View allAll Photos Tagged ESA
El Parque Juan Carlos I es un parque público ubicado al nordeste de Madrid, en el barrio de Corralejos (distrito de Barajas). Se extiende por un área de 160 ha, que lo convierten en el segundo parque más grande de la capital española, por delante del Parque del Retiro (118 ha) y sólo superado por el cercano Parque forestal de Valdebebas. Cuenta con un lago, un auditorio al aire libre y numerosas esculturas abstractas.
Los autores son los arquitectos José Luis Esteban Penelas y Emilio Esteras Martín
En la década de los años 1980 se proyectó que la zona fuera un espacio moderno orientado al turismo y a los congresos internacionales. La zona urbanizada vendría a bautizarse como Campo de las Naciones. En él se construyó el Palacio de Congresos Municipal que, a partir de 1988 estuvo a cargo de una empresa pública llamada Campo de las Naciones. En 2006 la empresa fue rebautizada como Madrid Espacios y Congresos S.A., con el nombre comercial de Madridec. Madridec terminó gestionando el Palacio de Congresos y el edificio Apot. Fuera de esa área, Madridec también gestionó el Recinto Ferial de la Casa de Campo y la Caja Mágica. No obstante, en 2013 Madridec quebró y todas sus deudas y activos pasaron a ser gestionadas directamente por el Ayuntamiento. En 1991 se inauguraron en el Campo de las Naciones las instalaciones feriales para el Ifema.
Junto al Campo de las Naciones se inauguró en 1992 el Parque Juan Carlos I. Ese mismo año Madrid era Capital Europea de la Cultura. El parque está gestionado por el Área de Gobierno de Medio Ambiente del Ayuntamiento de Madrid. Ese mismo año tuvieron lugar las Olimpiadas de Barcelona y la Exposición Universal de Sevilla. Un año antes, en 1991, se había inaugurado el gran auditorio al aire libre del parque, con capacidad para 9.500 personas.
El 5 de mayo de 2014, la Asociación Cultural "Barajas, distrito BIC" solicitó a la Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico de la Comunidad de Madrid que el parque fuera declarado Bien de Interés Cultural, en la categoría de "Paisaje Cultural"
Está emplazado en el área del antiguo Olivar de la Hinojosa, del que se han conservado una buena cantidad de olivos. Tras la transformación de la zona a finales de los años 80, se crea el complejo del Campo de las Naciones, con las instalaciones feriales del Ifema, el Palacio Municipal de Congresos y una zona de oficinas y hoteles. El parque fue levantado en la parte oriental del complejo.
El parque está delimitado por la autovía M-40 al sur, la calle de Dublín al oeste, las instalaciones del Club de Golf Olivar de la Hinojosa al norte y la Avenida de Logroño al este. Esta última calle lo separa del Parque de El Capricho (ubicado en la Alameda de Osuna).
Está organizado alrededor de un anillo de un kilómetro de diámetro y cuarenta metros de anchura. En la parte externa del mismo, se encuentran las zonas de acceso, aparcamientos, el auditorio y áreas verdes. La parte interior del anillo alberga proyectos de jardinería, alguna plaza, los jardines de Las Tres Culturas (judía, árabe y cristiana), la estufa fría y una parte del canal acuático de casi dos kilómetros de longitud navegable en parte.
Esculturas
En el parque se encuentran distribuidas 19 esculturas abstractas de diferentes artistas de diversos países. Once esculturas fueron realizadas por escultores de prestigio internacional que participaron en el Simposio Internacional de Esculturas a Aire Libre, celebrado en el recinto del parque en 1992. Posteriormente han sido levantadas el resto de esculturas. El recorrido para visitar las esculturas es denominado "Senda de las Esculturas".
