Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
Google’s satellites had captured a mysterious anomaly in Antarctica, which led to a lot of personal theories regarding its true nature. While many suggested that it is a doorway to a secret underground bunker, others were more creative with their imagination, adding that it is the remains of a UFO. A few also claimed that it was the broken gate of an aeroplane.
Professor Martin Siegert, co-director of the Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment explained: “This is simply ice flow around a solid subglacial obstacle, influenced also by melting and re-freezing of ice and by katabatic winds. The ice is quite thin here, as evidenced by other outcrops of rock nearby, so the influence of the bed on ice flow will be strong.”
Italian luxury fashion house Prada has collaborated with space startup company Axiom Space to unveil the designs for a spacesuit, which will be worn by NASA astronauts in Artemis 3 mission. The newly developed suit is made to resist extremely high temperatures at the south pole on the moon. The spacesuit is officially known as the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit or AxEMU. Wearing this spacesuit, an astronaut can perform spacewalk for at least 8 hours. "The spacesuit architecture includes life support systems, pressure garments, avionics, and other innovative systems to meet exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities,” mentioned in press release by the manufacturer.
Meanwhile, NASA's Artemis III mission is expected to be launched in 2026 to achieve the first moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
#ICYMI, we released 1% of the map our #DarkUniverse 🕵️ detective is working on.
— ESA's Euclid mission (@ESA_Euclid) October 16, 2024
Taken in just two weeks, the #ESAEuclid mosaic captures 100 million sources: stars & galaxies. Zoom in and be amazed every step of the way 👉 https://t.co/yyclhqi0ep pic.twitter.com/Vq5Zzd87dX
Credit- X/@ESA_Euclid
The Euclid Space Telescope revealed the first-ever 3D map of the universe. In the first look of the cosmic atlas, tens of millions of stars within the Milky Way and over 14 million distant galaxies were featured. The Euclid mission, launched in 2023 by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with NASA, was aimed to disclose the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, which comprise around 95 % of the universe.
"This stunning image is the first piece of a map that in six years will reveal more than one-third of the sky. This is just 1% of the map, and yet it is full of a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the universe,” said Valeria Pettorino, Euclid Project Scientist at the ESA.
“It's hard to make this not look a little bit naughty because it's two ships connecting and doing a fluid transfer”
— Tonya de Vitti (@TonyadeVitti) October 16, 2024
- @elonmusk
This will be Starship ship to ship propellant transfer aka 2 rockets luvmaking in space 🤩 pic.twitter.com/gHl1Bf4JVY
Credit - X/@TonyadeVitti
SpaceX is planning to perform Starship-to-Starship fuel transfer, but not on land rather in space after successfully demonstrating Super Heavy catch recently. The company will conduct its first test Starship-to-Starship refueling in 2025. This will enable long-duration space missions towards the Moon and Mars. The demonstration will involve two Starship vehicles into low Earth orbit, one serving as tanker and another one as recipient. The company has previously conducted intertank transfer of cryogenic propellants successfully during Starship's 3rd test flight in March 2024. SpaceX has already qualified in the flight system review for the upcoming demonstration along with mission architecture and key subsystems.
