esa

It's comforting to know that there are people who are literally paid to watch the night sky to ensure that at least we'll be informed if an asteroid will hit the Earth.Technology and near-Earth surveys have become advanced enough that the likelihood of a planet-killer-sized asteroid coming out of nowhere, as is so prevalent in modern media depictions, is extremely unlikely.  Even smaller ones, which would only wipe out a city or part of a continent, get enough attention to tell if they pose a threat or not.And in advance…

Scientists have observed unusual particle acceleration in the Manatee Nebula and finally managed to pinpoint the location of the acceleration. Using the European Space Agency's X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton, astronomers observed the Westerhout 50, as it is officially known, a supernova remnant roughly 18,000 light-years away, located in the constellation Aquila. The astronomers found a region of X-rays that is causing particle acceleration in the “head” of the nebula structure. At the centre of the supernova remnant…

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported on Wednesday.China's Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on the country's inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space.Among the images taken from space were China's first photographs of the Martian south pole,…

The European Space Agency's (ESA) BepiColombo mission successfully completed its second flyby of Mercury, capturing 56 intricate images in the process, according to the agency. The joint project developed by the ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is tasked with examining the least explored planet in the inner solar system. During its closest approach to Mercury on June 23, the probe was around 200 km above the surface, capturing close-up images of the planet using its three onboard monitoring cameras.“We…

BepiColombo, a joint mission of European Space Agency's (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), successfully completed the second of its six encounters with Mercury -- about 200 km above the planet's surface.The spacecraft, which is on its way to the mysterious innermost planet of the solar system Mercury, aims to enter the planet's orbit in 2025.It made the second encounter with Mercury at 09:44 UTC (3:14 pm IST) on June 23, and just as the first one on October 1. It captured an amazing array of the planet's…

The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft is set to get a major software upgrade that will boost its capabilities. The Mars Express was ESA's first mission to Mars, launched on June 2, 2003 and it ran Windows 98. It has been equipped with the MARSIS instrument that had discovered signs of liquid water on the Red Planet. Operated by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, the MARSIS sends low-frequency radio…

The European Space Agency (ESA) said on Wednesday that it expects strong support from its US counterpart NASA after the European agency's plans to cooperate with Russia on a Mars research mission were suspended due to the Ukraine war.ESA said in March that it was suspending cooperation with Russia's Roscosmos space agency on their joint ExoMars rover mission to search for signs of life on the surface of Mars in the wake of the Ukraine war and sanctions imposed on Moscow.ESA said in June it had held talks with Roscosmos…

The European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday it has held talks with Russia's Roscosmos space agency over the ExoMars rover mission to search for signs of life on the surface of Mars.The ESA's press office confirmed the talks in an emailed statement, but gave no indication of the outcome. An update could follow a planned ESA Council meeting on Wednesday, it said.The agency said in March it was suspending cooperation with Roscosmos over their joint ExoMars programme in the wake of Russia's invasion in Ukraine and…

In late April, the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission captured an image of Aonia Terra, a crater-filled region in the Red Planet's southern hemisphere. So, what's special about these photographs? Well, one of the images shows a crater encircled by winding channels. A closer look would suggest that the image looks eerily like a human eyeball. However, the objective of the massive eye-gazing image of the crater, which measures 30 kilometres across, is not to give readers cosmic goosebumps. It's to assist them in…

Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, as well as other digital gaming showcase livestreams coming this summer, have proven that the gaming industry doesn’t need E3, which was canceled this year for the second time in two years to reduce health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is telling everyone not to count it out just yet. Gaming’s governing body has announced that E3 will be returning in 2023. ESA President and CEO Stan Pierre-Louis said in an…