1.Dedos (Mario Irarrázaval, Chile, 1994)
2.Encuentros (Mustafa Arruf, España, 1998)
3.Eolos (Paul Van Hoeydonck, Bélgica, 1992)
4.Espacio Méjico (Andrés Casillas y Margarita García Cornejo, México, 1992)
5.Fisicromía para Madrid (Carlos Cruz Díez, Venezuela, 1992)
6.Homenaje a Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún (Toshimitsu Imai, Japón, 1992)
7.Homenaje a Galileo Galilei (Amadeo Gabino, España, 1992)
8.Homenaje a las víctimas del Holocausto (Samuel Nahon Bengio, Israel, 2007)
9.Los cantos de la encrucijada (Leopoldo Maler, Argentina, 1992)
10.Manolona Opus 397 (Miguel Berrocal, España, 1992)
11.Monumento a Don Juan (Víctor Ochoa, España, 1994)
12.Monumento a la paz (Yolanda D'Augsburg, Brasil, 1992)
13.My sky hole/Madrid (Bukichi Inoue, Japón, 1992)
14.Pasaje azul (Alexandru Arghira, Rumania, 1992)
15.Paseo entre dos árboles (Jorge Castillo, España, 1995)
16.Sin título (Dani Karavan, Israel, 1992)
17.Sin título (José Miguel Utande, España, 1992)
18.Viaje interior (Michael Warren, Irlanda, 1992)
19.Viga (Jorge Dubon, México, 1992)
Entrepreneurs gather beside a replica of a European Meteosat weather satellite at ESA’s Business Incubation Centre Noordwijk in the Netherlands.
A close neighbour of the Agency’s ESTEC technical heart, ESA BIC Noordwijk is one of a 20-strong network of ESA BICs across Europe, providing technical and business support to startup companies transferring innovative space technology to terrestrial markets.
ESA BIC Noordwijk manager Martijn Leinweber explains: “We’ve successfully incubated more than 100 companies to date during the last decade, offering support to every stage of the startup process.
“Ideas harnessed by current startups here include applying solid rocket technology to firefighting, hyperspectral imaging to improve the health of vineyards and standardised battery storage for solar arrays.”
As a whole, ESA’s BIC network has incubated more than 700 start-ups, creating thousands of new jobs and boosting regional economies.
Space has become an integrated part of our daily lives. From smartphones to agricultural monitoring, the socio-economic benefits of space activities are so diverse that they are not always so obvious to the general public. ESA focuses this week on what space is doing for the economy, in particular, highlighting the flourishing applications domain and business opportunities.
Credits: ESA–G. Porter
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'. The congress will open its doors to the general public on 21 September.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
Ataraxia
No es una triste mirada, es una visión tranquila, una
exquisita mezcla entre moral y calma, percibiendo el olor de
las piedras para aferrarse a la vida salvajemente,
sintiose viva desde aquél noviembre en que se fue de su
madre con su vestido de agua y su música infinita,
una delicada afinidad armónica, gradual, equitativa,
un excitante equilibrio,
un anormal atisbo de veracidad le ha regalado, quizá,
la fragilidad en los pasillos vacíos de su soledad acompañada,
la mañana no la adormece, la realza en su cordura,
su sabor por las buenas templanzas conocen del sexo del
arco iris y solo en su medida palabra vive la
excelencia del sentir,
me dicta mi silencio que no sería de ella que aprendiera la
destrucción del amor de algodón en algún montañoso
minuto si se entregara mi espíritu por escuchar la voz
de su trompeta,
sin desconocer su sensualidad y sin traicionar su armadura
me habrá enseñado a seguir una gozosa marcha entre
las tormentas del invierno, cuando el diablo ingenuo
nacía en mí y fallecía,
en alguna primavera anterior habrán quedado sus fascinantes
recuerdos cultivando fortalezas y cosechando las
sonrisas de azúcar,
acaso un eterno sol dorado le acariciara la piel para
zozobrar en su espalda llameante y recordarle
su incurable romanticismo en el espejo de su alma,
desnuda esponja que ama y succiona el devenir de la
vida tan solo con su genuina bandera,
insuflando el amor a voluntad con su ataviada
manera en el sendero acuático sin restringir el vagido
del beso,
desconozco la vehemencia de la lágrima y el escozor
de sus noches tristes mientras se desliza la magia y sus
pasos retumban silenciosos,
quizá la espuma de su mar interior le haga ver del amor
que existen días consecuentes en que es mejor perderlo para
poder encontrarlo y así tal vez halle en esa bendita
esquina quien le diga desde lo íntimo y con su sincera verdad...
jamás dejaría de vivir(te)... pero jamás dejaría de morir(me).
