A few hours ago, NASA’s Europa Clipper space probe blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. After just over an hour, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and set off on its route that will take it into deep space, to Europa, Jupiter’s moon with an icy surface that hides an ocean of liquid water to understand if it’s habitable.
SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the fifth test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 12 and the Starship identified as Starship 30 or Ship30 or simply S30.
Each test leads to new changes to the vehicles’ systems, and this was also true after the fourth test conducted on June 6, 2024. The scheduled breakthrough was in the test of the system called Mechazilla, the structure attached to the launch pad that also has the purpose of capturing the Super Heavy when it returns after launching the Starship.
An article accepted for publication in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” reports the discovery of a primordial galaxy that was cataloged as REBELS-25 and shows a rotating structure that is already ordered in a way that isn’t expected from such an ancient galaxy. A team of researchers used the ALMA radio telescope to study REBELS-25 and trace the movement of gas within it. The data collected will be invaluable in understanding how a galaxy that we see as it was when the universe was about 700 million years old can have a structure that is already becoming a spiral like the one of the Milky Way at that time.
Yesterday, ESA’s Hera space probe blasted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral together with the two nanosatellites Juventas and Milani. After about 76 minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and set on its course which in almost exactly two years will take it to the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos to examine the consequences of the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft.
An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of the triple system cataloged as TIC 290061484, the most compact of its kind found so far. A team of researchers coordinated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center used observations with NASA’s TESS space telescope, applied a machine learning technique, and involved citizen scientists who participated in the Planet Hunters project in a new project called the Visual Survey Group. This rare triple system will help astronomers better understand the processes of formation and evolution of multiple systems.
