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NortheK
Technical Specifications The NortheK RC 250 is the advanced solution for wide-field astronomical photography. The high-correction Ritchey ChrĂŠtien design allows oustanding wide field photography, flat field until the edge, and fully illuminated on the sensor up to a 30 mm diameter, for your enjoyment whit the CCDs and most of DSLRs. Small and easy-to-manage, lightweight, mechanically highly sophisticated, this instrument is ideal for the astronomer on-themove.
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Saturn and Mars Team Up to Make Their Closest Approaches to Earth in 2018
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Hubble Detects Helium in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet for the First Time
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Aeolus laser shines light on wind
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Hubble celebrates 28th anniversary in style with stunning view of Lagoon Nebula
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Shedding light on shallow waters
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Jupiter’s magnetic field is surprisingly weird
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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Early Science Observations Revealed
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Pioneer Venus Multiprobe Launched to Study the Cloud-Shrouded
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Staring Down Hurricane Florence
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An amazing view of our one and only planet
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A “private passenger”
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Last Delta II Rocket Launches NASA Satellite to Map Earth’s Ice with Space Laser 5
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Saturn and Mars Team Up to Make Closest Approaches to Earth.
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lanets photographed near opposition, storms seen on both. As Saturn and Mars ventured close to Earth, Hubble captured their portraits in June and July 2018, respectively. The
The Full Story
telescope photographed the planets near opposition, when the Sun, Earth and an outer planet are lined up, with Earth sitting in between the Sun and the outer planet.
of bright clouds visible near the northern polar region that are the NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope remnants of a disintegrating storm. has photographed Saturn and The increase in sunlight in Saturn’s Mars near their closest approaches northern hemisphere heated the to Earth in June and July 2018. atmosphere, triggered a large storm. It’s now summertime in Saturn’s northern hemisphere and The combined observations will springtime in Mars’ southern aid planetary scientists in building hemisphere. The Hubble images a better understanding of how show that Earth isn’t the only. This global storms arise on the Red may be responsible for a string Planet.
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Hubble Detects Helium in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet for the First Time Ballooning atmosphere extends tens of thousands of miles above a gas giant planet There may be no shortage of balloon-filled birthday parties or people with silly high-pitched voices on the planet WASP-107b. That’s because NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was used to detect helium in the atmosphere for the first time ever on a world outside of our solar system. The discovery demonstrates the ability to use infrared spectra to study exoplanet atmospheres. Though as far back as 2000 helium was predicted to be one of the most readily detectable
gases on giant exoplanets, until now helium had not been found despite searches for it. Helium was first discovered on the Sun, and is the second most common element in the universe after hydrogen. It’s one of the main constituents of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected helium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP107b. This is the first time this element has been detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. The discovery demonstrates the ability to use infrared spectra to study exoplanet
extended atmospheres. "The strong signal from helium we measured demonstrates a new technique to study upper layers of exoplanet atmospheres in a wider range of planets," said Spake. The measurement of an exoplanet's atmosphere is performed when the planet passes in front of its host star.
Credits
Artwork: ESA/Hubble, NASA, and M. Kornmesser Science: NASA, ESA, and J. Spake (University of Exeter)
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Astronomy Picture of the August
“Glowing Elements in the Soul Nebula” 11
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Aeolus laser shines light on wind
ollowing the launch of Aeolus on 22 August, this extraordinary satellite’s instrument has been turned on and is now emitting pulses of ultraviolet light from its laser, which is fundamental to measuring Earth’s wind. And, this remarkable mission has also already returned a tantalising glimpse of the data it will provide. Lofted into space on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana just two weeks ago, ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite
has been designed to measure winds around the globe. Aeolus will play a key role in our quest to better understand the workings of the atmosphere and, importantly, this novel mission will also improve weather forecasting. The instrument then measures the backscattered signals from air molecules, dust particles and water droplets to provide vertical profiles that show the speed of the world’s winds in the lowermost.
The mission is now being commissioned for service – a phase that lasts about three months. One of the first things on the ‘to do’ list was arguably the one of the most important: turn on the instrument and check that the laser works. ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, explained, “Aeolus is a world premiere. After the launch two weeks ago the whole community has been anxiously awaiting the switch-on of the ultraviolet laser.
