ESA has published the first 3D map of the Milky Way obtained from the Gaia space probe, the most detailed of its kind ever produced. It’s a catalog of more than a billion stars with data that are two hundred more accurate than those of its predecessor, Hipparcos, whose mission lasted between 1989 and 1993.
Two articles published in the journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics” describe the latest updates regarding the analysis of the data collected by ESA’s Planck Surveyor space probe between 2009 and 2013. The latest results show that the first stars started forming about 700 million years after the Big Bang, about 150 million years later than earlier analyzes indicated.
The German space agency DLR has published new photographs of Mawrth Vallis, a large valley on Mars where there are traces of the ancient presence of liquid water. It’s not a surprise because for years scientists have known the presence of phyllosilicates, clay minerals that can only exist where there was water. A view created using a mosaic of nine imagine taken by ESA’s Mars Express space probe’s HRSC instrument shows Mawrth Vallis in all its glory.
A little while ago the astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake and the cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko returned to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft, landed without problems in Kazakhstan. The three of them spent about six months on the International Space Station, where they arrived on December 15, 2015 as part of Expedition 46.
Yesterday ESA held a press conference to announce the results of the LISA Pathfinder space probe’s tests. This demonstration mission of the technologies needed to detect gravitational waves in space has been called a success beyond expectations. The mission team scientists published an article in the journal “Physical Review Letters” which describes the test results.
