The first “blow down” test of the trisonic wind tunnel, much awaited by the Indian scientific community, took place on 8 December 2022 at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram. Trisonic wind tunnels can be used to test the aerodynamic design of rockets and re-entry spacecraft, and to evaluate the load distribution, pressure, acoustic…
Known as SKA, the original name of this radio telescope is the Square Kilometer Array. Its construction work is expected to be completed by 2028. The SKA is based at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England. One of SKA’s great quests is to trace the entire history of hydrogen, the most…
Aldebaran (Tau, Tauri, Alpha Tauri) is a bright orange giant star located 65 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. With an average apparent magnitude of 0.87, it is the brightest star in the constellation and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The name Aldebaran is Arabic (Julai al-Dabaran) and literally translates as…
NASA has tested lofted technology that it hopes will help land humans on Mars. The full name of the mission is Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID). The system consists of a heat shield, a probe, a propulsion system and a parachute, all of which are connected by circular tubes of air connected…
This high-resolution image of Io, Jupiter’s fifth moon, taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft was published on December 18, 1997. Io’s surface is dotted with hundreds of volcanoes, some of which spew sulfurous plumes hundreds of miles high.
Closest black hole to Earth discovered. The black hole, named Gaia BH1, is located 1560 light-years from Earth. This black hole exists by partnering with a star. The distance between this star and the black hole is similar to the distance between Earth and the Sun. Scientists also found that this star has 10 times…
Although this is an uncrew mission, the image features a dummy commander, a tribute to NASA engineer Arturo Campos, who was instrumental in bringing the Apollo 13 mission crew safely back to Earth.
India’s first privately-built rocket successfully test-firedThe launch was from Sriharikota on November 18, 2022 at 11.30 am.Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace is the manufacturer of the VIKRAM-S rocket. While the rocket was named after Vikram Sarabha, the power source engine was named KALAM-80 as a tribute to India’s Missile Man Abdul Kalam. The single-stage sub-orbital vehicle VIKRAM-S…
About 1,400 light-years away, the nebula, known as LND43, is blocked by dense molecular layers that block the light behind it from reaching us. The image also shows some parts of the “bat” burning up due to the birth of baby stars. He is standing 12 light years in the constellation Ophiuchus with his wings…
