Elon Musk wants to save humanity. That’s his stated mission. He doesn’t want to get rich for its own sake but he wants to get rich so that he can devote his wealth to the colonisation of Mars. He believes that Mars is not only an enticing place to live but also an effective […]
A great mystery confronting astronomers is expected to be resolved with the installation of a new telescope array in the Karoo, the hydrogen epoch of re-ionisation array (HERA). Cosmic re-ionisation corresponds to the epoch when the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) is re-ionised by the first luminous objects (stars, black holes). Probing this last unexplored […]
After 22 months, on 21 August 2016, NASA scientists re-established contact with STEREO-B, one of NASA’s solar terrestrial relations observatories, after communication was lost on 1 October 2014. Scientists recently started a monthly recovery operation, using NASA’s deep space network, or DSN, which tracks and communicates with missions throughout space. Their persistence was crowned […]
Even if all space launches were halted tomorrow, the amount of debris would continue to increase: levels of debris in low orbits are rising inexorably, mainly driven by collisions. As the number of individual items of debris increases, further collisions are bound to follow. The most effective way to stave off this chain reaction […]
The 37th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE) will take place in Tshwane, South Africa from 8 to 12 May 2017 under the overarching theme “Earth observation for development and adaptation to a changing world”. ISRSE-37 will be hosted by the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). The 2017 symposium coincides with the […]
The MeerKAT First Light image of the sky, released by Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, shows unambiguously that MeerKAT is the best radio telescope of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Array Release 1 consists of 16 of an eventual 64 dishes. It is the first significant scientific milestone achieved by MeerKAT […]
After an almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. Confirmation that the burn had completed was received on Earth on 5 July at 8:53 am (SA time). NASA administrator Charlie Bolden said the Juno NASA mission went boldly where no […]
Fireworks shows are not just confined to Earth’s skies. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular fireworks display in a small, nearby galaxy. A firestorm of star birth is lighting up one end of the diminutive galaxy Kiso 5639. The dwarf galaxy is shaped like a flattened pancake, but because it is tilted […]
Using combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found the best evidence yet for cosmic seeds in the early universe that should grow into supermassive black holes. “Our discovery, if confirmed, explains how these monster black holes were born,” said Fabio Pacucci of Scuola […]