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his has been successful. We have pioneered new technology for one of the largest data gaps in meteorology – global wind profiles in cloud-free atmosphere. I am grateful to all who have made this success possible. ESA’s Aeolus project manager, Anders Elfving, added, “Aeolus has been one of the most challenging missions on ESA’s books. And, unsurprisingly, we have had to overcome a number of technical challenges. when we turned on the instrument a few days ago. But the years of work certainly appear to have
paid off. After turning it on, we started slowly and steadily increasing the power. Richard Wimmer from Airbus Defence and Space noted, “It is a very exciting time to have Aeolus safely in orbit and doing what we and our industrial teams spent years building it to do.”
yet even fully calibrated, so these results are just incredible.” With Aeolus instrument healthy and performing well, engineers will continue ticking off other items on the commiss.
Aeolus has also already made some astonishing first measurements. ESA’s Fabio Buscaglione, who heads the data processing for Aeolus, said, “We have already been able to process the first wind data, which are quite remarkable.” “The instrument is not
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or 28 years, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been delivering breathtaking views of the universe. Although the telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations of over 40,000 space objects, it is still uncovering stunning celestial gems. At the center of the photo, a monster young star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust. This region epitomizes a typical, raucous stellar nursery full of birth and destruction.
This colorful image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, celebrates the Earth-orbiting observatory’s 28th anniversary of viewing the heavens, giving us a window seat to the universe’s extraordinary tapestry of stellar birth and destruction. At the center of the photo, a monster young star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust. The Hubble view shows off the bubble’s 3D structure. Dust pushed away from the star reveals the glowing oxygen gas
(in blue) behind the blown-out cavity. Herschel 36’s brilliant light is illuminating the top of the cavity (in yellow). The reddish hue that dominates part of the region is glowing nitrogen. The dark purple areas represent a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Credits:
NASA, ESA, and STScI
Contact:
Donna Weaver / Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore.
Hubble celebrates 28th anniversary in style with stunning view of
Lagoon Nebula
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Shedding light on shallow waters Keeping an eye on our waters is more important than ever, as widespread drought continues to sweep Europe this summer Earth’s changing sea levels are crucial indicators of how our environment
is fairing, but monitoring it manually can be a labour-intensive, expensive, and at times even dangerous task. Coastal areas provide additional complications,
as shifting seabeds and currents make creating accurate and consistent water depth maps – also known as bathymetry – almost impossible. Satellites are ideally placed to address this challenge.
Low-orbiting satellites equipped with light-measuring sensors can record how much light is reflected off the seabed, gathering and updating the information continually as they fly over. An ESA-backed group, led by TCarta, has developed a way of using this data to produce water depth maps, and make them available to anyone. Richard Flemmings, Operations Director for TCarta, said: “The team applies computer algorithms to
satellite imagery from sources like Landsat, Sentinel-2 and DigitalGlobe’s WorldView constellation.
stantly available and high resolution bathymetry at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.”
“These algorithms analyse the images light frequency from different parts of the satellit. Work with existing points of reference, such as confirmed results drawn from similar readings elsewhere, and knowledge on how different types of seabed reflect the light. “These products are hosted on the Bathymetrics Data Portal, which provides ready-made, in-
Different satellites can generate different resolution images, with Copernicus’s Sentinel-2 wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager producing around 10m.
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Jupiter’s magnetic field is surprisingly weird If Earth’s magnetic field resembles that of a bar magnet, Jupiter’s field looks like someone took a bar magnet, bent it in half and splayed it at both ends. The field emerges in a broad swath across Jupiter’s northern hemisphere and re-enters the planet both around the south pole and in a concentrated spot just south of the equator, researchers report. The new look at Jupiter’s magnetic field comes courtesy of NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since
July 2016. Relying on nearly 2,000 measurements of the field outside the planet, Moore and colleagues created maps detailing how the field emerges by calculating how it extends to roughly 10,000 kilometers below the cloud tops. One possibility is that the extreme temperature and pressure near Jupiter’s core create a soup of rock and ice partly dissolved in liquid metallic hydrogen. Or perhaps squalls of helium rain closer to the clouds stir up conductive layers below, contorting the field before it emerges from the clouds.
Citations K.M. Moore et al. A complex dynamo inferred from the hemispheric dichotomy of Jupiter’s magnetic field. Nature. Vol. 561, September 6, 2018, p. 76. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0468-5. Further Reading C. Crockett. 4 surprising things we just learned about Jupiter. Science News. Vol. 193, March 31, 2018, p. 10.
