Tag Archives: ESA

In the Sky This Week – May 19, 2020

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This entry is part 147 of 154 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mars continues to pull away from Saturn and Jupiter in the southeastern predawn sky; Saturn and Jupiter are getting a little closer with each passing day. Mercury and Venus in the west-northwestern sky are joined by a thin crescent Moon at sunset on May 23-25th.   The Moon is a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon occurs on May 22nd. After May 22nd the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening. Moon News: NASA unveils new rules to guide behavior in space and on the lunar surface As @NASA leads a coalition of nations to the Moon, safety, transparency, and coordination are paramount. Hence, the Artemis Accords:https://t.co/liHjCpTQEk — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 15, 2020 The Sun has 2 spots rotating into view – you can see the active regions in the videos below – both above and below the equator on the left-hand side. Coronal holes remain open … Continue reading →

Bones in Space – Solarblack

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Solar Orbiter In February 2020 an Irish company will showcase to the world its innovative use of burnt bone charcoal. ENBIO has developed a use for charred bone with its unique product Solarblack. This product will bring heatshields for spacecraft to another level. ESA’s Solar Orbiter is due to launch on February 5th. Bones in space – Solarblack high technology for the next decade. Solarblack The application of Solarblack to heatshields is for the thermal protection of spacecraft working in the harsh environs of space. Yes, the Solar Orbiter space probe will soon be on its way to study the sun. Its duty is to  inform us more fully about the origins of spaceweather. The mission will  to being a  manmade probe closer to our star than ever  before. The word Solarblack suggest bright and dark. The brightest thing you can think of i.e. the Sun and the darkest colour of all, pure black. This product is a Thermo optical … Continue reading →

Transit of Mercury CHEOPS and Exoplanets

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Drawing Yes, indeed I felt lucky to see the transit of mercury on November 11th. Black clouds full of heavy rain were in constant supply all morning. My PST telescope and drawing materials were in and out in the hope of a break in the weather. It was my intention to use the drawing to help explain the transit of Mercury, CHEOPS and Exoplanets. As you can see from the drawing above (which is not rotated) I got my first view of the tiny planet at 12:51. I sketched one black dot on top of my previously drawn solar disc. Then the rain bucketed down like rods with a big wind attached. Next chance came at 13:33 a second black dot added to the effort. Then it rained cats and dogs till 14:26 when my final opportunity gave me a third mercury dot to add to the sketch.  Most Irish observers had a similar story and images of this unique … Continue reading →

Possible Subsurface Lake Discovered on Mars

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The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has bounced radar signals through underground layers of ice and found evidence of a pond of water buried beneath Mars’ south polar cap. Observations of the Planum Australe region at Mars’ south pole were made between 2012 and 2015 using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument (MARSIS); MARSIS is the first radar sounder ever to orbit another planet. Ground-penetrating radar works by sending pulses at the surface and timing how long the reflected signals take to return to the spacecraft, and measuring how strong those signals are. The properties of the material beneath the surface influence the returned signal; these data can be used to map the subsurface topography. The MARIS investigation reveals that south polar region of Mars is made of many layers of ice and dust down to a depth of about 1.5 km in the region analyzed for this study. “Analysing the properties of the reflected … Continue reading →

NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars

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NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet’s surface and subsurface. The new findings — “tough” organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere — appear in the June 8 edition of the journal Science. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. While commonly associated with life, organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators of life. “Are there signs of life on Mars? We don’t know, but these results tell us we are on the right track.” – … Continue reading →

Marvellous Mars Castletown House Ireland

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Updated Marvellous Mars memories For several years now I have been visiting Castletown House doing workshops for families. Mams, dads, granny’s, grandad’s and kids all working together. Everyone  learning together about planets and space missions. This year however COVID 19 has prevented that happening so far. So here is one from May 2018, my Marvellous Mars drawing workshop. Castletown House is a Georgian palace set in a magnificent landscape in Co Kildare. The building is full of grace and elegance of times long past. That splendour coupled with all that is required of a building for public events makes Castletown House a special place. It was a pleasure to be invited to do a workshop in this excellent venue. Particularly timely as it was on the eve of the launch of NASA’s InSight mission. The evening was set up for my Marvellous Mars drawing workshop. The audience were families, mams, dads and children, a perfect combination. It was beautiful, with late … Continue reading →