Jorge Rosso
Un deleite musical...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O-y6fv9FLc
Gracias por su visita a todos y cada uno... aprecio mucho cada gesto!!...
Progress continues on the East Side Access project as of February 12, 2013.
This photo shows work on the caverns underneath Grand Central Terminal that will house a future concourse for arriving and departing Long Island Rail Road trains.
Eight tunnels will allow trains to reach four platforms in two adjacent caverns.
Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.
This view was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. It shows a bird’s-eye view of the Coloe Fossae region of Mars, more specifically the wavy lines that indicate where material flowed during a previous martian ice age. The lack of impact craters in the low terrain at the foot of the cliff shows that this is much younger than the (more heavily cratered) highland terrain.
[Image description: A section of Mars’s surface in shades of light brown and tan. A steep, dark ridge runs horizontally across the centre, forming a sharp cliff that drops to a smoother, lighter plain below. The upper terrain is rough and uneven, with scattered small craters and ridges, while the lower area appears flatter and gently textured.]
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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.
At the left, an enhanced-color image of Neptune from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. At the right, that image is combined with data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The cyan splotches, which represent auroral activity, and white clouds, are data from Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), overlaid on top of the full image of the planet from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
Auroras occur when energetic particles, often originating from the Sun, become trapped in a planet’s magnetic field and eventually strike the upper atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions creates the signature glow.
Webb’s detection of auroras on Neptune is the first time astronomers have captured direct evidence of this phenomenon on the planet most distant from the Sun. In addition to the visible glow in the imagery, the spectrum from Webb also found an extremely prominent emission line signifying the presence of the trihydrogen cation (H3+), which can be created in auroras.
Neptune’s auroras do not occur at the northern and southern poles of the planet, where we see auroras on planets like Earth and Jupiter, because of the strange nature of Neptune’s magnetic field, which is tilted by 47 degrees from the planet’s rotational axis.
Webb’s study of Neptune also revealed that the planet’s upper atmosphere has cooled by several hundred degrees, likely the reason that Neptune’s auroras have remained undetected for so long.
This image was created from Hubble and Webb data from proposals: 17187 (R. Windhorst) and 1249 (B. Frye).
[Image description: A two-panel horizontal image. On the left is Neptune observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a blue circle, tilted about 25 degrees to the left. There are white smudges at 7 o’clock and just above 5 o’clock. At right is an opposing view of the planet, using data from Hubble and Webb. It is a multi-hued blue orb. There are white smudges in the same spots as the image on the left, but also at the center of the planet and at the top. There are cyan smudges vertically along the right side, and the top of these areas are more translucent than the bottom.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Heidi Hammel (AURA), Henrik Melin (Northumbria University), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Stefanie Milam (NASA-GSFC); CC BY 4.0
This week ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is refreshing his rock classification, as well as acting as test subject during dry runs for a new session of Pangaea geology field training, that is preparing space farers for lunar exploration.
The team, consisting of planetary geologists and training experts, is in Lofoten, Norway, scouting for a new traverses to be added to the Pangaea analogue complement.
Lofoten shares many geological features with lunar highlands, such as the Apollo 16 landing site, making it a perfect site to train astronauts on lunar geology.
Pangaea instructors Matteo Massironi, Riccardo Pozzobon, and Fransceco Sauro, as well as petrology professor and local expert Kåre Kullerud are guiding Matthias Maurer through interesting geological sites in the Nusfjord, an area containing primitive crust rock formations, including anorthosites, which are known to be typical lunar highland rocks.
The Pangaea course is designed to provide European astronauts with introductory and practical knowledge of Earth and planetary geology to prepare them to become effective partners of planetary scientists and engineers in designing the next exploration missions. The course also aims to give astronauts a solid knowledge in the geology of the Solar System from leading European scientists.
Credits: ESA–S. Sechi
Por esa sonrisa vale la pena hacerse 2000 kilometros, que es lo que hemos hecho Francisco Pérez González y yo para recoger a esta preciosidad que hemos adoptado y que se llama Yaba!!, gracias a Manuel Urrea Pacheco y Pilar Melgosa Desiré, por hacerlo posible, por acompañarnos estos días junto a sus dos bellezas "Cava y Lotus" para que Yaba se adapatara lo mejor posible a su nueva vida. Y como no a mi "Oski" que ha recibido a su hermana con mucha alegría! no me digais que no es un bombonazo!!!! parece catwoman con ese antifaz en su carita!
