Millions Witness Rare Total Solar Eclipse Across North America
Millions of people from Mexico to Canada and across the United States were treated to a spectacular celestial event on Monday as they witnessed a rare total solar eclipse
Nasa is planning to launch a telescope that will ride on a SpaceX rocket designed to hunt for 20,000 new worlds, the Guardian writes.
The planet-hunting spacecraft Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, baptised Tess, is set to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The USD 200 million mission is the first to take a ride on a Falcon 9, a rocket made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, which received such as certification in February.
Moreover, Tess will be thrown into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth, something that has never been attempted before. The space telescope will be flying as far out as the moon and scan the sky for planets, then come back towards Earth to send home its data. Each orbit will take nearly 14 days.
Based on Kepler observations, there are more than 2,300 “exoplanets,” something that transformed scientists’ understanding of planets beyond the solar system. That is why, astronomers now believe that the Milky Way is home to at least two billion potentially habitable planets. However, Kepler only had access to a fraction of the sky and most of the stars it studied are extremely faint, making it hard for astronomers to look more closely at the planets.
Tess will make up for that, as it will spend two years observing 200,000 of the brightest stars in the sky, most of them located no more than 300 light years away.
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Heavy fighting has erupted across the entire front line in Ukraine, as announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a late-night address
Residents of Rafah in the Gaza Strip are reporting ongoing explosions and gunfire as fierce clashes continue in the area. Israeli tanks have nearly encircled the eastern part of the town
Spain, Ireland, and other EU nations are intending to acknowledge Palestine's statehood on May 21, as stated by Josep Borrell, the EU's top diplomat for foreign and security policy
Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian forces attempted to breach the border with Ukraine using sabotage groups
Israeli airstrikes targeted areas in Rafah on Thursday, as reported by Palestinian residents, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed US President Joe Biden's warning of withholding weapons from Israel if it attacks the southern Gaza city
Russian air defenses have successfully intercepted multiple Ukrainian drones flying over Russian territory
Sofia Airport's Terminal 3 Construction Set to Begin in Early 2026
COVID-19 Impact: Bulgaria's Grim Milestone as Highest Death Rate in EU