Space News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02194-4

Euclid telescope scheduled to launch on July 1

[weatheriscool]

Ariane Test Fires Reusable Prometheus Rocket Engine
July 1, 2023 by Brian Wang

ArianeGroup has successfully carried out the first ignition campaign of the reusable Prometheus® engine on the reusable Themis rocket core stage demonstrator – a key step in providing Europe with the essential technological building blocks for future reusable launchers. This test of a complete rocket stage running on liquid oxygen and bio-methane is a first in Europe. Prometheus has 100 tons of thrust. SpaceX Raptor 2 engine has 269 tons of thrust. The SpaceX Merlin engines are in the 70-100 tons of thrust range.

The Prometheus engine is planned to have the following features:

Methane–oxygen propellant.
Extensive use of metal 3D printing (up to 50% of the engine).
Open gas-generator cycle.
980 kN of thrust (~100 tonnes), variable from 30% to 110% thrust.
100 bar (10,000 kPa) chamber pressure.
360 s specific impulse (Isp).
Reusable 3 to 5 times.
Around 1 million euros production cost.

SpaceX is targeting $250,000 cost for its Raptor engine.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/07/a ... ngine.html

I wish nasa would go over to reusable.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

New research puts age of universe at 26.7 billion years, nearly twice as old as previously believed

by Bernard Rizk, University of Ottawa
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-age-unive ... ously.html

Our universe could be twice as old as current estimates, according to a new study that challenges the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so-called "impossible early galaxy problem."

The work is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"Our newly-devised model stretches the galaxy formation time by a several billion years, making the universe 26.7 billion years old, and not 13.7 as previously estimated," says author Rajendra Gupta, adjunct professor of physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Ottawa.

For years, astronomers and physicists have calculated the age of our universe by measuring the time elapsed since the Big Bang and by studying the oldest stars based on the redshift of light coming from distant galaxies. In 2021, thanks to new techniques and advances in technology, the age of our universe was thus estimated at 13.797 billion years using the Lambda-CDM concordance model.

However, many scientists have been puzzled by the existence of stars like the Methuselah that appear to be older than the estimated age of our universe and by the discovery of early galaxies in an advanced state of evolution made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope. These galaxies, existing a mere 300 million years or so after the Big Bang, appear to have a level of maturity and mass typically associated with billions of years of cosmic evolution. Furthermore, they're surprisingly small in size, adding another layer of mystery to the equation.

[weatheriscool]

First BepiColombo flyby of Mercury finds electron rain triggers X-ray auroras
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-bepicolom ... ggers.html
by Europlanet

BepiColombo, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission, has revealed how electrons raining down onto the surface of Mercury can trigger high-energy auroras.

The mission, which has been enroute to the solar system's innermost planet since 2018, successfully carried out its first Mercury flyby on October 1, 2021. An international team of researchers analyzed data from three of BepiColombo's instruments during the encounter. The outcomes of this study have been published in Nature Communications.

Terrestrial auroras are generated by interactions between the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun, and an electrically charged upper layer of Earth's atmosphere, called the ionosphere. As Mercury only has a very thin atmosphere, called an exosphere, its auroras are generated by the solar wind interacting directly with the planet's surface.

The BepiColombo mission consists of two spacecraft, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) led by ESA, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO, named Mio after launch) led by JAXA, which are currently in a docked configuration for the seven-year cruise to the final orbit. During its first Mercury flyby, Bepicolombo swooped just 200 kilometers above the planet's surface. The observations by plasma instruments onboard Mio enabled the first simultaneous observations of different kinds of charged particles from the solar wind in the vicinity of Mercury.

[firestar464]

Researchers operating Gamma-ray Burst Monitor discover brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected

https://phys.org/news/2023-07-gamma-ray-brightest.html

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Speaking of the sun..
China is Building a Huge Ring of Telescopes to Study Eruptions on the Sun
by Andrew Jones
August 22, 2022

Introduction:

(Space.com) China is building the world's largest array of telescopes dedicated to studying the sun with the aim to improve the understanding of coronal mass ejections which can cause chaos on and above Earth.

The Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DSRT) is under construction on a plateau in Sichuan province, southwest China. When completed, it will consist of 313 dishes, each with a diameter of 19.7 feet (6 meters), forming a circle with a circumference of 1.95 miles (3.14 kilometers).

The telescope array will image the sun in radio waves to study coronal mass ejections (CMEs), large eruptions of charged particles from the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona.

CMEs are triggered by realignments in the star's magnetic field that occur in sunspots. When directed at Earth, these eruptions can wreak havoc on power grids, telecommunications, orbiting satellites and even put the safety of astronauts at risk. On the other hand, CMEs are also responsible for the colorful aurora displays that can be observed in the night sky in polar regions.

Read more here: https://www.space.com/china-world-larg ... rch-array

Update on the Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope: -

China begins trial operations with world's largest solar telescope array

published 1 day ago



The world's largest array of sun-monitoring radio telescopes has begun trial operations in southwest China.

The Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DSRT) consists of 313 dishes, each with a diameter of 19.7 feet (6 meters), forming a circle with a circumference of 1.95 miles (3.14 kilometers). A 328-feet-high (100 m) calibration tower stands in the center of the ring.

The array has undergone half a year of debugging and testing, demonstrating the capability to consistently and reliably monitor solar activity with high precision. Trial operations officially started July 14, according to CCTV News.

Scientists simulate the effect of a much larger telescope and gain much higher resolution and sensitivity by collecting electromagnetic radiation from the sun with the multitude of dishes. The signals are combined, and then sophisticated mathematical algorithms are then used to reconstruct images.

DSRT is situated in Daocheng County, on a plateau in Sichuan province in southwest China. Its main task is continuous monitoring of the sun and observing solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). It will also aid research into monitoring and early warning methods for pulsars, fast radio bursts and asteroids.

https://www.space.com/china-solar-teles ... kB1lAJx5oQ

[wjfox]

Voyager 2: Nasa loses contact with record-breaking probe after sending wrong command

57 minutes ago

Nasa has lost contact with its Voyager 2 probe billions of miles away from Earth after sending it the wrong command, the space agency has revealed.

Last month, the spacecraft - exploring space since 1977 - tilted its antenna to point two degrees away from Earth after the mistake was made.

As a result, the probe has stopped receiving commands or sending data.

Nasa said it hopes communication will resume when the probe is due to reset in October.

Voyager 2 is more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion km) from Earth, where it is hurtling at an estimated 34,390mph (55,346km/h) through interstellar space - the space between the stars.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-66371569