by Ivan Couronne Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The space agencies of the United States and China are coordinating efforts on Moon exploration, NASA said Friday, as it navigates a strict legal framework aimed at protecting national security and preventing technology transfer to China. “With the required approval from Congress, NASA has been in discussions with China to explore the possibility of observing a signature of the landing plume of their lunar […]
Tag: astronomy
Japan satellite blasts into space to deliver artificial meteors
by Miwa SUZUKI Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A rocket carrying a satellite on a mission to deliver the world’s first artificial meteor shower blasted into space on Friday, Japanese scientists said. A start-up based in Tokyo developed the micro-satellite for the celestial show over Hiroshima early next year as the initial experiment for what it calls a “shooting stars on demand” service. The satellite is to release tiny balls that glow brightly […]
Total lunar eclipse on Jan 20-21 will be last until 2022
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — People in North and South America, a large part of Europe and Africa may get a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse overnight from January 20 to 21, the last such event until 2022. For those in Europe and Africa, the total eclipse will unfold shortly before sunrise. For those in North and South America, the eclipse can be viewed at the beginning or in the middle of the night. […]
‘Repeating’ radio waves from deep space baffle scientists
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Astronomers in Canada have detected a mysterious volley of radio waves from far outside our galaxy, according to two studies published Wednesday in Nature. What corner of the universe these powerful waves come from and the forces that produced them remain unknown. The so-called repeating fast radio bursts were identified during the trial run last summer of a built-for-purpose telescope running at only a fraction […]
Before Mars landing, a nail-biting ‘six and a half minutes of terror’
by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — A spacecraft that cost nearly a billion dollars is on course to make a perilous landing Monday on Mars, if it can survive a high-speed approach and the scorching heat of entering the Red Planet’s atmosphere, a process NASA has nicknamed “six and a half minutes of terror.” “There is very little room for things to go wrong,” said Rob Grover, head of […]
First supply trip to space since Soyuz failure poised to launch
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US spaceship loaded with supplies for the International Space Station is poised to launch Thursday, marking the first such trip since a Soyuz rocket carrying three people failed last month. At the last moment, NASA added some extra supplies for the three orbiting scientists, just in case. The next Soyuz launch, with three more astronauts on board — one Russian, one Canadian and one American — is planned for […]
‘Blood moon’ dazzles skygazers in century’s longest eclipse on July 27
by Pascale Mollard Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The longest “blood moon” eclipse this century dazzled skygazers across the globe Friday, coinciding with Mars’ closest approach in 15 years in a thrilling celestial spectacle. As Earth’s constant companion slowly sailed across the skies, crowds gathered around the world to catch a glimpse of the rare phenomenon. Beside Lake Magadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, young members of […]
Red planet and ‘blood moon’ pair up to dazzle skygazers
by Mariette le Roux and Pascale Mollard Agence France-Presse The longest “blood moon” eclipse this century will coincide with Mars’ closest approach in 15 years to offer skygazers a thrilling astronomical double bill on Friday, astronomers say. For about half the world, the moon will be partly or fully in Earth’s shadow from 1714 to 2328 GMT — six hours and 14 minutes in all. The period of complete eclipse — known as “totality”, when […]
NASA’s new planet-hunter to seek closer, Earth-like worlds
by Kerry Sheridan © Agence France-Presse TAMPA, United States (AFP) — NASA is poised to launch a $337 million washing machine-sized spacecraft that aims to vastly expand mankind’s search for planets beyond our solar system, particularly closer, Earth-sized ones that might harbor life. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is scheduled to launch Monday at 6:32 pm (2232 GMT) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its main goal over the […]
Astronomers find the ‘impossible’: a galaxy without dark matter
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Stupefied astronomers on Wednesday unveiled the first and only known galaxy without dark matter, the invisible and poorly-understood substance thought to make up a quarter of the Universe. The discovery could revise or even upend theories of how galaxies are formed, they reported in the journal Nature. “This is really bizarre,” said co-author Roberto Abraham, an astronomer at the University of Toronto. “For a galaxy […]
NASA pushes back giant space telescope launch to 2020
by Fanny Andre Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The launch of NASA’s next giant space telescope has been delayed until at least May 2020, the US space agency said Tuesday, in the latest setback for the much-anticipated project. The James Webb Space Telescope — which NASA has long expected to replace the fabled Hubble — was initially meant to go into service this year but has faced multiple hitches. The Webb telescope […]
Light pollution threatens Chile’s dark skies
by Miguel SANCHEZ Agence France-Presse PARANAL, Chile (AFP) – It seems nothing can escape the inexorable spread of light pollution — not even the giant telescopes probing the heavens above northern Chile, a region whose pristine dark skies, long considered a paradise for astronomers, are under increasing threat. The Atacama desert, 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) north of the capital Santiago, provides ideal conditions where astronomers study the stars in darkness so profound they appear like diamonds on […]





