Tachyon Beam, Page 96

The SoyuzTMA-18M spacecraft approaching the International Space Station (Image ESA)

Three new astronauts reached the International Space Station, one of them completes the Expedition 45 crew

Massimo Luciani September 4, 2015 2

A little while ago the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. On board there are ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Aidyn Aimbetov. The three of then were launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last Wednesday. In a couple of hours the hatches between the Soyuz TMA-18M and the Station will be opened and the newcomers will be welcomed by the rest of the crew.

Aidyn Aimbetov, Sergey Volkov and Andreas Mogensen (Photo NASA)

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft was launched to the International Space Station with three crew members

Massimo Luciani September 2, 2015 1

A few hours ago the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and went en route to the International Space Station carrying Aidyn Aimbetov, Sergey Volkov and Andreas Mogensen. The Soyuz is using the trajectory that requires two days of travel instead of the fast track normally used because of the Station’s position.

Composition of multiwavelength images of the galaxy cluster Abell 1033 and the surrounding area (Image NASA/CXC/Univ of Hamburg/F. de Gasperin et al; Optical: SDSS; Radio: NRAO/VLA)

A radio phoenix detected by the Chandra Space Observatory

Massimo Luciani August 31, 2015 0

An article in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” describes a research on the galactic cluster Abell 1033. Combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands, NSF’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a team of astronomers reconstructed the history of a cloud of electrons at the cluster’s center. It was reignited after a cosmic collision and for this reason it’s been compared to the legendary phoenix.

Reproduction of the solar system with its many celestial bodies and the New Horizon's space probe's path to PT1 (Image NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Alex Parker)

NASA chose the next target for the New Horizons space probe in the Kuiper Belt

Massimo Luciani August 29, 2015 1

NASA announced the choice of a target for the second mission of the New Horizons space probe. It’s a so-called Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) officially called 2014 MU69. Informally called PT1 (Potential Target 1), it’s one of the objects selected in October 2014 among those discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope with just that purpose.

On the left a picture of the Sun taken by the SDO space probe, at the center a close-up of a prominence and on the right a picture of the Earth in the same scale (Image NASA/JAXA/NAOJ)

An explanation to the mystery of the solar corona heating

Massimo Luciani August 27, 2015 1

Two articles published in “The Astrophysical Journal” describe a study of what is known as the coronal heating problem. For decades, scientists have been trying to understand why the temperature on the surface of the Sun is about 6,000 Kelvin while the corona, the region between the surface and the area of the outer atmosphere, can reach temperatures of several million degrees. Now a team of researchers led by Takenori Okamoto of the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory at Nagoya University and ISAS/JAXA and Patrick Antolin of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, offers an explanation, tied to resonant absorption.