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For Ariane 5 VA250, ESA invited well-known space launch photographers from the US, John Kraus and Trevor Mahlmann, to join regular ESA and Arianespace photographers, with amazing results: this one is by Trevor Mahlmann.
Credits: T.Mahlmann
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image offers us the chance to see a distant galaxy now some 19.5 billion light-years from Earth (but appearing as it did around 11 billion years ago, when the galaxy was 5.5 billion light-years away and began its trek to us through expanding space). Known as HerS 020941.1+001557, this remote galaxy appears as a red arc partially encircling a foreground elliptical galaxy located some 2.7 billion light-years away. Called SDSS J020941.27+001558.4, the elliptical galaxy appears as a bright dot at the center of the image with a broad haze of stars outward from its core. A third galaxy, called SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, seems to be intersecting part of the curving, red crescent of light created by the distant galaxy.
The alignment of this trio of galaxies creates a type of gravitational lens called an Einstein ring. Gravitational lenses occur when light from a very distant object bends (or is ‘lensed’) around a massive (or ‘lensing’) object located between us and the distant lensed galaxy. When the lensed object and the lensing object align, they create an Einstein ring. Einstein rings can appear as a full or partial circle of light around the foreground lensing object, depending on how precise the alignment is. The effects of this phenomenon are much too subtle to see on a local level but can become clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. Lowenthal
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy
For a planetary science course at my University (VU Amsterdam) we had to conceptualize a mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and present this plan to ESA at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This model served as our 3D prototype-satellite. I am especially pleased with the hexagonal design and the fact that the wings don’t actually need additional support.
P.S. I've got three other MOC’s coming soon™, stay tuned.
Strathtay Scottish SBT1 A112 ESA was a Leyland Tiger with Alexander P type bodywork new to Alexander (Northern) in 1983 and transferred to Strathtay in 1987 in another SBG swap for Nationals.
A112 ESA is seen on Campsie Road in Letham on a Perth town service during June 1987.
©eb2010
Do not use this image without my permission
The Dutch are now starting to see their famous spring flowers poke through the winter soil, but a few weeks ago it was a different story as a cold snap took grip.
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 2 March 2018 shows Amsterdam and the IJmeer and Markemeer freshwater lakes covered by a thin layer of ice. As famous as the Netherlands is for flowers, it’s arguably equally renowned for ice skating. While the cold snap caused havoc throughout much of Europe, the Dutch were busy dusting off their skates and eager to hit the ice. The ice on these big lakes was much too thin to skate on, but some canals in Amsterdam were closed to boats to give the ice a chance to thicken and skaters took what is now a relatively rare opportunity to enjoy a national pastime.
A possible consequence of climate change, the Netherlands doesn’t see the ice that it used to. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute rates winters using an index: those scoring above 100 are considered cold. Between 1901 and 1980, there were seven winters above 200 – very cold. The last time the index exceeded the magical 100 mark was in 1997. In fact, this was also the last time the weather was cold enough for an ‘Elfstedentocht’: a 200 km skating race between 11 towns in the north of the country. In 2014, for the first time since measurements began, the index fell to zero.
While people enjoyed the ice below, this Sentinel-2 image, which is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, allows us to view the beauty of this short-lived layer of ice from above.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Todos los Derechos Reservados © All rights reserved
PLEASE:
Do not post animated gifs or pictures in your comments. Especially the "awards". No invitations to groups where one must comment and/or invite and/or give award and no group icon without any comment.
POR FAVOR: No pongas gifs animados, logos o premios (awards) en tu comentario. No me envíes invitaciones a grupos donde exista la obligación de comentar o premiar fotos, ni a aquellos donde existe un comentario preformateado con el logo del grupo.
THANKS / Muchas gracias!!.
Tantas veces pasando esa curva......siempre habia pensado en hecharle una foto ....^^
Para ver en grande aqui:
La vieja casa en silencio
y ninguno se lo explica,
cómo pasan esa cosas
tan feliz que parecía.
Mi madre llora en el patio,
Pedro duerme en la cocina,
y ninguno se ha acordado
de que coman las gallinas.
