2016

SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft starting its CRS-9 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA)

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A few hours ago SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-9 (Cargo Resupply Service 9) mission, also referred to as SPX-9. After almost ten minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the ninth mission to send the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.

The Progress MS-3 cargo spacecraft blasting off atop a Soyuz U rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago the Progress MS-3 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz U rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its route. The cargo spacecraft began its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 64. The spacecraft was launched in the route that requires two days of travel.

Artistic concept of the V883 Orionis system with its protoplanetary disc and the snow in it (Image A. Angelich (NRAO/AUI/NSF)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the first observation ever of the water snow line in the V883 Orionis system. Using the ALMA radio telescope, a team led by Lucas Cieza of the Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile, identified the distance from the star beyond which the temperature drops enough for water to freeze.

The galaxy cluster 3C 129 observed by various telescope (Image NRAO, ROSAT satellite; the Two Micron All Sky Survey)

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An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” is the first produced thanks to a study that includes observations of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). Its target was a supermassive black hole at the center of an elliptical galaxy about 300 million light years away from Earth that is falling toward the galaxy cluster 3C 129.

In blue the RSL (recurring slope lineae) in the Valles Marineris canyon network (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

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An article published in “Journal of Geophysical Research” describes a research that may have found new traces of liquid water on Mars. A team of researchers led by Matthew Chojnacki of the University of Arizona examined images from NASA’s MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) space probe’s HiRise instrument, finding what look like wet sand strips in some regions of the Valles Marineris canyon network.