Schiaparelli seems to have landed on the surface of Mars as of about half an hour ago but ESA waits for a signal to confirm it's live. Here's the feed from ESA: live stream (you may need to scroll to the bottom of the page for the direct link to the live stream.
The confirmation should come by 11:30 Texas Time / 12:30 Eastern.
To be updated after confirmation.
11:36 Texas Time
Success
The last attempt with Beagle 2 failed ten or eleven years ago so there are many happy people in the ESA control center right now.
There's some interesting background to it as twenty-two countries are collaborating with the ESA in their space aspirations and the communications system which links ExoMars to Earth came from NASA. There's no need to review here the technical plans for the lander since those can be obtained from the ESA feed. It's excellent to see their success this time as one more space consortium has joined America and Russia in this accomplishment.
Some more space science but on other topics:
Eta Carinae is one of the most beautiful and spectacular visions in space. The intrigue for scientists today is the have an increased resolution in the telescope they're using as this has permitted them to image a fire fight between the stores where streams of gas crash into each other at ten million kilometers per hour in both of them. (Science Daily: Eta Carinae: VLT Interferometer captures raging winds in famous massive stellar system)
This mosaic shows the Carina Nebula (left part of the image), home of the Eta Carinae star system. This part was observed with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The middle part shows the direct surrounding of the star system: the Homunculus Nebula, created by the ejected material from the Eta Carinae system. This image was taken with the NACO near-infrared adaptive optics instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The right image shows the innermost part of the system as seen with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). It is the highest resolution image of Eta Carinae ever.
Credit: ESO/G. Weigelt
An international team of astronomers have used the Very Large Telescope Interferometer to image the Eta Carinae star system in the greatest detail ever achieved. They found new and unexpected structures within the binary system, including in the area between the two stars where extremely high velocity stellar winds are colliding. These new insights into this enigmatic star system could lead to a better understanding of the evolution of very massive stars.
The confirmation should come by 11:30 Texas Time / 12:30 Eastern.
To be updated after confirmation.
11:36 Texas Time
Success
The last attempt with Beagle 2 failed ten or eleven years ago so there are many happy people in the ESA control center right now.
There's some interesting background to it as twenty-two countries are collaborating with the ESA in their space aspirations and the communications system which links ExoMars to Earth came from NASA. There's no need to review here the technical plans for the lander since those can be obtained from the ESA feed. It's excellent to see their success this time as one more space consortium has joined America and Russia in this accomplishment.
Some more space science but on other topics:
Eta Carinae is one of the most beautiful and spectacular visions in space. The intrigue for scientists today is the have an increased resolution in the telescope they're using as this has permitted them to image a fire fight between the stores where streams of gas crash into each other at ten million kilometers per hour in both of them. (Science Daily: Eta Carinae: VLT Interferometer captures raging winds in famous massive stellar system)
This mosaic shows the Carina Nebula (left part of the image), home of the Eta Carinae star system. This part was observed with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The middle part shows the direct surrounding of the star system: the Homunculus Nebula, created by the ejected material from the Eta Carinae system. This image was taken with the NACO near-infrared adaptive optics instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The right image shows the innermost part of the system as seen with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). It is the highest resolution image of Eta Carinae ever.
Credit: ESO/G. Weigelt
The spectacular violence of the system was one of the surprises in this research.
- Science Daily
The photographs come from various sources simply for the striking beauty of the star complex.
Source unknown
WIKI: Eta Carinae
How is it even possible to consider Pluto may have clouds? (Science Daily: Possible clouds on Pluto, next target is reddish)
Pluto has traditionally been regarded as the coldest, most worthless real estate in the Solar System and yet the recent fly-by gave up all kinds of revelations and some of that photography may have revealed a rare type of cloud.
The details of Pluto's atmosphere are in the article to review but the main interest is simply that the planet seems so dynamic now while previously it was a cosmic nothing with a cute name. That Pluto has any kind of atmosphere is practically incomprehensible and to find some type of clouds within it must have flown the researchers around the room.
Unknown if probes are currently making their way to Titan, Enceladus, and others to attempt landings on some of the most 'inviting' planetary real estate in terms of the high probability of liquid water. The premise is the presence of the liquid means something may well be living in it.
Source unknown
WIKI: Eta Carinae
How is it even possible to consider Pluto may have clouds? (Science Daily: Possible clouds on Pluto, next target is reddish)
Pluto has traditionally been regarded as the coldest, most worthless real estate in the Solar System and yet the recent fly-by gave up all kinds of revelations and some of that photography may have revealed a rare type of cloud.
The details of Pluto's atmosphere are in the article to review but the main interest is simply that the planet seems so dynamic now while previously it was a cosmic nothing with a cute name. That Pluto has any kind of atmosphere is practically incomprehensible and to find some type of clouds within it must have flown the researchers around the room.
Unknown if probes are currently making their way to Titan, Enceladus, and others to attempt landings on some of the most 'inviting' planetary real estate in terms of the high probability of liquid water. The premise is the presence of the liquid means something may well be living in it.
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