Named after Isaac Newton’s text Naturalis Principia Mathematica, ESA’s Principia mission will be the eighth long-duration mission to the International Space Station. British astronaut Tim Peake will be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan onboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle, spending five months in orbit. He’ll carry out an intensive schedule of European and international experiments, in addition to numerous educational activities from space.
Tag: Science (TV Genre)
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NASA’s New Horizons Team Discusses New Science Findings on Pluto
These key excerpts from a July 24 science update at NASA headquarters, features team members of NASA’s New Horizons mission discussing surprising new images and science results from the spacecraft’s historic July 14 flyby of Pluto.
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New Horizons science update on This Week @NASA – July 24, 2015
A July 24 update at NASA headquarters, featured new surprising imagery and science results from the recent flyby of Pluto, by the New Horizons spacecraft. These included an image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or (LORRI) – looking back at Pluto – hours after the historic flyby that revealed a haze in the planet’s sunlit atmosphere that extends as high as 80 miles above Pluto’s surface – much higher than expected. Models suggest that the hazes form when ultraviolet sunlight breaks apart methane gas. LORRI images also show evidence that exotic ices have flowed – and may still be flowing across Pluto’s surface, similar to glacial movement on Earth. This unpredicted sign of present-day geologic activity was detected in Sputnik Planum – an area in the western part of Pluto’s heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio. Additionally, new compositional data from New Horizons’ Ralph instrument indicate that the center of Sputnik Planum is rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices. Also, Kepler discovers Earth’s “bigger cousin”, New crew launches to space station, EPIC view of Earth, Newman continues NASA center visits and Small Class Vehicle launch pad complete!