También quiero dedicársela especialmente a TeresalaLoba por esa pasión "animal" y por la naturaleza, que nos une.
Un besazo a tod@s y Feliz verano.
mi galería en 500px.com/MarDiaz1
The East Side Access megaproject is connecting the LIRR to a new passenger concourse underneath Grand Central Terminal. This photo shows an update on the status of construction on the Manhattan side of the project, as of June 2013.
Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin
El palacio Moika o palacio Yusúpov (en ruso, Дворец Юсуповых на Мойке, literalmente el palacio de los Yusúpov sobre el río Moika) fue la principal residencia en San Petersburgo, Rusia de la Casa de Yusúpov. En este edificio fue asesinado Grigori Rasputin en 1916 por varios miembros de la corte incluido el príncipe Félix Yusúpov.
Desde 1830 hasta 1917, el palacio perteneció a la casa de los Yusúpov, una familia de nobles rusos con una riqueza inmensa, famosos por su filantropía y colecciones de arte. Durante la época de la Rusia Imperial, el palacio era denominado el Palacio Yusúpov.
Su decoración interior y lujos no le iban a la zaga de lo que se observaba por esa época en los palacios reales. El palacio alojaba más de 40 000 obras de arte, incluyendo obras de Rembrandt, joyas y esculturas. La colección Yusúpov fue nacionalizada y trasladada al Hermitage y otros museos.
El palacio es especialmente famoso por las acciones de Félix Yusúpov, el último príncipe que lo habitó. Se cree que su fortuna excedía aun a la del mismísimo zar de Rusia. En Rusia, Yusúpov era propietario de 57 palacios, incluido cuatro palacios en San Petersburgo. El palacio sobre el río Moika era la residencia favorita del príncipe cuando estaba en la capital. Existen ciertas diferencias de opinión sobre los eventos en los que muere Rasputin. De acuerdo a los Yusúpov, en la noche del 16 de diciembre de 1916, Félix Yusúpov junto con el Gran Duque Dmitri Pávlovich de la Casa de Románov, invitaron a Grigori Rasputin al palacio Moika. Aparentemente le sirven a Rasputin tortas y vino tinto contaminado con cianuro, supuestamente en cantidad suficiente para matar cinco hombres. Preocupado porque no se observaban efectos del veneno en Rasputin, Yusúpov saca una pistola y le dispara a Rasputin en la espalda. Pensando que Rasputin había muerto, se retiran del recinto. Yusúpov regresa al cabo de un rato a la sala y descubre que Rasputin sigue vivo. Félix y los otros conspiradores le disparan a Rasputin, desde muy corta distancia tres veces más, pero Rasputin todavía continuaba tratando de incorporarse y escapar. Desesperados le pegan varias veces a Rasputin con una barra de hierro en la cabeza, lo envuelven en una sábana, lo sacan del palacio y lo arrojan al río Moika. Supuestamente la autopsia indicó que ni el veneno, ni las múltiples heridas de bala, ni los golpes fueron la causa de su muerte, sino que murió de hipotermia. Gran parte del relato de Yusúpov es considerado improbable.
Poco tiempo de la muerte de Rasputin, se desencadena la Revolución rusa y una vez que los Soviets se hacen con el poder, confiscan las propiedades de los nobles. En 1925, el palacio fue transferido al Comisariado de Educación de la ciudad. Si bien la mayoría de los palacios fueron convertidos para usos mundanos, el Comisariado de Educación decidió preservar la mansión convirtiéndola en un museo público. En la actualidad el palacio es denominado el Palacio de la Cultura de los Educadores y también funciona como museo del asesinato de Rasputin. El patio donde Rasputin intentó huir de sus asesinos en la actualidad se encuentra ocupado por una plazoleta de juegos de un jardín de infantes.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_Moika
The Moika Palace or Yusupov Palace (Russian: Дворец Юсуповых на Мойке, literally the Palace of the Yusupovs on the Moika) was once the primary residence in St. Petersburg, Russia of the House of Yusupov. The building was the site of Grigori Rasputin's murder in the early morning of December 17, 1916.