Earth’s Drifting Magnetic North Pole

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It’s been known for quite some time that the Earth’s magnetic poles are not aligned with the Earth’s geographic poles, and that the Earth’s magnetic poles drift over time. In 2018, the north magnetic and geographic poles are closer then they have ever been… well… since we’ve been observing them – only 390km! This tweet from BBC Science Corespondent Jonathan Amos caught my eye: Most people know that the magnetic north pole is not at the geographic north pole. It’s drifting away from Canada towards Russia at a rate of 55km/yr. BUT, this year, the magnetic pole is closest to the geo pole. A separation of just 390km. @ESA_EO #Swarm #EGU18 pic.twitter.com/lxM1PXW1Jf — Jonathan Amos (@BBCAmos) April 10, 2018 I didn’t recognize the hash-tags at the end of Jonathan’s tweet, so I looked them up – which sent me down an hour-long rabbit hole: @ESA_EO refers to the ESA EarthObservation twitter account. They seem to be doing a lot of education and outreach… I … Continue reading →

Yes I Carved a Comet from Recycled Polystyrene 67P/CG

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I was intrigued by the European Space Agency’s mission to comet 67P/ CG (Churyumov–Gerasimenko). Some of you might ask what is a 67P ?  . 67P/ CG  is a periodic comet. That means  that as it orbits the sun its pathway brings it between the orbits of Jupiter and Earth once every 6.5 years.  The short orbit makes it a periodic comet with a very predictable trajectory.  Comets are named after the person or group of people or telescopes who discover them. Back in 1969, Klim Ivanovich Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko, discovered this comet jointly. The European Space Agency built the Rosetta space craft to rondezvous with a comet, it launched in 2004.The comet eventually choosen was 67P/C G.  ESA sent a passenger along with Rosetta , this companion was the Philae Lander. This is a small probe ( about the size of a washing machine) .  Philae’s job was to land on the comet and investigate the surface … Continue reading →

Space the final Frontier – World Space Week 2016

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This entry is part 1 of 12 in the series Exploring the Solar System

“Space: the final frontier. ” The opening line of the famous quote from Star Trek, the missions aim ” to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before. ” During Spaceweek 2016 I had the opportunity to take 360 children and their teachers on an exploration of moons in our solar system and the very topical planet Mars . Through listening and drawing they experienced a small awakening to the robotic images which are unveiling the beauty of other worlds, increasing our understanding with every single pixel. My workshop Deadly Moons now includes the stunning New Horizons image of Charon Pluto’s largest moon. The children loved the Star Wars names on its craters . They enjoyed linking Charon’s features to familiar books and movies. The workshop also showcases the incredable images of Saturn’s moons taken by the Cassini Spacecraft. In order to make my workshop Marvellous Mars extra interesting for the groups I made a model of Mars … Continue reading →

ExoMars Orbiter and Lander Begin 7 Month Journey to the Red Planet

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The first mission of the European Space Agency’s  ExoMars programme has lifted off on a Proton-M rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and is on its way to Mars. The mission includes the Trace Gas Orbiter, plus the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. The mission will arrive at Mars in October of 2016. The main objectives of the mission are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes, and to test key technologies in preparation for ESA’s contribution to future Mars missions. Three days before reaching Mars, the Schiaparelli lander will detach from the orbiter, and coast towards atmospheric entry. It will enter the atmosphere at 21,000 km/hr, aerobraking and then deploying parachutes. A thruster system system will be used for the final stage of its descent. The lander will operate on the surface of Mars for 2-4 sols (Martian days). The scientific mission for the Trace … Continue reading →