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SpaceAustralia.com
Locality: Sydney, Australia
Address: George Street 2000 Sydney, NSW, Australia
Website: https://spaceaustralia.com
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25.01.2022 In August 2019, LIGO Scientific Collaboration & EGO & the Virgo Collaboration detected a gravitational-wave merger event that revealed something odd. A large black hole, about 24 times as massive as our Sun, merged with a smaller, unknown massive compact object, roughly about 2.5 times the mass of our Sun. But what was this smaller object?... Was it a high-mass neutron star? Or a not-so-high-mass black hole? Whatever it was, it fell within what's known as the 'Mass Gap' region: when it is too big to be a neutron star and too small to be a black hole. Could this be the first of its kind discovered? And could change our understanding of compact massive objects? In this feature article, Dan delves into Australia's role in the detection of #GW190814, incl. all the exciting work that OzGrav - ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery researchers are involved in this fascinating case. (Researchers from a range of Unis such as Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, The Australian National University, The University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, The University of Western Australia including using CSIRO ASKAP instrument) Whatever the outcome of these studies, its an exciting discovery for the field! https://spaceaustralia.com//astronomers-narrow-closing-mas #SpaceAustralia Credits: LIGO/Caltech/F. Elavsky & A. Geller
23.01.2022 Did you know that there are rockets being built here in Australia that in the next couple of years, will be used to lift payloads from our soil and into Earth orbit? That's right - we'll be able to watch rocket launches from our home turf. One such company that is leading the way is Gold Coast based, Gilmour Space Technologies - who are building a hybrid rocket named Eris.... The team at Gilmour have just conducted a 45-second 'hot fire' test of their rocket, firing the engine and gathering lots of data. Vanessa delves into this exciting company's path, taking us all to the stars. https://spaceaustralia.com//gilmour-space-achieves-hybrid- #SpaceAustrallia Watch the vide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zu-RpqZV18
22.01.2022 Sometimes, space experiments come down, instead of going up! The team from The University of Western Australia Aerospace club have designed a rocket that falls from 30 km to simulate microgravity experiments. Vanessa looked into the EMU design experiment and how it is helping our future scientists learn about physics, aerospace engineering and other sciences. ... There are so many great projects like this (which include a variety of different project types like citizen science, rocket clubs, digital education, space art to name a few) which are building our next generation of scientists, engineers, rocket builders, data analysts, graphic designers, and other roles in the space community. All working towards the Australian Space Agency goals of growing our local space industry. https://spaceaustralia.com//western-australian-students-de #SpaceAustralia UWA Aerospace
21.01.2022 Guess what?! Today is PLUTO DEMOTED DAY! It was on this day that the The International Astronomical Union demoted the 9th Planet in our system, back in 2006. So is this a cause for celebration or commiseration? Prof. Jonti Horner from the University of Southern Queensland - Australia wrote a fun piece about this. ... What's your take? Should Pluto be classed as a planet or not? #SpaceAustralia Credits: NASA/JPL, NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI, Oguzhan Ali
20.01.2022 Ok, new data is in ..... STILL NO ALIENS! Well, according to new research, scientists from ICRAR the CSIRO used an odd-looking telescope, itself an array with smaller antennas in the shape of alien spiders, to look at a small patch of sky in the Vela constellation. Using the low-frequency radio telescope - they scanned 10 million stars in the region and found no (current) evidence of any alien techno-signatures - the tell-tale signs of an advanced civilisation (like radio o...r tv broadcasts). The patch of sky was tiny though - like a swimming pool in the Ocean, so we can't rule out the concept of life existing in another space, or even in this space, but at another time (i.e. their signals might not have reached us yet). We had a chat with Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and Dr. Steven Tingay about this new paper .... The truth might be out there, but so far, it means its not in the Vela constellation! https://spaceaustralia.com//wa-telescope-finds-no-alien-te #SpaceAustralia Credits: 1. Harel Boren 2. Kevin Gill 3. CSIRO 4. ICRAR/Curtin
19.01.2022 About 240 years ago, a massive star is said to have exploded - meeting its violent ends in one of the most energetic events in the Universe, known as a supernova. When massive stars die, they leave behind even more mind-boggling objects, like neutron stars, pulsars, or even black holes. Now, a new object, called a Magnetar is thought to reside at the source of gamma-ray radiation which has reached Earth. ... Magnetars are extremely compact, city-size stars: measuring roughly 20 km across, and having a density so big that a single teaspoon of it would weigh 100 billion tonnes, whilst its magnetic field is a quadrillion times that of Earth. Swinburne University of Technology Ph.D. student Marcus Lower (a researcher from OzGrav - ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery) had a chat with Dan about this fascinating object and how it might have come to be. https://spaceaustralia.com//dish-helps-study-nearby-magnet #SpaceAustralia Credit: CSIRO
19.01.2022 After 6 years of operations, 771 Active Galactic Nuclei monitored, hundreds of supernovae classified & redshifts for thousands of galaxies obtained, the #OzDES data is in. A powerful Australian telescope (and robot!) helped derive these results, measuring information like the spectrum and velocity of thousands of galaxies. Prof. Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney walks us through the project findings and how the data will be used in the near future by other scienti...sts to work through the expansion rate of the Universe. https://spaceaustralia.com/feat/australian-eyes-dark-cosmos #SpaceAustralia Credit: Hubble Website, Lund Observatory and Lidman et al. 2020.
