Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 223

Fans of astronomy should prepare for November 14th when they'll have the opportunity to enjoy a rare Supermoon.

The full Moon of November 14th is not only the closest full Moon of 2016 but also the closest full Moon to date in the 21st century. The full Moon won't come this close to Earth again until November 25, 2034. The last time the full Moon was this close to Earth was in 1948.

The International Space Station has been continuously inhabited for 5,844 days since Expedition 1's crew of three arrived there on this day in 2000.

Expedition 1 consisted of an astronaut Bill Shepherd and two cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev. They arrived at the Space Station on November 2nd, 2000, 16 years ago. It was the beginning of an uninterrupted human presence on the Station which continues to this day. The trio spent 136 days aboard the Station.

Leonardo DiCaprio's National Geographic documentary Before The Flood premiered two days ago and in case you missed it, you can watch it for free on YouTube.

The entire documentary talks about the fossil fuel industry and the effect it has on our planet, explains the devastating consequences, and tries to find a solution for inevitable climate change, who's effects we are already witnessing.

Elon Musk appears in the documentary (he also appeared in Racing Extinction, which you should watch if you haven't already) and leads DiCaprio trough Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada.

NASA has published amazing images of Expedition 49 crew members landing in Kazahstan on Sunday. NASA astronaut and Expedition 49 crew member Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency returned to Earth after a successful mission aboard the International Space Station.

Russian Search and Rescue teams fly to Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan to prepare for the Soyuz MS-01 landing with Expedition 49 crew members.

The city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan is seen from a Russian Search and Rescue helicopter.

After 115 days in space, they are back! NASA astronaut and Expedition 49 crew member Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency returned to Earth after a successful mission aboard the International Space Station.

The Expedition 49 crewmates touched down in their Soyuz MS-01 at 11:58 PM EDT (9:58 AM October 30, Kazakhstan time) southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to depart the International Space Station today, October 29th.

Their Soyuz spacecraft will undock from the Space Station at 8:37 PM EDT and land in Kazakhstan at 11:59 PM (9:59 AM October 30th, Kazakhstan time).

Their return will wrap up 115 days in space for the crew since their launch in July.

NASA's Kepler has made yet another astonishing discovery, just in time for Halloween - pumpkin stars.

Astronomers using observations from NASA's Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than a hundred times the peak levels ever seen from the Sun. The stars spin so fast they've been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes. Scientists believe they are the result of close binary systems where two Sun-like stars merge.

Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and leader of the team explained the discovery.

NASA has provided new details of the scene near the Martian equator where Europe's Schiaparelli test lander hit the surface last week.

The new images show three impact locations within about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from each other.

You better get into all of your games and save them, do your back ups and run into your doomsday bunker - because scientists writing in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific have found unusual signals coming from a group of stars that are "signals probably from extraterrestrial intelligence".

The scientists said that these signals "have exactly the shape of a signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this [extraterrestrial intelligence] hypothesis". Their paper is called "Discovery of peculiar periodic spectral modulations in a small fraction of solar type stars," which talks about their hypothesis that these signals are from some form of ETI, or alien intelligence.

E.F. Borra and E. Trottier, the paper's authors, write: "The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centered near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis". They added: "At this stage, this hypothesis needs to be confirmed with further work. Although unlikely, there is also a possibility that the signals are due to highly peculiar chemical compositions in a small fraction of galactic halo stars".

The ESA lost contact with its Schiaparelli lander shortly before it was supposed to land on Mars on October 19th, and now the mystery of what happened to it has been resolved. Like we previously noted, there was a chance that the lander ditched its parachute too early and crashed onto the surface of Red Planet.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified new markings on the surface of the Red Planet that are believed to be related to Europe's Schiaparelli test lander. The new image shows a bright spot that may be Schiaparelli's parachute, and a larger dark spot interpreted as resulting from the impact of the lander itself following a much longer free fall than planned after thrusters switched off prematurely.

Elon Musk held an AMA or "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, where he answered questions strictly related to SpaceX, and not his other companies. The session came almost a month after his presentation at the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico on September 27th, where he gave details about SpaceX's plans for the colonization of Mars.

Many users wanted to know about the rockets that SpaceX will use to get first people to Mars and Interplanetary Transport System. Musk pointed out that the ITS is designed for a maximum acceleration of 20 Gs, but the spaceship would be limited to around 5 G's nominal, but able to take peak loads 2 to 3 times higher without breaking up.

Musk also believes that the Falcon 9 rockets will be used indefinitely.

Elon Musk will host an AMA or "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit today, October 23rd, at 6 PM EDT (3 PM PDT). Standard subreddit rules will apply in the AMA thread and the users have been warned to follow the rules and not to ask questions already submitted.

