but it leaps out at the eye if you see the individual frame where it occurs, as seen below. It does look like a doorway until you realize how small it is. And if you boost the contrast in the dark parts of the image, the picture just about reveals a solid rock face at the back of the shadowed interior. So as a gateway into the hollow hills of Mars, it doesn’t lead very far.
Continue reading “‘Door’ on Mars? A planetary scientist explains what you really see” »
“We’re just human, and we cannot predict what the universe is going to tell us.”
It’s the moment we have all been waiting for: The James Webb Space Telescope will make its first scientific observations of the universe in the coming weeks. The first full-color images will drop on July 12, 2022, along with spectroscopic data.
This is the crescendo moment in a scientific symphony that has been tuning up for the last two decades.
Continue reading “A new cosmic dawn: The Webb Telescope’s first color images are arriving soon” »
AI For Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation — Angela Sheffield, Senior Program Manager, National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Department of Energy.
Angela Sheffield is a graduate student and Space Industry fellow at the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School. She is on detail from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), where she serves as the Senior Program Manager for AI for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development.