17.01.2022 What started as a 2-person gig in Manly (in Sydney) has grown into one of Australia's leading space companies, building Mission Control for the Australian Space Agency, designing a beer that's suitable for drinking in space (where gravity is low) & a platform that uses 3D data visualisation to make it easy for spacecraft operators to monitor, fly and rapidly diagnose faults in spacecraft systems. Dan had a chat with Saber Astronautics about their fantastic story so far. http...s://spaceaustralia.com//space-beer-space-agency-saber- But wait, there's more! Saber Astronautics also has a new competition starting in October where you can design and build your own satellite company, and earn cash prizes! Get a team together and participate in 'The Quest for Blue': https://spaceaustralia.com/ev/quest-blue-saber-astronautics #SpaceAustralia Credit: Saber Astronautics
17.01.2022 It's #MoonDay Monday!
17.01.2022 Fancy a hitchhike around the Solar system? What if we told you we could learn about exoplanets by studying our own? Vanessa takes a look at a massive review paper from several Australian and internationally prominent scientists about the physics of our Solar system. This Long-Read is set out to explore different aspects of our system: Inner and outer planets, dwarf planets. comets, asteroids, and belts before heading out to compare what exoplanets look like relative to us.... We'll take a look at how Jupiter has for decades got away with the good guy image - taking credit for our protection - but really, always being a potential threat. Or if there is another large world, known as Planet Nine, in the far reaches of our Solar system awaiting to be discovered. So, jump in, and let's take hitchhike around the Solar system, learning more about our own unique planets and then applying that learning to worlds beyond our own! Researchers from a range of Australian institutions involved include University of Southern Queensland - Australia ANSTO Swinburne University of Technology Science at The Australian National University ANU Research School of Physics along with their international collaborators. https://spaceaustralia.com//feature/hitchhikers-guide-sola #SpaceAustralia NASA/JPL-Caltech/NSF/ Science Photo Library/Alamy
17.01.2022 Triton - Neptune's marvellous moon. A Kuiper-Belt Object (KBO) from the edge of our system a world of plumes & sub-surface oceans. What can Triton tell us about life, & our own Solar System? Dr. Graziella Caprarelli excellent 2nd feature article dives from Triton's atmosphere to its core revealing how its atmosphere is experiencing warming as it travels towards the closest point to the Sun with Neptune. For reference, a single year out there lasts 165 Earth years. A new... mission ('Trident') is being proposed by @NASA that will hopefully reach the Neptunian system in 2038. Most of what we know from our in-situ observations of Triton comes from Voyager 2's visit when it zipped past the planet and moon in 1989 before leaving the solar system forever. The new mission, if successful, needs to leave by the year 2025/26 to take advantage of an alignment of the planets to get it to Neptune quickly. Is Triton a typical KBO? What lies on the undiscovered 60% of Triton we have not seen? Does Triton host ocean life? This fascinating world awaits our revisit - half a century after we only skimmed the surface. https://spaceaustralia.com/f/triton-exposed-atmosphere-core #SpaceAustralia Credits: NASA/JPL/LPI Prockter et al. LPI/JPL/SwRI