María llega de lejos
ella que nunca venía,
y el tío Luis a mi hermano
le dice un par de mentiras.
El crucifijo de plata
se lo lleva Catalina,
la mecedora Francisco
y la mantilla Corina.
El perro no entiende nada,
el gato ya lo sabía,
él fue después del abuelo
el que más la conocía.
La vieja casa en silencio
y ninguno se lo explica,
cómo pasan esas cosas
tan feliz que parecía.
Cómo pasan esas cosas...
tan feliz que parecía!
ESAS COSAS
Facundo Cabral
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Fotografía tomada en la base del "Monte Calvario".
Ciudad de Tandil, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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The Vega-C Zefiro 40 second stage has now been transferred to and integrated at the Vega Launch Zone (Zone de Lancement Vega) ZLV at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on 4 May 2022.
On the wave of Vega’s success, Member States at the ESA Ministerial meeting in December 2014 agreed to develop the more powerful Vega-C to respond to an evolving market and to long-term institutional needs.
Vega-C increases performance from Vega’s current 1.5 t to about 2.2 t in a reference 700 km polar orbit, covering identified European institutional users’ mission needs, with no increase in launch service and operating costs.
The participating states in this development are: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Credits: ESA - M. Pedoussaut
Space Science image of the week:
At first sight it might seem obvious which of these ‘models’ is the odd one out: standing between the satellites is apparently a Star Wars stormtrooper.
But the stormtrooper is actually our Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, who is one of three ESA scientists taking the stage at science fiction convention ‘FedCon’ in Bonn, Germany, 2–5 June.
While Matt will present Rosetta’s incredible adventure at a comet, including its dramatic conclusion, ESA Senior Science Advisor Mark McCaughrean will highlight some of our other exciting missions, to Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, along with missions to study planets around other stars.
Paul McNamara, project scientist for LISA Pathfinder, will explore the science of gravitational waves, and how they are portrayed in the Star Trek universe. Think gravitational wavefronts, continuous graviton beams, fluctuating graviton fields and more.
Representatives from ESA’s science and operations teams will also be on hand to answer your questions at our exhibition stand. You can also try our ‘science meets science fiction quiz’ to win ESA goodies. And, of course, keep an eye out for our friendly stormtrooper!
The photograph featured here was taken at ESA’s technical heart, in the Netherlands, and shows test models of various satellites and hardware.
At the far right is ESRO-4, launched in 1972 to study Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and radiation belts.
HEOS-1 sits on the other side of the stormtrooper. Launched in 1968, it was the first European probe to venture beyond near-Earth space, in order to study the magnetic fields, radiation and the solar wind outside of Earth’s magnetosphere.
Next in line is the Automated Transport Vehicle docking assembly, used to dock the resupply ship to the International Space Station.
Finally, at the far left is COS-B, which, in 1975, was the first mission launched by ESA following its creation in 1973. COS-B studied gamma-ray objects, and was a precursor to Integral, which is still operating.
You can view this historic space hardware during our annual open day, which this year will be held on 8 October (full details coming soon).
Credit: ESA–C. Carreau, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the glorious spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located roughly 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus. NGC 5643 is what’s known as a grand design spiral, referring to how the galaxy’s two large, winding spiral arms are clear to see. The spiral arms are defined by bright blue stars, lacy reddish-brown dust clouds and pink star-forming regions.
As fascinating as the galaxy appears at visible wavelengths, some of NGC 5643’s most interesting features are invisible to the human eye. Ultraviolet and X-ray images and spectra of NGC 5643 show that the galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus: an especially bright galactic core powered by a feasting supermassive black hole. When a supermassive black hole ensnares gas from its surroundings, the gas collects in a disc that heats up to hundreds of thousands of degrees. The superheated gas shines brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially at X-ray wavelengths.
NGC 5643’s active galactic nucleus isn’t the brightest source of X-rays in the galaxy, though. Researchers using ESA’s XMM-Newton discovered an even brighter X-ray-emitting object, called NGC 5643 X-1, on the galaxy’s outskirts. What could be a more powerful source of X-rays than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be a much smaller black hole! While the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 is not yet known, evidence points to a black hole that is about 30 times more massive than the Sun. Locked in an orbital dance with a companion star, the black hole ensnares gas from its stellar companion, creating a superheated disc that outshines the galactic centre.