The palace was first built around 1776 by the French architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe. Over the years a number of architects worked on the palace including the famous Italian sculptor Emilio Sala, producing a variety of architectural styles. Andrei Mikhailov reconstructed the building in the 1830s after the princely Yusupov family acquired the property. This was the period in which the palace acquired its present-day appearance.
The Yusupovs were immensely wealthy and known for their philanthropy and art collections. In this time, the palace became known as the Yusupov Palace.
The luxurious interiors of the palace were not inferior to those of contemporary royal palaces. More than 40,000 works of art, including works by Rembrandt, jewelry, and sculptures decorated the palace. Following the Russian Revolution, the palace was nationalised and its works of art were largely relocated to the Hermitage and other museums. Ernst Friedrich von Liphart, who was the curator of paintings at the Hermitage, had earlier painted the curtain and ceiling of the palace theatre.
The palace was the scene of the assassination of Grigori Rasputin by a monarchist group which included Prince Felix Yusupov, heir to the vast Yusupov family estates. These included four palaces in St. Petersburg. The palace on the Moika was reportedly the prince’s favorite residence in the capital.
The exact events surrounding Rasputin's death are still in dispute. What seems clear is that on 30 December [O.S. 17 December] 1916, Felix Yusupov, along with Vladimir Purishkevich and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich invited Grigori Rasputin to the Moika Palace. He took Rasputin to a small but lavishly furnished cellar room of the palace. There he served Rasputin red wine. When Rasputin was affected, Yusupov retrieved a revolver and shot Rasputin from the side. Taking him for dead, Yusupov went upstairs to where the other conspirators waited in a ground floor study/drawing room. Rasputin succeeded in fleeing through a side door into a gated courtyard which opened onto the street outside. Purishkevich then shot Rasputin in the back, on the doorstep. The body was taken inside and a third bullet, fired at close range, entered his forehead. The conspirators wrapped Rasputin in a broadcloth, drove outside the city and threw the body into the Malaya Neva.
The Russian Revolution followed shortly after Rasputin's death and once the Soviets came to power, they confiscated the property of the nobles. In 1925, the palace was handed over to the city's Education Commissariat. While most nobles' palaces were converted to mundane use, the Education Commissariat decided to preserve the mansion as a public museum. Today the palace serves as a "Palace of Culture for Educators". Second floor reception areas and that part of the building associated with Rasputin's murder, are maintained as a museum open to public tours. The courtyard where Rasputin attempted to flee from his killers is now occupied by a kindergarten playground adjacent to the main building.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moika_Palace
web.archive.org/web/20080430001654/http://yusupov-palace....
♫Esa noche de verano que te conocía ya quise besarte
Ahora cada noche sueño con tu melodía y puedo tocarte
Pero cuando me despierto se desvanece tu cuerpo
Me encanto soñar contigo♪
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, arriving in Cologne, Germany on 15 October 2022.
Samantha’s Minerva mission began on 27 April 2022, when she was launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, USA, as part of Crew-4. While this mission was not her first to the International Space Station, it was packed full of groundbreaking moments.
On 21 July, Samantha completed her first spacewalk, outfitting the European Robotic Arm alongside Oleg Artemyev. This European project is capable of ‘walking’ between locations on the Station, offering grappling, transport, and installation assistance for payloads. Beyond this activity being a personal milestone, this extravehicular activity also made her the first European woman to spacewalk.
Samantha assumed the role of commander on 28 September, making her the fifth European, and first European woman, to hold the leadership position of the International Space Station. As commander, Samantha was responsible for the performance and well-being of her colleagues in space, maintaining effective communication with the teams on Earth, and coordinating crew response in case of emergencies. At the end of her mission, she assured a smooth transition between Expedition 67 and Expedition 68.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom transporting Crew-4 autonomously undocked from the International Space Station and after a series of burns, entered Earth’s atmosphere and deployed parachutes for a soft water-landing. Samantha and Crew-4 splashed down on 14 October 2022 at 21:55 BST (22:55 CEST).