17.01.2022 A key question humanity has been asking for centuries, is 'Are We Alone?' But instead of 'aliens', Dr. Chenoa Tremblay from the CSIRO describes using science to search for the bio-signatures of life with our radio telescopes. Scientists can employ two different methods to search for life in the cosmos:... 1) technosignatures - life advanced enough to generate electromagnetic signals; and 2) biosignatures - molecules needed for life as we know it Research led by Dr. Tremblay searched for radio signals using the Mwa Telescope (Curtin University) that corresponds to a molecule that is a signature for life. And that search continues for Dr. Tremblay and her colleagues - next, they'll be using the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope (Murriyang) to try and find these biomolecules in deep space! Have a read of Dr. Tremblay's article on our website https://spaceaustralia.com//search-cradle-life-low-radio-f #SpaceAustralia NASA/Jenny Mottar/Cheona Tremblay/UCLA SETI/Robert Hollow/CSIROscope/CSIRO
16.01.2022 Did you ever watch Sci-Fi shows growing up? There's been some fantastic women lead roles, like Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager, or Dr. Dana Scully from the X-Files. Leading women role models exist in Sci-Fi & pop culture, so why can't we have them in the real world as well? Astrophysics Ph.D. student, Kat Ross, pens her thoughts on how we should change the status quo, not relying on Sci-Fi - but make women science role models a reality.... https://spaceaustralia.com//looking-captain-kathryn-janewa #SpaceAustralia CBS/20th TV
15.01.2022 Did you know that we can uncover ‘invisible’ gas clouds using twinkling galaxies? Research led by University of Sydney Ph.D. Student Yuanming Wang, has developed a method which used data from CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) to reveal an apparent alignment of distant twinkling galaxies, helping uncover a previously unseen cloud of hydrogen gas located only 10 light-years away. Yes, a distance of 10 light-years is relatively close when considering a...stronomical scales! Find out about the clever technique used to uncover this missing Galactic matter in an article by Vanessa Chapman here: https://spaceaustralia.com//playing-connect-dots-twinkling OzGrav #SpaceAustralia
15.01.2022 ***BIG SPACE NEWS*** Overnight, scientists have confirmed the first detection of an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole, weighing in at 142 solar masses! We had a chat with OzGrav - ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery scientists working with LIGO Scientific Collaboration EGO & the Virgo Collaboration , including Prof. Susan Scott from The Australian National University... A number of things make this discovery exciting: 1. It's the first observation of an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole: blackholes that are too big to form from stars and too small to be considered galactic supermassive black holes 2. It challenges our models of star formation and size (it's too big and the stars blow themselves up!) 3. It might tell us about how black holes grow into supermassive sizes through the process of accumulation Enjoy our deep-dive essay about this exciting find, and how our local scientists here in Australia are at the forefront of discovery - contributing towards pioneering global science projects! https://spaceaustralia.com//first-ever-intermediate-mass-b #SpaceAustralia Credits: 1. LIGO/Caltech/MIT/R. Hurt (IPAC) 2. D. Ferguson, K. Jani, D. Shoemaker, P. Laguna, G. Tech, MAYA Collaboration 3. LIGO-Virgo/Northwestern U./F. Elavsky & A. Geller 4. NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
14.01.2022 It's a bit of a space-themed day today (we love this!) ... be sure to tune into #4Corners tonight for a special on how Australia is tackling the next frontier - the new space age. Lots of familiar faces from our space community providing their thoughts. If you're on Twitter, jump on and tweet with the #SpaceAustralia tag and we'll share some of our thoughts about the show as well. And if that's not enough - our friends over the ditch in NZ have a rocket launching just after 1pm, from the Rocket Lab LC-1 pad - you can catch that on YouTube being live-streamed as well!