NGC 5643 was also the subject of a previous Picture of the Week. The new image incorporates additional wavelengths of light, including the red color that is characteristic of gas heated by massive young stars.
[Image Description: A close-up of a spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its center is a bright white point, surrounded by a large yellowish oval with thin lines of dust swirling in it. From the sides of the oval emerge two bright spiral arms which wind through the round disc of the galaxy, filled with shining pink spots where stars are forming and more dark reddish dust. Many stars can be seen in the foreground, over and around the galaxy.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, D. Thilker, D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble); CC BY 4.0
Relaxing the day away, editing pics and dancing around the house.
/Wasabi Pills/ Hair - Emma in Crystal violet (for FLF yesterday)
Egozy Hairbase - Mendoza in Dark Brown
[Aux] Auxiliary Headband - All About Spikes in Shoreline (previous limited item)
Egozy Skin - Mendoza in Canelle / Soft
Mayfly Eyes
*elymode* Gluttony Eyeshadows in Cream (lower only)
Dutch Touch EyeLiner Nr. 1 (no longer available)
Mon Cheri Lashes
Egozy Mendoza Lip Gloss
[7891.] Ritual Necklace in Gold
*ionic* Crop Top in Motitas
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 61, also known as NGC 4303. The galaxy, located only 55 million light-years away from Earth, is roughly the size of the Milky Way, with a diameter of around 100 000 light-years. The galaxy is notable for one particular reason â six supernovae have been observed within Messier 61, a total that places it in the top handful of galaxies alongside Messier 83, also with six, and NGC 6946, with a grand total of nine observed supernovae. In this Hubble image the galaxy is seen face-on as if posing for a photograph, allowing us to study its structure closely. The spiral arms can be seen in stunning detail, swirling inwards to the very centre of the galaxy, where they form a smaller, intensely bright spiral. In the outer regions, these vast arms are sprinkled with bright blue regions where new stars are being formed from hot, dense clouds of gas. Messier 61 is part of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, a massive group of galaxies in the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin). Galaxy clusters, or groups of galaxies, are among the biggest structures in the Universe to be held together by gravity alone. The Virgo Cluster contains more than 1300 galaxies and forms the central region of the Local Supercluster, an even bigger gathering of galaxies. The image was taken using data from Hubbleâs Wide Field Camera 2. Different versions of this image were submitted to the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestants Gilles Chapdelaine, Luca Limatola, and Robert Gendler.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgements: G. Chapdelaine, L. Limatola, and R. Gendler.
Apilado de 250 fotos.Pasos de 0,007 mm. Ampliación 10x
CANON EOS 1000D - Objetivo Nikon BD Plan 10x- 0.25 210/0 - 0,7" - ISO100
Mentiría si asegurase haber olvidado ese otoño. tu abrigo, tus manos frías, tantas tardes contigo. debo afirmar que, en ese entonces, nadie había calado jamás tan hondo en mi. hace un año entero de ese miércoles, y nadie me hubiera podido convencer entonces de que todo esto iría así. hay tanto que decir, tantos momentos, tanto pasado, que las palabras resultan pequeñas, vacíos trazos de tinta que no llegan a emular la vida que hubo en esas miradas azules.
te agradezco ese pasado, el poder mirar atrás y esbozar una sonrisa, aunque todo haya cambiado, hay momentos y personas que jamás se olvidan.
sé feliz.
ESA flag in space.
1 ESA-Patch ist in der ISS-Beobachtungskuppel geflogen.
Credits: ESA/NASA
337_1973
The support for our launch was outstanding, and I want to thank each of you for the #GoodLuckTim messages. From the schoolchildren who watched the launch in class, people watching on the underground, and viewers outside of UK, your messages have shown how much interest there is in space and they mean a great deal to me. A big thank you to those who attended launch celebrations up and down the country and especially the school kids who attended the event at the Science Museum. We are very busy up here but I promise to start sharing more of our life in space soon.