Credits: ESA-S.Corvaja
¿Cómo compaginar
la aniquiladora
idea de la muerte
con ese incontenible
afán de vida?
¿cómo acoplar el horror
ante la nada que vendrá
con la invasora alegría
del amor provisional
y verdadero?
¿cómo desactivar la lápida con el sembradío?
¿la guadaña
con el clavel?
¿será que el hombre es eso?
¿esa batalla?
Mario Benedetti
¿Sabías que la luz que emiten aquellos cuerpos celestes, tarda cuatro años en llegar a la tierra? Bueno quizás la misma luz que sale de ellas ahora te encontrará en otro lugar, con otras personas. O quizás con esas que a pesar de lo que demore en percibir su luminosidad, siempre estarán allí para ti.
A veces hay noches oscuras, pero sabes que esa luz llegará.
Fotografía de Marcelo "Koala", pero con mi camará.
The European Space Agency will soon be releasing a new, cost efficient way of keeping a low-orbit manned presence in space. The whole unit is carried to orbit by an ESA rocket. A nuclear missile is housed in the rear, and the solar panel and engine/comm array detach from the habitation vessel. They re-attach to form a satellite that is left in orbit, while the pilot returns to earth!
An unprocessed image of a star field taken by Proba-3’s ASPIICS coronagraph and analysed by the Royal Observatory of Belgium. The vertical stripes in this image are due to an ongoing instrument calibration and will not appear in future images.
To observe the solar corona, Proba-3 carries ASPIICS, short for Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun. This instrument, developed for ESA by Centre Spatial de Liège, Belgium, is made up of a large occulting disk mounted on the Occulter spacecraft and a solar coronagraph system carried by the Coronagraph spacecraft.
While the two spacecraft were still attached to each other, the team tested the accuracy of the mission’s pointing. Essentially, the operators rotated the spacecraft by telling it which stars it should be facing. ASPIICS images of the star field were then used to verify if the pointing was correct.
Andrei Zhukov, Principal Investigator for the ASPIICS coronagraph at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, explains: “We looked at the star maps to see which stars would be visible for Proba-3 on that specific date. Choosing a single star would not be enough, because then you cannot be sure which star you are looking at. Ideally, you want at least three stars – a triangle like that can give you full orientation information.
“We chose two bright stars from the constellation of Ophiuchus – meaning ‘serpent-bearer’ in Ancient Greek – which are marked with the Greek letters δ (delta) and ε (epsilon). They are situated close enough to fit into an ASPIICS image, together with a few weaker stars. The Ophiuchus constellation is actually visible to the naked eye from anywhere on Earth.”
Andrei then asked the control team to point the spacecraft towards those stars and to capture an image of the star field using the coronagraph’s optical instrument.
“With excellent precision, the spacecraft pointed exactly where we asked it to. When we got the images, we saw the two stars straight away. They are very sharp – this is great news, because it means that during the ten seconds it took to capture the image, the spacecraft were very stable.”
At least eight stars are visible in this ASPIICS image, which is enough to confirm the pointing of the telescope. Positioning both spacecraft precisely will be crucial for observing the corona. If their alignment is off even by a few millimetres, the Sun will not be fully covered by the occulter, leading to unwanted light interrupting the observations.
In the precise alignment, the 1.4-m large disc on the Occulter spacecraft – the external occulter – will fully cover the Sun. Even then, however, so-called ‘stray light’ will spill over the occulter’s edges, creating a haze that would interfere with the corona observations.
To block the stray light, the coronagraph is equipped with another, internal occulter. In the star field image, this internal occulter is visible as a black ring, corresponding to a blackened section of one of the coronagraph’s lenses.
Andrei adds: “You can also see cosmic rays in the image, marked in purple. This is normal – in coronagraph images, cosmic ray hits often look like stars. There was a second image taken some time apart – in this one, the stars stay, and the cosmic rays appear in different locations.
“Overall, we were very pleased with the accuracy of the spacecraft pointing and the quality of the image. It made us even more excited to see the corona images, expected as early as March.”
The Royal Observatory of Belgium is hosting the ASPIICS Science Operations Centre (SOC) – a dedicated team responsible for creating operational commands for the coronagraph based on requests from the scientific community and sharing the resulting observations.