12.01.2022 The Universe peaked 10-billion years ago - that is, peaked in star formation! This peak is colloquially known as the 'cosmic noon'. Did you know that the rate at which star formation is decreasing differs between galaxies? Research led by UNSW Science's Dr Anshu Gupta found that some galaxies - ‘puffier' galaxies - will continue forming stars longer than others, well into the 'cosmic afternoon'!... Find out more about these puffy galaxies in a piece by Dan Lambeth: https://spaceaustralia.com//puffy-galaxies-more-productive TNG Collaboration #SpaceAustralia
12.01.2022 The next generation of telescopes is coming. And they're huge - with primary mirrors spanning tens of metres. These huge structures will be able to look into the sky and see the atmosphere's of exoplanets, or some of the first stars ever to be formed. In her first article for Space Australia, Dr. Tayyaba Zafar from AAO-Macquarie Macquarie University dives into Australia's role and participation in the Giant Magellan Telescope GMTO Corp. project -which will have a primary ...eye with roughly a 25-metre diameter. The resolving power will be better than the Hubble Space Telescope. Check out what it takes to make these giants and what we can expect once they start collecting their first light. https://spaceaustralia.com/f/australias-role-helping-giants #SpaceAustralia Mason Media Inc. / Giant Magellan Telescope GMTO Corporation / David Brown / AAO / Cmglee-Wikimedia
11.01.2022 With more rockets going into the sky these days, is it time we consider their impact on the climate and the atmosphere? Can rocket fuels go renewable or be more carbon-neutral? We take a deep dive into this idea, chatting with Prof. Anna Moore & PhD student Vivienne Wells from ANU Institute for Space, along with Leader of The Australian National University Solar Thermal Group Prof. Lipiski about these considerations.... https://spaceaustralia.com//renewable-rocket-fuels-going-g #SpaceAustralia Asgardia Space / V. Wells / SpaceX / Focus
11.01.2022 Gamma-rays are the high energy cousins of the visible light we see with our eyes. Oddly, there seems to be a patch of them in the Galactic Centre. Some scientists believe that this could be some of the first evidence for the elusive, and yet-to-be-discovered dark matter - as it collides and annihilates itself producing the energy. Other scientists think it might be millisecond pulsars - rapidly rotating cores of dead massive stars. ... So which is it? Prof. Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney discusses new research from Ph.D. student Florian List on how artificial intelligence is helping provide some context to this fascinating question. https://spaceaustralia.com//hunting-dark-matter-using-arti #SpaceAustralia Credit: NASA/DOE/FERMI LAT COLLABORATION/Cruz de Wilde
11.01.2022 Happy bday to the Australian Space Agency!
11.01.2022 Venus is similar in size and mass to our own planet and has been observed as the morning and evening star for thousands of years. But unlike our home, Venus is the closest thing to hell that we know off. - its surface is 462-degrees Celsius which melts lead... - Its crushing atmospheric pressure on the surface is like being 900m below our ocean surface - It rains sulfuric acid - There are thousands of active volcanoes So sending spacecraft to Venus is difficult - because they cant survive very long! Now NASA has reached out to global enthusiasts in a new competition encouraging them to design a rover with no electric components. And an engineer from Brisbane has taken out third place for his genius design to Explore Hell Vanessa chats with some industry experts about this exciting win and competition. https://spaceaustralia.com//brisbane-engineer-takes-nasa-v #SpaceAustralia Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Hero-X/Callum Heron
11.01.2022 Spring has certainly sprung here in Australia & soon in space, as well! Through the One Giant Leap Australia citizen science program for schools, some iconic Aussie Wattle seedlings are about to head to International Space Station, writes Kim. The seedlings will be grown in space then returned to Earth for schools to compare with terrestrial seedlings of the same species to check to see if their time in space changed the way they grow.... It's an important study and will help scientists eventually work out what plants and trees we can take with us into space as sources of food and oxygen production. https://spaceaustralia.com//iconic-australian-seeds-headin #SpaceAustralia R. Mandow
10.01.2022 Adelaide-based space company, Southern Launch are gearing up to have rockets lifting off from South Australias Eyre Peninsula and into orbit by building a new facility capable of sending rockets into polar-based orbits, south over the pole. But that's not the only launch facility they've got in their plans to have rockets launching from Australian soil. https://spaceaustralia.com//southern-launch-australia-read... #SpaceAustralia Credits: Southern Launch Australia.
09.01.2022 Space is reaalllly cool, but it's kinda rough on the human body. And by rough, we mean absolutely brutal! Your bones lose density, your muscle mass shrinks, and your spine stretches. Leaving the confines of Earth's gravitational well - where we have evolved - is something that we need to plan for before we can start considering going to other places. Now, an Australian company, Human Aerospace, is designing next-gen spacesuits that help the body feel like it is experiencing ...gravity. The team is currently collaborating with NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration ESA - European Space Agency & RMIT University to test prototypes and design new spacesuits that can make the feeling of being up there, like the feeling of being down here. The organisation also recently received a big grant from the Australian Space Agency to roll out these exciting plans. And they're looking for 2 Masters students to help! If you're with expertise in material or textile science and engineering or computer modelling of computer systems - here's a chance to work on an exciting space project that might help millions of humans in the future. Vanessa explores this exciting story. https://spaceaustralia.com//human-aerospace-designing-next #SpaceAustralia Credit: ESA
08.01.2022 Twinkle, twinkle, little star ... revealing planets, from afar .... Prof. Jonti Horner from the University of Southern Queensland - Australia shares some exciting news about our involvement in the new exoplanet hunter spacecraft called Twinkle! Australian scientists are going to be able to use the orbiting telescope for their own studies, in addition to two Uni. of South Queensland scientists heading over to the UK to learn about building science satellites, then come back ...and share the knowledge with our local teams. Just another career path, working on exciting science, for young people to consider! https://spaceaustralia.com/ne/exoplanetary-twinkle-usqs-eye #SpaceAustralia Twinkle, UCL, SSTL, Blue Skies Space Ltd./D. Martinelli/USQ/ NASA, ESA.
