Euclid lifts off on mission to shed light on dark matter mystery

ESA's Euclid mission to map the universe and learn more about dark energy and dark matter is on its way. On July 1, 2023 at 5:12 pm CEST the space telescope lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

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Galactic-scale detector picks up background distortions in spacetime

The very fabric of spacetime is constantly warping on unimaginably tiny scales, as ripples from past cataclysms wash over us. Astrophysicists have now detected a background sea of gravitational waves, using a galaxy-scale detector of dead stars.

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Virgin Galactic blasts into commercial service with Galactic 01 flight

After years of setbacks, Virgin Galactic has completed its first commercial flight, which saw it carry 13 research payloads and three passengers from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy to the edge of space.

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Bizarre gamma ray burst hints at unseen “stellar demolition derby”

Besides the Big Bang itself, gamma ray bursts are the most energetic events in the universe. Astronomers knew of a few mechanisms that can produce them, but now an oddball gamma ray burst hints at a brand new origin – a stellar “demolition derby.”

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How do you fry potatoes in space? Very carefully

It may seem dangerous, but just in case future astronauts might have a yen for fries on a sojourn into space, ESA and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki are investigating whether potatoes will fry ok in zero gravity or end up an undercooked mess.

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Dying star’s ‘cocoon’ a potential new source of gravitational waves

Until now, our only source of gravitational waves has been binary star systems. Researchers from Northwestern University have potentially discovered a new non-binary source of gravitational waves: the debris ‘cocoon’ that forms around a dying massive star.

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German govt awards contract to develop Linear AeroSpike rocket engine

Aerospace startup Polaris Raumflugzeuge has been awarded a contract by the German government to develop and fly a revolutionary Linear AeroSpike (LAS) engine that replaces the conventional rocket nozzle with curving wall-shaped plug.

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Milky Way’s center found to be strung with more mysterious filaments

Decades ago, the astronomy world was taken aback by the discovery of tall light filaments spiking out from around our galaxy's central black hole. Now more filaments have been found, only these have some significant – and puzzling – differences.

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6,000-mile plume spurts from icy moon into water “donut” around Saturn

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is famous for its plumes that spray water into space. Now the James Webb Space Telescope has watched the biggest known plume so far, spanning thousands of miles, and studied how they feed a huge water “donut” around Saturn.

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ESA to test a reusable origami heat guard for spacecraft

ESA is preparing to test a very cool new fold-out heat shield for protecting spacecraft on re-entry. The Pridwen won't burn away like ablative heat shields, and it'll also slow falling satellites down enough to be caught in a hover net.

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