India Launches First Manned Ocean Mission 'Samudrayan'
India's first manned ocean mission 'Samudrayan' was launched by Union Minister Jitendra Singh and with this the nation joined an elite club of nations having such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.
Singh said that the mission does not only increase the scientific capacity but also gives the nation a sense of esteem that we are doing something which is no less than any other country of the world.
Oct 29, 2021
France Launches Military Communications Satellite "Syracuse 4A"
France has successfully launched a state-of-the-art satellite namely 'Syracuse 4A' into orbit which was carried off by Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, in French Guiana. It is designed to allow France's armed forces across the globe to communicate swiftly and securely. The satellite can survey its close surroundings and move itself to escape an attack.
Syracuse IV produces a throughput three times higher (1.5 Gbit/sec) than Syracuse III by operating in two bands: X and Ka. Three satellites are to be placed in orbit: the second in 2022 and the third on an unknown date. The total cost of the Syracuse IV programme is EUR3.6 billion (nearly USD4.2 billion). Syracuse IV is the first French military satellite with the ability to detect other satellites that are trying to gather information from it or to destroy it.
Oct 28, 2021
Proba-1 Completes 20 Years
ESA's Proba-1 mini satellite was launched two decades ago, in October 2021, into orbit. It has completed 20 years.
The mini satellite remains fully operational for 20 years.
It is the oldest serving Earth observing mission of the agency.
Proba-1 is roughly the size of a hotel fridge. It hosts two Earth-observing instruments together with several technological firsts.
Probe 1 is the first in ESA's (European Space Agency's) family of 'Project for On-Board Autonomy' missions.
It started life as a technology demonstration satellite and later became an Earth observation mission.
It is highly automated and introduced several mainstream technologies to space, such as, lithium-ion batteries, use of star trackers for gyro-free attitude control and gallium arsenide solar panel as well as ESA-developed ERC-32 microprocessors that run its flight computers.
Proba-1 mission carry several low-cost, commercial-off-the-shelf systems and components. It is sometimes described as 'NewSpace before NewSpace'. This mission continues to deliver imagery to scientists across the world. It also provides valuable data on longevity of space systems and components.
European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organisation comprising of 22 member states. It is dedicated for the exploration of space. ESA was established in 1975. It is headquartered in Paris.
Oct 27, 2021
NASA Finds First Signs of Planet outside Milky Way Galaxy
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory for the first time spotted signs of a planet transiting a star outside of the Milky Way galaxy, opening up a new avenue to search for exoplanets at greater distances than ever before.
The possible exoplanet, or planets outside of our Solar System, candidate is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also called the Whirlpool Galaxy because of its distinctive profile.
Astronomers have, so far, found all other known exoplanets and exoplanet candidates in the Milky Way galaxy, almost all of them less than about 3,000 light-years from Earth.
An exoplanet in M51 would be about 28 million light years away, meaning it would be thousands of times farther away than those in the Milky Way.
Oct 26, 2021
Super-Jupiter Found Circling Very Young
The discovery of a super-Jupiter exoplanet around the M-type dwarf star 2MASS J04372171+2651014 challenges models of planet formation by either core accretion (which requires time) or disk instability (which requires mass).
2MASS J04372171+2651014 (2M0437 for short) is a single mid-M type dwarf located 421 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus.
The star is between 2 and 5 million years old, has a mass of 0.15-0.18 solar masses and an effective temperature of 3,100 K.
Otherwise known as TIC 125843782, it is a member of the 1- to 5-million-year-old Taurus star-forming region.
The newly-discovered planet, designated 2M0437b, is up to five times more massive than Jupiter.