07.01.2022 New evidence has emerged that a large, 100-million-year-old impact crater has been found in the Goldfields of Western Australia. The object could have been moving at about 40,000 km/h when it struck the Earth, unleashing an unfathomable blast (larger than any nuclear bombs) in the local region. Dan had a chat to planetary scientists Prof. Graziella Caprarelli (Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists) & Prof. Jonti Horner (from University of Southern Queensland ...- Australia) about this exciting discovery. https://spaceaustralia.com//drilling-gold-uncovers-unexpec #SpaceAustralia Stephan Ridgway (Wolfe Creek crater shown)
07.01.2022 Fresh off the pad from last month's successful M2 Pathfinder launch (a small CubeSat that went into space aboard a Rocket Lab rocket) - the UNSW Canberra Space Team are now gearing up to get their next M2 CubeSat into space as well. The new CubeSat is currently undergoing some extreme testing - helping to prepare it for the bumpy ride into space and the harsh environment outside Earth's atmosphere. And here's a cool little thing about this one -once in space, the CubeSat wi...ll split into two and test orbiting formation. https://spaceaustralia.com//unsw-canberra-space-gearing-la #SpaceAustralia Credit: UNSW Canberra
07.01.2022 Scientists from The Australian National University Nuclear Physics Dept. & ANSTO have found traces of the radioactive isotope Iron-60 in deep-sea sediment samples. Could this have come from ancient supernovae, which have fallen to Earth, as our system travels through the Local Interstellar Cloud? https://spaceaustralia.com//our-system-sailing-through-rad... #SpaceAustralia NASA/Goddard/Adler/U. Chicago/Wesleyan / Smithsonian Magazine / Eurico Zimbres FGEL/UERJ
06.01.2022 A small meteor has struck the International Space Station and it's starting to leak. Using onboard robots, students have to send up their code packages to command the little robots to patch the leak. This is the fictional scenario that teams across the world are competing for - a chance to be the winning team who have their program actually run on the ISS. One of the Australian contenders, the Galen VEX team from Wangaratta in regional Victoria, have been getting along with... their tasks and are almost ready to go. We chatted with team lead (and teacher) Maree, along with the team from One Giant Leap Australia who are running this exciting program for two years, supported by the Australian Space Agency. What a fantastic way to get young people involved in coding, robotics, and working towards a solution that will actually run in space! 'From a classroom in Wangaratta to the International Space Station: https://spaceaustralia.com//classroom-wangaratta-intl-spac #SpaceAustralia JAXA/NASA/Galen VEX team
06.01.2022 Recently QLD's Black Sky Aerospace took a progressive step forward, successfully launching their rocket using solid rocket fuel. Building our own launch capabilities here in Australia helps drive our access to space, rather than relying on international stakeholders to do this for us. So having companies working towards these goals is beneficial to us all. Ruth explores more in her first #SpaceAustralia article! ... https://spaceaustralia.com//black-sky-aerospace-makes-aust Black Sky Aerospace
05.01.2022 Did you know that Australian astronomers and researchers are building some of the most sensitive instruments to live in the biggest telescopes in the world? The Australian astronomy community has strong ties with the ESO Astronomy which includes the development of instrumentation, co-joined conferences and opportunities to work/collaborate together. Dr. Tayyaba Zafar from AAO-Macquarie has put together a couple of articles which summarise our work with the upcoming next gen...eration of GIANT telescopes, which will see the Universe even better than the Hubble Space Telescope. This is an excellent example that shows that if you want a space job in Australia, you don't need to always go for NASA - there's so much great work that we do here in AUS that is linked to the global space community. https://spaceaustralia.com//looking-southern-skies-togethe https://spaceaustralia.com//feature/australias-role-helpin #SpaceAustralia Credits: Miguel Claro/ESO.
