europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
This image from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express shows the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud: the most visually striking cloud on the Red Planet.
The image was taken by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera on 24 June 2024; it shows a region of Mars just under 1250 km across (an area of 780 000 square km), with the cloud stretching out for around 980 km.
This white wisp of water ice emerges downwind of the 20-km-tall Arsia Mons volcano. It forms, grows, and fades on a daily basis, stretching out for up to 1800 km – nearly twice the length of the UK – before quickly evaporating. This cycle repeats every morning for several months.
Researchers now think that exotic physics (known as homogeneous nucleation) might be behind this cloud’s formation – physics related to how water vapour turns into icy cloud particles.
The full story
[Image description: Tan-coloured horizontal rectangle showing part of the surface of Mars imaged by an orbiting satellite. On the right is a ring of concentric circles that indicate a volcano. Stretching to the left of the volcano is a long wisp of white cloud, which seems to emanate from the volcano. We also see the shadow of the cloud just above the cloud itself.]
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
This image from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express shows the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud: the most visually striking cloud on the Red Planet. The image is based on data from Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera, and shows the cloud stretching out for around 1500 km.
Researchers using Mars Express now think that exotic physics might be behind this cloud’s formation – physics related to how water vapour turns into icy cloud particles.
The full story
This image was processed by Flickr user J Cowart. It uses data from Mars Express orbit 18627 on 21 September 2018. Original image
[Image description: Tan-coloured horizontal rectangle showing part of the surface of Mars imaged by an orbiting satellite. Above the curved horizon is space. To the lower right of the image is a volcano. Stretching to the left of the volcano is a long wisp of white cloud, which seems to emanate from the volcano. We also see the shadow of the cloud just below the cloud itself.]
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Acknowledgements: J. Cowart
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Exactly two years after launch, ESA’s Hera planetary defence mission has caught its first glimpse of its destination: the Didymos binary asteroid system, seen from an approximate distance of 236 500 km away.
By combining multiple images and performing photometric analysis, the Hera mission team was able to identify Didymos against the background star field, seen in visible light, smaller than an individual pixel but sufficiently bright to be detected by the camera.
For now, Hera’s destination appears as little more than a single bright point. In reality, it is a binary asteroid system: the 780-m-diameter Didymos is orbited by the 150-m-diameter Dimorphos. In September 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately impacted Dimorphos, changing its orbit around Didymos and demonstrating asteroid deflection for the first time.
Hera will have to travel much closer before its cameras can resolve the two asteroids separately. But from now on, its destination is no longer just a calculated point in space: Hera can see it.
When Hera reaches Didymos, it will perform a close-up investigation of the impact site and measure in detail how Dimorphos responded to DART’s collision.
These measurements will help turn the DART impact experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique.
Have questions about Hera, its journey or what awaits it at Didymos? Ask the Hera Space Companion — an AI companion connected to the mission and designed to let everyone follow and explore ESA’s first planetary defence mission as it unfolds.
Credits: ESA
The Job Trail, a web game about making it through 52 weeks as a laid-off creative worker. Based on The Oregon Trail. My first try: “You have died of burnout. Week 13. 51 applications, 1 ghosting.”
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Kamerlid Doğukan Ergin (DENK) doet aangifte tegen Johan Derksen om diens uitspraken dinsdagavond in het programma Vandaag Inside. In een item over onverdoofd ritueel slachten zei Derksen "we zullen die meneer van DENK eens als proefkonijn zijn strot doorsnijden", om te zien "of dat geen pijn oplevert".
De presentator deed de uitspraak nadat er een fragment werd getoond waarin Ergin in de Tweede Kamer stelde tegen een verbod op onverdoofd slachten te zijn.
"Deze bedreiging en publiekelijke oproep om mij te vermoorden gaat alle grenzen te buiten", schrijft het Kamerlid op X. "Het is gevaarzettend en heeft veel impact op mijn veiligheid en werk. Daarom doe ik aangifte." DENK-fractievoorzitter Stephan van Baarle vindt de uitspraken "veel en veel te ver" gaan. "Dit is onacceptabel, dus het is terecht dat mijn collega aangifte doet."
Dit weekend gaf staatssecretaris Silvio Erkens (Dierenwelzijn, VVD) aan voor een verbod op onverdoofd slachten te zijn. De PvdD komt deze maand met een initiatiefwet hierover.
Actors and musicians sign open letter urging government to ‘protect’ residents amid impasse over the Drumcree parade
Dozens of artists, actors and musicians, including Susan Sarandon and Noel Gallagher, have expressed support for Garvaghy Road residents in the impasse over the Drumcree parade in Northern Ireland.
In an open letter to the secretary of state, Chris Bryant, they urged the government to “protect” residents and to appoint an international mediator to resolve the dispute between the Catholic residents and the Orange Order in County Armagh.
Continue reading...Tennessee prisoner awake and speaking after surviving state’s attempt to execute her last Wednesday
On September 30, Christa Pike, who was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, survived two doses of pentobarbital, a sedatative.
Witnesses to the attempt to execute Pike described how they heard she was choking and struggling for an hour after receiving the first injection. She was then hospitalized after a second dose failed to kill her. In the hospital, she was put on a ventilator and had been in critical condition.
Continue reading...Eckert was charged by FA with misconduct
Southampton found to have spied on three opponents
Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, has been given a six-week suspended ban by the Football Association for his part in the Spygate scandal that landed the club with a four-point penalty and expulsion from last season’s Championship playoffs.
The outcome means Eckert can continue in the dugout, starting with Sunday’s derby at home to Portsmouth. The German has been fined £28,000 by the FA after admitting its charges, with his ban suspended until the end of next season.
Continue reading...Sean Peers admits offence against woman who was drugged and attacked for more than two decades
A man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, whose husband had drugged her and invited other men to abuse her.
Sean Peers, 38, had been due to stand trial alongside 11 other men, but admitted one count of assault by penetration on 15 September 2024 when he appeared at Manchester Minshull Street crown court.
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China blijft zijn industrie volop steunen, ondanks de kritiek uit het buitenland en hoewel er ook op de eigen markt bedrijven onder lijden. Want voor veel technologie vindt China zich nog te afhankelijk van het Westen. „We hebben een paar dingen voor elkaar gekregen, maar voor andere industrieën is de weg nog lang.”