#Ariane rocket puts telecom satellites into orbit

“#Ariane rocket puts telecom satellites into orbit” The Ariane 5 rocket was launched from French Guiana and successfully placed two communications satellites into orbit A rocket that blasted off from French Guiana successfully placed two communications satellites into orbit Saturday, launch firm Arianespace said. The Ariane 5 rocket took off at 2204 GMT from Kourou,…

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#Aurora mysteries unlocked with NASA’s THEMIS mission

“#Aurora mysteries unlocked with NASA’s THEMIS mission” Auroral beads seen from the International Space Station, Sept. 17, 2011 (Frame ID: ISS029-E-6012). Credit: NASA A special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is helping scientists better understand the science of auroras and their powerful drivers out in space….

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#Space bricks for lunar habitation

“#Space bricks for lunar habitation” Credit: Divakar Badal In what could be a significant step forward in space exploration, a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed a sustainable process for making brick-like structures on the moon. It exploits lunar soil, and uses…

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#Video: ESA’s meteor camera captures the Perseid showers

“#Video: ESA’s meteor camera captures the Perseid showers” Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The Perseids meteor shower is one of the most spectacular annual meteor showers. Made of debris from comet Swift-Tuttle they have been observed by sky-watchers for thousands of years and this year the LIC1 camera of the Canary Long-Baseline Observatory (CILBO) at Tenerife…

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#Cluster’s 20 years of studying Earth’s magnetosphere

“#Cluster’s 20 years of studying Earth’s magnetosphere” This artist’s impression shows Earth’s bow shock, a standing shockwave that forms when the solar wind meets our planet’s magnetosphere. Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab Despite a nominal lifetime of two years, ESA’s Cluster is now entering its third decade in space. This unique four-spacecraft mission has been revealing the…

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#ESA’s ‘first’ satellite: COS-B

“#ESA’s ‘first’ satellite: COS-B” COS-B was launched by NASA on behalf of ESA on a Thor Delta 2913 launch vehicle from the Western Test Range, California, on 9 August 1975. Credit: NASA/USAF This weekend sees the 45th anniversary of the launch of Cos-B, the first satellite to be launched under the banner of the newly…

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#Huge ring-like structure on Ganymede’s surface may have been caused by violent impact

“#Huge ring-like structure on Ganymede’s surface may have been caused by violent impact” Credit: Tsunehiko Kato, 4D2U Project, NAOJ Researchers from Kobe University and the National Institute of Technology, Oshima College have conducted a detailed reanalysis of image data from Voyager 1, 2 and Galileo spacecraft in order to investigate the orientation and distribution of…

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