05.01.2022 Did you catch our #SpaceAusScope project on the radio this week? We had a chat with lots of communities around the country who interested in the project to build a backyard radio telescope as featured in the latest issue of Cosmos Magazine Listen to one of the interviews with ABC Radio National about the project: https://www.abc.net.au//space-australia-is-callin/12386854... We'd like to thank the entire team at COSMOS Magazine for the opportunity to write about our project, then share it across the country with so many people. You can read the article here: https://cosmosmagazine.com//how-to-build-your-own-telesco/ And if you want to get involved - sign up here: https://spaceausscope.com/build-your-own/ #SpaceAustralia #Cosmos87 Credit: R. Mandow/COSMOS
04.01.2022 Did you hear the news? The iconic CSIRO ATNF Parkes radio telescope was listed on the National Heritage register yesterday! The Parkes radio telescope, known as 'The Dish' has contributed significantly to astronomy, including: - Discovery of half of all pulsars... - Discovery of FRBs - Supported discovery of Quasars - Discovery of Milky Way magnetic field The Dish has also been used for interplanetary missions and comms with spacecraft, including: - Broadcast of the Apollo 11 Moon landing live stream - Supporting Apollo 13 emergency - Several Martian missions - Voyager probes - Giotto, Galileo and Cassini-Huygens It's also a beautiful piece of engineering - it weighs 1,000 tonnes above the housing structure, has a diameter of 64m (bigger than an Olympic pool), and can detect radio waves on clear nights, cloudy nights and even some rain. To conduct its world-leading science, it has one of the most advanced receivers ever built - the UWL: an instrument with the powerful capability of simultaneously looking at signals from a range of 700 MHz through to 4 GHz. So every time you see this big, beautiful Dish - remember that it's changed the course of science, contributed to history, inspired hundreds of scientists and continues to make new discoveries. https://spaceaustralia.com//astronomy-treasure-added-natio #SpaceAustralia Image credits: CSIRO / Alex. Cherney
04.01.2022 Australia's iconic CSIRO Parkes radio telescope was complimented with a new name earlier this week, as part of NAIDOC celebrations. It'll now also be known with its new Wiradjuri name: Murriyang - which means 'Skyworld'. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the oldest living cultures in the world, and have for tens of thousands of years used the stars for the purposes of astronomy, navigation, agriculture and more. In fact, they are the world's first scientists and as...tronomers. Today, the Parkes radio telescope listens to signals from the skyworld as part of many important scientific studies, and even was critical in the communications of the first Moon landing. This new name is absolutely beautiful and perfect, much like our beloved 'Dish'. https://spaceaustralia.com//murriyang-connecting-parkes-wi #SpaceAustralia #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe : C.Watson/CSIRO/Red Empire Media/D.McClenaghan
04.01.2022 Researchers from The Australian National University found a monster supermassive black hole, coming in at *34 billion times* the mass of our Sun at a time when the Universe was relatively young. It's thought that supermassive black holes (which reside in the centre of galaxies) build up over time from the accretion of smaller black holes. But this one was found at a relatively early period in the Universe's history, which has scientists intrigued as to how it got so big, so ...early on. And it's not only big - it's hungry. It eats the mass of one Sun every day! https://spaceaustralia.com//hungry-supermassive-black-hole #SpaceAustralia Credit: Nima Abkenar
03.01.2022 More exciting news for Australia! Gilmour Space Technologies has today announced their first commercial launch customer - with the 35kg payload, the largest announced to date for AUS, scheduled for launch on a Gilmour Rocket (the Eris) in 2022 Rockets from our soil is a great thing for our country - it means we don't need to rely on international players, have to send our precious space cargo through risky shipping processes, pay high insurance costs or work on the ...schedules of international players. But the thing we love most about launching rockets from Aus, is that we'll eventually be able to go and see them head into orbit from a safe distance. Imagine how much inspiration that brings to a young Aussie kid who hears the rumble of a rocket taking to the skies for the first time ..... it's the stuff of future astronauts! https://spaceaustralia.com//gilmour-space-announces-first- #SpaceAustralia Gilmour Space
03.01.2022 Researchers from Faculty of Science, University of Sydney have found the remnants of a Globular Cluster that could be from an ancient time, maybe the last of its kind. These stars - some of the oldest in our Galaxy, form part of a stream that arcs around the Milky Way - like the cluster strayed too close and started to be cannibalised about 2 billion years ago. The new research, published in the journal Nature from the S5 Project, found the Phoenix Globular Cluster has a ...low metallicity - indicating it is old & formed at a time before it became 'polluted' with heavier elements. Could these low-metal, ancient stars from the Phoenix Cluster provide some insight into Galactic Evolution and the formation of the Milky Way? Could there be more out there? 'The Stars that Time Forgot' by Prof. Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney https://spaceaustralia.com/feature/stars-time-forgot #SpaceAustralia James Josephides/Swinburne; Dylan ODonnell (Omega Centauri + Vela Nebula); Pearson Education Inc. (Milky Way diagram)
