They are here! Mangalyaan’s first offering to India is out in the open. Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) released on Thursday the first image of Mars clicked by the indigenous Mangalyaan, which took India to soaring heights a day ago by slipping into the Red Planet’s orbit on the country’s maiden attempt. Isro said the photograph — named ‘First Light’ — it posted ... Read More »
Indeed this is very interesting to know the internals of a spacecraft! Here we go: The spacecraft configuration is a balanced mix of design from flight proven IRS/INSAT/Chandrayaan-1 bus. Modifications required for Mars mission are in the areas of Communication, Power, Propulsion systems (mainly related to Liquid Engine restart after nearly 10 months) and on-board autonomy. 390 litres capacity propellant ... Read More »
Following the successful re-firing of the main liquid engine of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft for a minor trajectory change on Monday, Isro is planning to activate the colour camera payload and get the first images of the red planet by Wednesday afternoon. With Monday’s success, the possibility of MOM acquiring the desired orbit around Mars on Wednesday has ... Read More »
WASHINGTON: Massive galaxies in the universe have stopped making new stars and are instead gulping down nearby galaxies, according to new research. According to Australian researchers, our own Milky Way is at a tipping point and expected to now grow mainly by eating smaller galaxies, rather than by collecting gas. “The Milky Way has not merged with another large galaxy ... Read More »
Boeing and the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation are the winners in the competition to carry American astronauts to the International Space Station, NASA announced on Tuesday. The awards reflect a fundamental shift in NASA’s human spaceflight program, relying on private companies rather than the traditional hands-on approach, in which the space agency designed and operated the spacecraft. The first flights ... Read More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mars, get ready for another visitor or two. This weekend, NASA’s Maven spacecraft will reach the red planet following a 10-month journey spanning 442 million miles. If all goes well, the robotic explorer will hit the brakes and slip into Martian orbit Sunday night. “I’m all on pins and needles. This is a critical event,” NASA’s director ... Read More »
Astronomers using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground observation have found an unlikely object in an improbable place — a monster black hole lurking inside one of the tiniest galaxies ever known. The black hole is five times the mass of the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It is inside one of the densest ... Read More »
A planet may be causing the star it orbits to act much older than it actually is, according to new data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This discovery shows how a massive planet can affect the behavior of its parent star. The star, WASP-18, and its planet, WASP-18b, are located about 330 light-years from Earth. WASP-18b has a mass about ... Read More »
One of Saturn’s iconic rings looks much different today than it did just a few decades ago, and scientists aren’t sure why. NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft spotted many bright clumps in Saturn’s F ring when they flew by the gas giant in the early 1980s. But observations made by the space agency’s Cassini probe from 2004 to 2010 reveal relatively ... Read More »
Scientists have solved a mystery behind the appearance of quasars — one of the brightest objects in the universe — that astronomers have been puzzling over for decades. Quasars are super—massive black holes that live at the centre of distant massive galaxies. They shine as the most luminous beacons in the sky across the entire electromagnetic spectrum by rapidly accreting ... Read More »
