European Space Agency

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Spacecraft Blasts Off to Seek Alien Life on Mars

Russian and Euro space agencies send ExoMars craft to measure gases

(Newser) - Anyone who glanced at the skies above Kazakhstan Monday morning may have seen the trails of a spacecraft headed out on a search for alien life on Mars. Per the Guardian , the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a joint effort by the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos agency, launched...

Anonymous Hacks European Space Agency—for Laughs

And it was insanely simple for them to break in

(Newser) - Anonymous has had a busy week. First the hacktivists spent Friday mocking ISIS , then they took down the Trump Tower website . And before the weekend was out, the group infiltrated the European Space Agency's database, apparently just to keep their skills on point, reports Inverse . "Because Xmas is...

Scientists to See If They Can Save Earth From Asteroid

Mission in 2022 will be a test run on preventing collision

(Newser) - Come 2022, scientists will attempt to save all of humanity from an asteroid. Calm down, it's just a trial run. The joint US-European AIDA—that's Asteroid Deflection and Assessment—mission intends to crash a probe into a 525-foot-wide asteroid known as Didymoon to see if the impact will...

Hubble Spots 'Butterfly' 2K Light-Years Away

It's also known as the Twin Jet Nebula, and it's pretty

(Newser) - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a space butterfly? That's essentially what the Hubble Space Telescope has captured in a new image of the Twin Jet Nebula, a shimmering planetary nebula that strongly resembles a winged insect, reports CNET . What you're actually seeing in...

This Woman Just Set a Record in Space

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is close to being there for 200 days

(Newser) - Nearly 200 days in outer space is what Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will have logged when she touches down in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a feat that has given her the world record for the longest time in space by a woman on a single mission, USA Today reports. On Saturday,...

Comet Lander's Batteries Die

But it manages to send data to scientists

(Newser) - In a development that's no huge surprise , the comet lander Philae is entering what the European Space Agency calls "idle mode." When the lander missed its intended spot on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko—and its harpoons didn't manage to lock into the comet successfully—it couldn't get...

Scientists Hope to Make Comet Lander Hop to Safety

If it doesn't get sunlight soon, mission could be over

(Newser) - The spacecraft that landed on a comet yesterday is still talking to scientists, but its battery is expected to conk out soon. In what could be a last-ditch effort to save the mission, scientists with the European Space Agency say they'll try to make the Philae lander essentially hop...

Probe That Landed on Comet May Not Be Secure

Harpoons might have to be fired again

(Newser) - No matter what, the European Space Agency made history today with its astonishing feat of landing a spacecraft on a comet . But now the ESA has a simpler concern: Its Philae lander, about the size of a washing machine, might fall off. The main problem is that the lander's...

Success: ESA Lands Philae on Comet

Lots of relief at ESA headquarters as spacecraft touches down

(Newser) - The European Space Agency's unmanned Rosetta probe successfully landed on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko today, capping its final seven-hour journey with a historic rendezvous with the fast-moving lump of dust and ice. Philae's audacious landing attempt is the climax of a decade-long mission to study the 2....

Scientists Brace for Comet Landing's '7 Hours of Terror'

Philae to depart tomorrow morning

(Newser) - Tomorrow's a big day at the European Space Agency: Officials are getting ready to land a probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko , Space.com reports. The Philae robot will have to navigate a "very, very rough" surface, and officials won't know whether things have worked out until after what...

'Thousands' of Hidden Mountains Found in the Sea

Satellite images show seamounts at least a mile high rising from ocean floor

(Newser) - Underscoring how much of the Earth remains mysterious, scientists have located "thousands" of previously unknown underwater mountains, known as "seamounts," reports LiveScience . The discovery, announced in this month's Science journal, was a joint effort between a European Space Agency satellite and one from NASA that used...

For Comet Landing, 'J' Marks the Spot

Robot will get one shot to touch down on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

(Newser) - Europe's space agency has finally decided exactly where on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko it's going to attempt to land a robot—and in this case, "J" marks the spot. The robot, called Philae, is currently being carried by the space probe Rosetta, which is orbiting 67P after a decade-long...

Europe Launches 2 Satellites— Into Wrong Orbit

Apparently, sometimes it takes GPS to launch GPS network

(Newser) - The European Space Agency on Friday launched a pair of satellites in the hopes of building a GPS network similar to that of the United States. Problem: They apparently took a wrong turn, and ended up in an elliptical orbit that's lower than the circular one they were supposed...

After 10-Year Chase, Space Probe Catches Comet

Spacecraft to be 1st to hook up with a comet in yearlong trip around sun

(Newser) - The thrill is often in the chase itself—though for European Space Agency scientists, there's definitely a thrill in actually catching the object they've been chasing. The Rosetta space probe, which was sent hurtling through space a decade ago to hunt down comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko—aka the "rubber...

Space Probe Chasing 'Rubber Duck' Comet

Rosetta probe closing in on rare double comet

(Newser) - Space may have found itself a mascot: a double comet some say looks an awful lot like a giant rubber duck. The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe has been gaining on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko since reawakening this year , hoping to send a lander to its surface. Now that it's...

Doomed Satellite Plunges to Earth

GOCE satellite broke up on re-entry

(Newser) - After four years of mapping our planet's gravity, the European Space Agency's GOCE satellite has plunged back to Earth. The GOCE—Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer—was last heard from 75 miles over Antarctica, Reuters reports. It is believed to have burned up on re-entry, with...

Experts Want to Fight Space Junk With Harpoons

Garbage collisions in space risk starting chain reaction

(Newser) - Experts want to use nets and harpoons to haul in space junk threatening the $100 billion worth of satellites currently in orbit round Earth. What sounds like a cosmic fishing trip is part of a raft of proposals to come out of a global conference on space debris ending today...

European Mission: Can Life Exist on Jupiter's Moons?

JUICE probe will launch in 2022

(Newser) - The first Europe-led mission to the outer solar system will explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The European Space Agency approved the JUICE—JUpiter ICy moons Explorer—mission yesterday. The project's solar-powered spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive in the Jovian system by 2030 to spend...

Freshwater 'Bulge' Spotted in Arctic

If bulge 'breaks,' colder currents could hit Europe

(Newser) - Scientists have detected an enormous freshwater "bulge" in the Arctic Ocean. The bulge measures nearly 2,000 cubic miles and has risen some six inches in the last nine years. Researchers speculate that the bulge is the result of strong winds whipping up a clockwise current, raising the water...

Europe Planning Mission to the Sun

Solar orbiter to come within 26m miles of sun

(Newser) - The European Space Agency is planning to send a probe much closer to the sun than any before it. The Solar Orbiter mission, to be launched in 2017, will send a heavily heat-shielded spacecraft to within 26 million miles of the sun—10 million miles closer than Mercury. The probe,...

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