The Gaia Space Telescope helps astronomers image hidden objects around bright stars

Scientists have directly imaged eight faint objects accompanying very bright stars within the Gaia data catalogue, including so-called “failed stars”, otherwise known as brown dwarfs. Stars and their companions were first identified from the millions of stars in the Gaia catalog. They were deemed ideal for follow-up investigations with the ground-based GRAVITY instrument, an advanced … Read more

NASA, SpaceX work to mitigate risks from space debris

The graphics below are computer generated images of objects in low Earth orbit currently being tracked. Orbital debris dots are scaled to chart image size to optimize their visibility and are not to scale on Earth. (Courtesy: NASA ODPO) WASHINGTON – NASA is now admitting that debris from SpaceX missions may not burn up completely … Read more