Credits: ESA
Acknowledgements: ESA/ROB
ATV Edoardo Amaldi docked with the ISS firing thrusters as part of the station's reboosting process. ATV-3 is cruicial for this process, which puts the ISS back into a higher orbit. Over time, the drag forces acting on the station bring it closer to Earth, so these reboosting procedures allow it to remain in orbit for a much greater time.
André is onboard the ISS as part of ESA's long duration mission, PromISSe. For further information on the mission, please visit: www.esa.int/SPECIALS/PromISSe/index.html
Credits: ESA/NASA
An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to discover gravitationally bound star clusters when the Universe was 460 million years old. This is the first discovery of star clusters in an infant galaxy less than 500 million years after the Big Bang.
Young galaxies in the early Universe underwent significant burst phases of star formation, generating substantial amounts of powerful ultraviolet light. However, because of how far away they are from Earth, studying how many stars they contain has proven challenging. Using Webb, an international team of astronomers have now detected five young massive star clusters in the Cosmic Gems arc (SPT0615-JD1), a strongly-lensed galaxy emitting light when the Universe was roughly 460 million years old, looking back across 97% of cosmic time.
The Cosmic Gems arc was initially discovered in NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images obtained by the RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey) programme of the lensing galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615−5746.
With Webb, the science team can now see where stars formed and how they are distributed, in a similar way to how the Hubble Space Telescope is used to study local galaxies. Webb’s view provides a unique opportunity to study star formation and the inner workings of infant galaxies at such an unprecedented distance.
[Image description: A field of galaxies on the black background of space. In the middle is a collection of dozens of yellowish galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster. Among them are distorted linear features, which mostly appear to follow invisible concentric circles curving around the centre of the image. The linear features are created when the light of a background galaxy is bent and magnified through gravitational lensing. A variety of brightly coloured, red and blue galaxies of various shapes are scattered across the image, making it feel densely populated.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Bradley (STScI), A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the Cosmic Spring collaboration; CC BY 4.0
ESA's technical heart, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, opened its gates to visitors on 2 October 2016 for the annual Open Day.
Credit: ESA-SJM Photography
On 7 October 2018 we opened the doors of ESTEC, our technical heart in the Netherlands, and welcomed more than 7600 people on a day full of activities including meet-and-greet with astronauts, tours around our test rooms, learning about the science in science fiction, and about the activities ESA does in all its establishments around Europe and beyond.
Credits: ESA–G. Porter
The ESA space pavilion at the 52nd international Paris Air and Space Show 2017, Le Bourget
Credit: ESA/D. Scuka
As part of the East Side Access megaproject, the MTA is building a new concourse for the Long Island Rail Road under Grand Central Terminal. This photo shows progress as of October 2013.
Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.
An artist's impression of the lunar outpost called the Gateway. The Gateway is the next structure to be launched by the partners of the International Space Station.
During the 2020s, it will be assembled and operated in the vicinity of the Moon, where it will move between different orbits and enable the most distant human space missions ever attempted.
Placed farther from Earth than the current Space Station – but not in a lunar orbit – the Gateway will offer a staging post for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Like a mountain refuge, it will provide shelter and a place to stock up on supplies for astronauts en route to more distant destinations. It will also offer a place to relay communications and can act as a base for scientific research.
The Gateway will weigh around 40 tonnes and will consist of a service module, a communications module, a connecting module, an airlock for spacewalks, a place for the astronauts to live and an operations station to command the Gateway’s robotic arm or rovers on the Moon. Astronauts will be able to occupy it for up to 90 days at a time.
A staging outpost near the Moon offers many advantages for space agencies. Most current rockets do not have the power to reach our satellite in one go but could reach the space Gateway. Europe’s Ariane would be able to deliver supplies for astronauts to collect and use for further missions deeper into space – much like mountain expeditions can stock up refuges with food and equipment for further climbs to the summit.
The Gateway also allows space agencies to test technologies such as electric propulsion where Earth’s gravity would interfere if done closer to home. New opportunities for space research away from Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere are planned for the outpost. Its close position will provide rapid response times for astronauts controlling rovers on the Moon.
Credits: ESA/NASA/ATG Medialab