03.01.2022 Last week, Australia's first (recent) commercial rocket took off from Koonibba thanks to Southern Launch. Reporter Tory Shepherd takes a look at the Aussie space launch landscape, chatting with Southern Launch and @Gilmour Space Technologies These early pioneering days of having rockets lift off from our soil are very exciting for all of us - we can't wait to see more of this kinda stuff happening in our little corner of the world. ... https://spaceaustralia.com//australian-space-launch-landsc #SpaceAustralia Senator Rex Patrick
03.01.2022 Happy World Space Week! We’re launching into space with STEM story time, supported by @Questacon. It’s a fun interactive space adventure video, a hands-on activ...ity and resources for little space explorers and their families and educators! Children aged 3-6 and their parents and carers join an astronaut on a journey to the International Space Station from home, learning about space and problem solving along the way! Share with the early learners in your life https://womeninstem.org.au/families/stem-story-time/ #WiSTEMxQ #earlylearning #STEM
03.01.2022 *** X-Mas Book Comp GIVEAWAY! *** Guess what? We want to brighten up your X-mas! We're giving away 5 X-mas packages with signed copies of books by Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith Katie Mack Associate Prof. Alice Gorman from Flinders University, Isobel Romero-Shaw from OzGrav - ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery and Kerrie Dougherty OAM. ... The book packages, a collector’s item with all copies personally signed by the authors, will make a great X-mas gift, or even fantastic collection of inspirational reading for any household or school. It's a competition, and we'll be giving away 5 of these packs. We're celebrating the Women of Space in the #SpaceAusSTEM series, with five inspiring women in space authors. So how do you win? We want you to share your favourite Women in Space story in 100 words or less on Twitter and Instagram, tagging our handles and the #SpaceAusSTEM. More info, incl. all the criteria, dates, etc. in this link: https://spaceaustralia.com/ne/space-comp-signed-books-x-mas So get thinking about which Women in Space inspires you (past or current) and let's share their wonderful achievements with the world! Remember to tag #SpaceAusSTEM @SpaceAusDotCom on Instagram and Twitter to be in the running! #SpaceAustralia
03.01.2022 Quantum Mechanics - the realm of the really, really tiny (sub-atomic scale) & weird. Things pop in and out of existence all the time, and sometimes things cease to exist ONLY because we observe them. Or maybe they did exist because we observe them? In any case - it's the kinda stuff that goes on around us and we'd know none the better - because it happens at such a small scale and at such fast timeframes. When studying gravitational waves that are the results of merging bla...ck holes, the signal arriving on Earth is extraordinarily small. So the instruments that detect them, need to be extraordinarily sensitive, on the quantum scale, to make these observations. Vanessa explores new research from OzGrav - ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery were scientists have for the first time observed quantum effects on the human scale, thanks to 'light squeezing'. The scientists were able to measure a massive 40 kg mirror being impacted by lasers on the quantum scale. https://spaceaustralia.com//scientists-observe-quantum-mec Short video illustration of this technology: https://youtu.be/Fq2zJAMtZvQ #SpaceAustralia Credit: Nutsinee Kijbunchoo, ANU.
02.01.2022 In 2019-2020, a very bright red star in our sky, which has been known to many cultures around the world for thousands of years - suddenly started dimming. It went from being in the top ten brightest stars down to outside the top 20. Scientists around the world scrambled to make observations and obtain data on the star known as Betelgeuse (pronounced "Beetlejuice") - was it about to blow as the next supernova? Betelgeuse is a nearby red supergiant star - if placed where the S...un is, its radius would extend beyond Mars out to the asteroid belt. It's nearing the end of its life and when it blows, it will be as bright as the full Moon. Now, new research from Dr. Meridith Joyce and her team from The Australian National University looks at the star in detail, refining some of its parameters like its size and distance to us. https://spaceaustralia.com/feature/red-giant-pulsed-sky #SpaceAustralia NY Times/Cristian Cestaro/spaceexploration92
02.01.2022 From research to take-off, an Aussie launch story in the pipeline. An exciting new Memorandum of Understanding signed between Gilmour Space Technologies and Griffith University will lead to the launch of a 100 kg payload into Low Earth Orbit by 2023. Very exciting times as Australian space industry companies, like Gilmour Space Technologies helps make launching from our own soil a reality that is one step closer. ... Can you wait to take the kids to see a rocket launch in the not too distant future? We can't! https://spaceaustralia.com//100kg-payload-orbit-2023-gilmo #SpaceAustralia Gilmour Space