The questions and answers will be on the SpaceX subreddit, meaning you can ask questions related to SpaceX, and not Tesla Motors or SolarCity. Musk also pointed out that he will be answering SpaceX related questions.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos have arrived at the International Space Station after a two-day trip.

Their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft docked with the Station's Poisk module at 5:52 AM EDT. When hatches between the Soyuz and Space Station opened at 8:20 AM EDT, the three crew members joined Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who have been aboard ISS since July. The International Space Station now has six occupants.

Kimbrough, Ryzhikov, and Borisenko will spend a little more than four months aboard the Space Station, and their return to Earth is scheduled for late February. The crew members will contribute to more than 250 research experiments ongoing aboard the space station, in diverse fields such as biology, Earth Science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.

After more than 12 years studying Saturn, its rings and moons, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has entered the final year of its epic voyage. The conclusion of the historic scientific odyssey is planned for September 2017.

Now, the Cassini spacecraft revealed dramatic seasonal changes in the atmospheric temperature and composition of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The images show a vortex in the upper atmosphere over the south pole. Cassini also discovered gasses in this vortex that are otherwise quite rare in Titan's atmosphere.

Athena Coustenis, a member of Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer team at the Observatoire de Paris, explained the importance of this discovery.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is in Mars' orbit, received the data sent from Schiaparelli lander, the ESA confirmed on Wednesday. However, the fate of the Schiaparelli lander, named after the Italian astronomer from the 19th century, is currently still unknown.

Early indications from both the radio signals captured by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), an experimental telescope array located near Pune, India, and from orbit by ESA's Mars Express, suggested the module had successfully completed most steps of its 6-minute descent through the Martian atmosphere. But the signals stopped shortly before the module was expected to touch down on the surface. It is still unclear if the Schiaparelli lander survived the landing or crashed.

"Following yesterday's events we have an impressive orbiter around Mars ready for science and relay support for the ExoMars rover mission in 2020," said Jan Wörner, ESA's Director General.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of ESA's ExoMars 2016 has successfully performed the long 139-minute burn required to be captured by Mars and entered an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet.

The TGO is now on its planned orbit around Mars, accompanied by the 13-year old Mars Express orbiter.

Two Chinese astronauts arrived at the space lab Tiangong-2 and began the longest Chinese mission in space. Astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong will spend 30 days in space, conducting many experiments.

The spacecraft Shenzou-11 has successfully docked with the uncrewed Tiangong-2 space lab on Tuesday at 3:24 p.m. EDT, at an altitude of 393 kilometers (244 miles), after Monday's launch from the Jiuquan space center managed by the Chinese army on the border with the Gobi desert.

The Chinese state television broadcast a three-hour live video showing the landing and astronauts floating trough a meter long and 80 centimeters wide passenger passage which they had to go trough in order to get to the space lab. Haipeng and Dong will spend the next 30 days doing experiments, and their return to Earth is scheduled for November 14th.

The Soyuz MS-02 successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station at 4:05 AM EDT Wednesday, October 19. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos are now safely in orbit.

Over the next two days, they will orbit the Earth 34 times before docking to the Space Station's module on Friday, October 21. The two cosmonauts and an astronaut are a part of ISS Expedition 49, and upon their arrival at the Station, they will be welcomed by the rest of the members - Anatoli Ivanishin, Kathleen Rubins and Takuya Onishi, who arrived at the Station in July.

Orbital ATK successfully launched their Antares rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station on Monday evening. The initial launch was set for October 16th, but it was postponed due to a ground support equipment (GSE) cable that did not perform as expected during the pre-launch checkout.

This is the first flight on the upgraded Antares 230 launch vehicle, and the first launch from Wallops since an Antares rocket and its Cygnus spacecraft were lost in October 2014, when the rocket failed, and the vehicle and payload were destroyed causing $15 million in damage.

"It's great to see launches to the International Space Station happening again from the Virginia coast - and it shows what can be accomplished with a close partnership of federal and state agencies, along with the U.S. industry, all working together," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Astronaut Reid Wiseman spent 165 days in space, on the International Space Station. Wiseman took part in his first spaceflight as part of the crew of Expedition 40/41, which launched to the International Space Station on May 28, 2014, and returned on November 10, 2014.

In the latest video, published by NASA, Wiseman responded to numerous questions about his experience in space. The video lasts only one minute, but in it Wiseman answers some very interesting questions about life 400 kilometers above Earth.

Weisman discovered where astronauts go to the toilet, how much they exercise, wash their laundry and what was his favorite food. Check the full video below.