Tag Archives: ESA

Farewell, for now

I have always loved the stars, nebulae, planets, and all the space in between, but I never had a chance to seriously study them until this year. I am incredibly grateful that I was able to devote two classes (and a lab!) to learning more about the processes that govern solar system formation and how […] Continue reading

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Gyroscopes in Space – Angular momentum

In this 2016 demonstration aboard the ISS, the ESA astronaut Tim Peake demonstrates how a gyroscope spinning in space maintains its orientation even when a rotational force is applied. While, this video was published in 2016, the physics of rotation have not changed since then! In the video, Peake demonstrates how once a gyroscope gets […] Continue reading

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Future Exoplanet Research

The future of exoplanet research means not just the discovery of more exoplanets, but characterizing them. To do so, the European Space Agency (ESA) is launching the Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS), the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission (PLATO), and the Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission (ARIEL). CHEOPS will observe bright stars with … Continue reading Future Exoplanet Research Continue reading

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ESA’s Rosetta Mission

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission is probably fresh in a lot of your minds as it came to fruition in November of last year. For those unaware, the Rosetta space probe is the first probe to orbit a comet – the Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe also came equipped with a lander, which touched down shortly […] Continue reading

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Is it a parallax or only one? ;)

So one feature of star observation that has allowed us to figure out that we’re not the center of the universe is this really neat and slightly tricky idea of stellar parallax. It’s the phenomenon where based on our position in orbit, a star may appear to have moved based on the stars behind it. […] Continue reading

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