Jupiter’s magnetic field (illustrated as lines) emerges from a wide zone (red) in the northern hemisphere and partly re-enters in a concentrated spot (blue) south of the equator.
L. Grossman. Jupiter’s massive Great Red Spot is at least 350 kilometers deep. Science News. Vol. 193, January 20, 2018, p. 7. A. Yeager. Juno spacecraft reveals a more complex Jupiter. Science News. Vol. 191, June 24, 2017, p. 14. C. Crockett. Juno is closing in on Jupiter. Science News. Vol. 189, June 25, 2016, p. 16.
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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Early Science Observations Revealed
Astronomers around the world will have immediate access to early data from specific science observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which will be completed within the first five months of science operations.
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40 Years Ago, Pioneer Venus Multiprobe Launched to Study the Cloud-Shrouded On August 8, 1978, the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe spacecraft launched to study Venus, a planet that has an atmosphere 100 times denser than Earth’s atmosphere and is hotter than the melting point of zinc and lead. Pioneer Venus Multiprobe was composed of five components: the main spacecraft, the large probe and three identical small probes named North, Day and Night. Built by the Hughes Company in El Segundo, California, and launched on an Atlas-Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe project was managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The large probe separated from the main spacecraft 123 days after launch, on November 16, followed
by the small probes on November 20, reaching and entering Venus’ atmosphere December 9. While not expected to survive their fiery descent into the dense Venusian atmosphere, all four of the probes transmitted data down to the surface with the Day probe transmitting from the surface for over an hour.
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Astronomy Picture of the September
“Along the Western Veil” 25
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Staring Down Hurricane Florence “Ever stared down the gaping eye of a category 4 hurricane? It’s chilling, even from space,” says European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst who is currently living and working aboard the International Space Station as a member of the Expedition 56 crew. A high-definition video camera outside the space station captured stark and sobering views of Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm. The video was taken on Tuesday as Florence churned across the Atlantic in a west-northwesterly direction with winds of 130 miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center forecasts additional strengthening for Florence before it reaches the coastline of North Carolina and South Carolina early Friday, Sept. 14.
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An Amazing View NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold took this selfie during the May 16, 2018, spacewalk to perform upgrades on the International Space Station, saying in a tweet “An amazing view of our one and only planet�. Arnold and fellow spacewalker Drew Feustel donned spacesuits and worked for more than six hours outside the station to finish upgrading cooling system hardware and install new and updated communications equipment for future dockings of commercial crew spacecraft.
Hubble’s Lucky Observation of an Enigmatic Cloud
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A “private passenger” SpaceX’s giant Mars vehicle has a crewed moon mission on its docket. SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard our BFR launch vehicle—an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space.
A “private passenger” has signed up for a trip around the moon aboard SpaceX’s BFR rocket-spaceship combo, company representatives announced via Twitter Sept. 13. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk will fill in the details Sept. 17, during a webcast that begins at 9 p.m. EDT (01:00 GMT on Sept. 18). The BFR — which is short for “Big Falcon Rocket” — is still under development. It will consist of the most powerful rocket ever built and a spaceship capable of carrying 100 or so passengers at a time to and from Mars, Musk has said. Both of these elements will be reusable. Indeed, Musk has said that SpaceX plans to phase out all of its rockets and spacecraft, letting the BFR take over everything eventually. The company envisions the BFR performing satellite launches, cleaning up space junk, carrying folks on superfast “point-to-point” trips here on Earth — and, of course, helping our species spread out into the solar system, to the moon, Mars and beyond.
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Last Delta II Rocket Launches NASA Satellite to Map Earth’s Ice with Space Laser A $1 billion NASA mission that will use a laser to track changing ice levels on Earth soared into space early Sept. 15, launching into a predawn California sky on a mission that also marked the final flight of a record-setting rocket. For its 155th and final mission, the Delta II flew in its 7420-10 configuration, outfitted with four Graphite Epoxy Motor side-mounted boosters, which were jettisoned 1 minute and 22 seconds into the flight. The tiny CubeSats University of Central Florida, Cal Poly to conduct research in space weather and resulting discharge events on spacecraft and damping behavior in a zero-gravity environment.
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