Credits: ESA/NASA
122F0627
This is a version of the ESA logo like no other: seen through a microscope it measures just over 17 thousandths of a millimetre across, about half the diameter of the average human skin cell.
The logo was carved out of a piece of nickel-based space-grade alloy Inconel using Xenon atoms shot from a plasma ion beam.
While the logo measures 17.43 micrometres (thousandths of a millimetre) in length it is just 700 nanometres (millionths of a millimetre) deep. Click here for an angled view.
“The logo was blasted out of a polished Inconel surface,” explains ESA Young Graduate Trainee Felix Schmidt, serving in ESA’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory.
“We created it as practice, in preparation for a project on modelling micromechanical testing. Achieving accurate cuts on a given material is tricky, with many parameters needing to be optimised to get the correct size and depth of the geometry, but this logo shows the kind of accuracy we can reach.”
To get an idea of its actual size, see the logo beside a human hair in this microscopic view – created using stacks of visible light microscope images to achieve the depth of field to get both objects in focus at once.
Felix adds: “Next the plan is to cut out a pillar of metal, then crush it using a nano-indenter, having meanwhile created a high-fidelity ‘digital twin’ of the pillar to accurately model how it behaves as force is exerted on it.”
ESA is already active at creating ‘digital twins’ of space systems at higher scales, explains engineer Michael Mallon, working on digital spacecraft design and verification, “but our aim here is to demonstrate a predictive capability right down to the meso-scale, the next level up from atoms.”
Credits: ESA-F. Schmidt
Progress continues on the East Side Access project as of February 12, 2013.
This photo shows work on tunnels leading into caverns underneath Grand Central Terminal that will house a future concourse for arriving and departing Long Island Rail Road trains.
Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.
ESA's Columbus lab by night, bathed in the pink glow from our greenhouse.
The greenhouse light appears pink because its LEDs emit only the wavelengths of light used by plants - such as blue light for plant structure and orientation in microgravity, and red light for photosynthesis.
More about the Principia mission:
More about the European Space Agency: www.esa.int/ESA
Credits: ESA/NASA
122F1032
Last week marked a milestone for ESA’s Proba-2 satellite: 10 years of operation in orbit around the Earth. Since its launch on 2 November 2009, Proba-2 (PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy) has probed the intricacies of the Sun and its connection to our planet, imaging and observing our star and investigating how it drives all manner of complex cosmic phenomena: from solar eruptions and flares to closer-to-home space weather effects.
This image shows 10 different views of the Sun captured throughout Proba-2’s lifetime, processed to highlight the extended solar atmosphere – the part of the atmosphere that is visible around the main circular disc of the star.
Characterising this part of the Sun is a key element of Proba-2’s solar science observations. Solar activity is closely tied to the space weather we experience closer to Earth. Understanding more about how the Sun behaves – and how this behaviour changes over time, including whether it may be predictable – is crucial in our efforts to prepare for space weather events capable of damaging both space-based and terrestrial communications systems.
The Sun’s activity has a cycle of about 11 years, with the presence and strength of phenomena such as flares, coronal mass ejections, dark ‘coronal holes’ and bright ‘active regions’ fluctuating accordingly. These images were taken by Proba-2’s extreme-ultraviolet SWAP (Sun watcher using APS detectors and image processing) instrument, and show a snapshot of the Sun in January or February of each year from 2010 to 2019 (with the oldest frame on the top left, and the most recent to the bottom right). This mosaic thus neatly shows the variability in the solar atmosphere in beautiful detail, demonstrating how this cycle affects the Sun. The Sun begins in a phase of low activity (solar minimum: top left) in 2010; enters a phase of increasing activity and then shows highest activity in 2014 (solar maximum: top right). It slowly calms down again to enter a low-activity phase in 2019 (another minimum: bottom right).
As its name suggests, Proba-2 is the second satellite launched under ESA’s ‘Project for Onboard Autonomy’ umbrella: a series of small, low-cost missions that are testing a wide array of advanced technologies in space. These missions are helping us understand and develop everything from solar monitoring to vegetation mapping to autonomous Earth observation. Future members of the Proba family will also be equipped to create artificial eclipses by flying two satellites together in formation to block the bright disc of the Sun for hours at a time, so that scientists can better observe fainter regions that are usually outshone.