02.01.2022 There's lots of love in the air, scratch that, in space ... Welcome back DSS 43!
02.01.2022 Did you hear the news? A data has been set between the Australian Space Agency & JAXA(): Sunday 6 December 2020! It's the day that the precious samples from the Asteroid Ryugu, captured by the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft are returning to Earth .... and it's landing in Woomera in South Australia. ... These samples are important, as they tell us about the evolution of the Solar System, and provide insight into potentially hazardous asteroids - like Ryugu - which cross Earth's orbit. The first Hayabusa craft also landed in Woomera several years ago, though, those samples were rather small. Here's hoping the spacecraft got some quality materials this time! Here's the latest: https://spaceaustralia.com//asteroid-sample-return-set-6-d Read the more in-depth story about this important mission, by Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely here: https://spaceaustralia.com//belt-oz-asteroid-sample-incomi #SpaceAustralia Credit: National Geographic
01.01.2022 Students! Teachers! Citizen Scientists! Ever wanted to participate in a real-time NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration data collection program, studying Earth's systems. Get involved and document your local environments, looking at four of Earth's spheres: The atmosphere, the soil/pedosphere, the water/hydrosphere, and the biosphere. The program is being delivered through the CSIRO, in collaboration with the Australian Space Agency.... Teachers - there's even a FREE 40-minute webinar about The GLOBE Program and upskilling yourself, to allow your students to participate in the project and submit their data into the international collaboration. It's on 4 August 2020 (link to register in the article). Spread the word and let's get our kids involved in these fantastic STEM initiatives! https://spaceaustralia.com//australia-citizen-scientists-e #SpaceAustralia Credit: Globe.gov
01.01.2022 Pluto is far from being a small rocky world at the edge of our system. Rather, its a geologically active wonderland, covered in cryogenic volcanoes, has multiple moons, and showcases weather variation across its giant orbit - which lasts 248 Earth years, Vanessa had a chat with ANSTO, Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely, a Planetary scientist who specialises in off-Earth mineralogy, about her new research which used the 'Wombat' instrument (here in Australia!) to recreate the condition...s presented on Pluto's glaciers - gaining a better understanding of how the dwarf planet's landscape changes. https://spaceaustralia.com/news/how-does-ice-flow-pluto #SpaceAustralia Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI
01.01.2022 Australia is surely getting back into the space game! Next month, a rocket will launch from Aussie soil (South Australia), the first one in recent times, and head for the edge of space. We're excited to see Southern Launch & DEWC Systems working together, taking these first steps of re-igniting Australia's space launch industry. Vi from our team got to chat with some folks about this ...... https://spaceaustralia.com//rocket-launch-south-australia- #SpaceAustralia Credit: DEWC Systems / Southern Launch
01.01.2022 QLD-based Gilmour Space Technologies keeps pushing the bar higher and higher. Vanessa delves into how the team has just achieved a 110-second rocket engine test fire, doubling the timeframe from their last test (45 seconds) and taking us one step closer to their exciting plans of getting their new hybrid rocket, the Eris, off Aussie soil and into orbit. Once Australia achieves the ability to launch its own rockets - our space community will change dramatically, and for the b...etter! https://spaceaustralia.com//gilmour-space-breaks-hybrid-ro #SpaceAustralia https://youtu.be/_6WzTLGOGA8
01.01.2022 Hey #Canberra - just under 3 days until the first run of the city's (and surrounding regions) #SatelliteSelfie - a picture being taken from space! Yes, a satellite is flying over and everyone is encouraged - as part of National Science Week - to step outside and get noticed. The resolution is 50cm per pixel, so make some signs that are 2-3 metres in size, and these will turn up nicely in the images. ... There are three attempts being made for the image - check out Amy's article with more details. https://spaceaustralia.com/news/capital-space-selfies #SpaceAustralia Credit: InspiringACT site
