Ariane 5 launch contributes to Ariane 6 development
An Ariane 5 lifted off this morning to deliver telecom satellite Eutelsat-65 West A into its planned transfer orbit. Liftoff of flight VA229 occurred at 05:20 GMT (02:20 local time, 06:20 CET) from...
View ArticleImage: Spooky lightning from orbit
ESA astronaut Tim Peake took this image circling Earth 400 km up in the International Space Station. He commented: "Sometimes looking down on Earth at night can be kinda spooky."
View ArticleClose comet flyby threw Mars' magnetic field into chaos
Just weeks before the historic encounter of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) with Mars in October 2014, NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft entered orbit around the Red...
View ArticlePicture of Pluto further refined by months of New Horizons data
When the New Horizons spacecraft made its flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015, there was worldwide celebration that we'd finally gotten our first detailed look at this completely new type of planet in the...
View ArticleArchaeologists study tools made by Sungarian man
Archaeologists from the Lomonosov Moscow State University have studied objects made of bone, antler and ivory, that were found at the open-air Upper Paleolithic Sungir archaeological site in Russia....
View ArticleVenus Express' swansong experiment sheds light on Venus' polar atmosphere
Some of the final results sent back by ESA's Venus Express before it plummeted down through the planet's atmosphere have revealed it to be rippling with atmospheric waves – and, at an average...
View ArticleNeandertals and Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens had different dietary strategies
When fluctuating climates in the Ice Age altered habitats, modern humans may have adapted their diets in a different way than Neandertals, according to a study published April 27, 2016 in the...
View ArticleCosmic dust reveals Earth's ancient atmosphere
Using the oldest fossil micrometeorites - space dust - ever found, Monash University-led research has made a surprising discovery about the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere 2.7 billion years ago.
View ArticleWhat a tiny micrometeorite from the Pilbara can tell us about the ancient sky
Not long ago, my colleagues and I found some micrometeorites in the Pilbara region in Western Australia. What's truly remarkable about them is that these tiny meteorites can tell us a great deal about...
View ArticleStudy shows people have an upper limit on the number of friends they can add...
(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers has found when people add someone new to their "friends" list, each is more distant than those in the inner circle. In their paper published in the Journal of the Royal...
View ArticleImage: Space station view of rare noctilucent clouds
Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European Space Agency photographed rare, high-altitude noctilucent or "night shining" clouds from the International Space Station on May 29, 2016.
View ArticleImage: Twilight stars at Concordia
Concordia sits on a plateau 3200 m above sea level. A place of extremes, temperatures can drop to –80°C in the winter, and the Sun does not rise above the horizon in the winter, forcing the crew to...
View ArticleAstronaut Ron Garan says space travel for all will make the Earth a better place
There is a small but growing set of people who have had the opportunity to see the Earth as a planet, and view its changing seasons and weather patterns from above. Astronauts are a rare breed: men,...
View ArticlePopcorn-like fossils provide evidence of environmental impacts on species...
The number of species that can exist on Earth depends on how the environment changes, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.
View ArticleSmall planets hiding in giant cloaks
Hazes and clouds high up in the atmospheres of exoplanets may make them appear bigger than they really are, according to new research by astronomers at the Space Research Institute (IWF) of the...
View ArticleHomologous temperature of olivine links deformation experiments and rheology...
The homologous temperature of a crystalline material is defined as the ratio between temperature and the melting (solidus) temperature (Tm) in Kelvin. Because Tm of a crystalline material is controlled...
View Article'Electric wind' can strip Earth-like planets of oceans, atmospheres
Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping Earth's twin planet of its oceans,...
View ArticleIraqi Kurdistan site reveals evolution towards the first cities of Mesopotamia
Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have revealed the latest archaeological discoveries on the origins and consolidation of the first farming societies in Upper Mesopotamia, in Iraqi...
View ArticleOldest rocks in Australia unlock secrets of the atmosphere
Research into micro-meteorites, meteorites smaller than 2 millimeters, found in Western Australia have shed new light on the make-up of the ancient Earth's atmosphere.
View ArticleThe curious case of Earth's leaking atmosphere
Earth's atmosphere is leaking. Every day, around 90 tonnes of material escapes from our planet's upper atmosphere and streams out into space. Although missions such as ESA's Cluster fleet have long...
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