For now, Proba-2 will continue to monitor the Sun, including an upcoming celestial event: the satellite’s SWAP camera will observe Mercury today as it transits across the face of the Sun, an event that only takes place around 13 times per century and will not occur again until 2032.
The individual frames of the image shown here were captured on (top row, left to right): 20 February 2010, 1 February 2011, 20 January 2020, 5 February 2013, 28 January 2014, and (bottom row, left to right) 19 January 2015, 5 February 2016, 22 January 2017, 2 February 2018, and 1 February 2019.
Credits: ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium
A compact experiment aimed at enhancing cybersecurity for future space missions is operational in Europe’s Columbus module of the International Space Station, running in part on a Raspberry Pi Zero computer costing just a few euros.
“Our CryptIC experiment is testing technological solutions to make encryption-based secure communication feasible for even the smallest of space missions,” explains ESA software product assurance engineer Emmanuel Lesser. “This is commonplace on Earth, using for example symmetric encryption where both sides of the communication link share the same encryption key.
“In orbit the problem has been that space radiation effects can compromise the key within computer memory causing ‘bit-flips’. This disrupts the communication, as the key on ground and the one in space no longer match. Up to now this had been a problem that requires dedicated – and expensive – rad-hardened devices to overcome.”
Satellites in Earth orbit might be physically remote, but still potentially vulnerable to hacking. Up until recently most satellite signals went unencrypted, and this remains true for many of the smallest, cheapest mission types, such as miniature CubeSats
But as services delivered by satellites of all sizes form an increasing element of everyday life, interest in assured satellite cybersecurity is growing, and a focus of ESA’s new Technology Strategy for this November’s Space19+ Ministerial Council
.
CryptIC, or Cryptography ICE Cube, - the beige box towards the top of the image, has been a low-cost development, developed in-house by ESA’s Software Product Assurance section and flown on the ISS as part of the International Commercial Experiments service – ICE Cubes for short. ICE Cubes offer fast, simple and affordable access for research and technology experiments in microgravity using compact cubes. CryptIC measures just 10x10x10 cm.
“A major part of the experiment relies on a standard Raspberry Pi Zero computer,” adds Emmanuel. “This cheap hardware is more or less flying exactly as we bought it; the only difference is it has had to be covered with a plastic ‘conformal’ coating, to fulfil standard ISS safety requirements.”
The orbital experiment is operated simply via a laptop at ESA’s ESTEC
technical centre in the Netherlands, routed via the ICE Cubes operator, Space Applications Services in Brussels.
“We’re testing two related approaches to the encryption problem for non rad-hardened systems,” explains ESA Young Graduate Trainee Lukas Armborst. “The first is a method of re-exchanging the encryption key if it gets corrupted. This needs to be done in a secure and reliable way, to restore the secure link very quickly. This relies on a secondary fall-back base key, which is wired into the hardware so it cannot be compromised. However, this hardware solution can only be done for a limited number of keys, reducing flexibility.
“The second is an experimental hardware reconfiguration approach which can recover rapidly if the encryption key is compromised by radiation-triggered memory ‘bit flips’. A number of microprocessor cores are inside CryptIC as customisable, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), rather than fixed computer chips. These cores are redundant copies of the same functionality. Accordingly, if one core fails then another can step in, while the faulty core reloads its configuration, thereby repairing itself.”
In addition the payload carries a compact ‘floating gate’ dosimeter to measure radiation levels co-developed by CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, as part of a broader cooperation agreement
.
And as a guest payload, a number of computer flash memories are being evaluated for their orbital performance, a follow-on version of ESA’s ‘Chimera’ experiment which flew on last year’s GomX-4B CubeSat
.
The experiment had its ISS-mandated electromagnetic compatibility testing carried out in ESTEC’s EMC Laboratory
.
“CryptIC has now completed commissioning and is already returning radiation data, being shared with our CERN colleagues,” adds Emmanuel. “Our encryption testing is set to begin in a few weeks, once we’ve automated the operating process, and is expected to run continuously for at least a year.”
Credits: ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO