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Artemis successfully assists ATV Jules Verne

Artemis relay satellite data from ESA, successfully responded to the request for emergency services from the ATV Control Centre, after the unexpected outage of the NASA Space Center Houston, Texas.

Artemis operations are conducted from ESA's facility at Redu, Belgium, where is the mission control center and a satellite terminal with a Ka-band dish antenna 13.5 meters in diameter.

The most recent task performed by Artemis was communicating with Jules Verne, the first Automated Vehicle Transfer (ATC) in Europe, a task he shared with the System for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TRDSS) spacecraft. "On September 11 we received notification that it was necessary to provide emergency support to the ATV by Artemis," explained Benoit Demelenne, Head of Redu's TT & C and Spacecraft Operations Unit. "Hurricane Ike was approaching the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which had to be evacuated. The ATV Control Centre requested emergency support through Artemis at the prospect that communications with ATV via TDRSS could see interrupted. "

Kris Capelle, ATV Mission Director also explained that it was necessary to perform a maneuver to dodge space junk (DAM, Debris Avoidance Manoeuvre), which could get too close to ATV.

"To carry out these operations additional visibility needed to track the performance of the ATV. Because these two situations were presented just once, was needed additional support from Artemis, "said Capelle .

control team's mission and support equipment for ground segment of the ATV Control Centre in Toulouse and the Artemis Control Centre in Redu immediately began procedures. With only a few hours to prepare, could provide support to the ATV during the night, successfully.

Artemis has served more than five years of operations in orbit. It is in a geostationary orbit over Africa and has three main purposes:

• provide a satellite communication system using advanced radio link S-band and Ka-and laser technology.


• Playing a key role within the European system EGNOS satellite navigation, emitting signals from GPS and GLONASS improved for use by civilian transport service "safety critical" and services navigation.


• Provide a system of voice and data communications between mobile terminals in remote areas of Europe and North Africa and the Atlantic.

Artemis was used as a communications link with the ATV "Jules Verne" during the different phases of its mission, working in parallel with TDRSS. Was the host phase in which the ATV was docked to the ISS, and offered support in the reception of telemetry and remote control to and from the ATV vehicle during the encounter, rendezvous-docking, undocking and reentry on . ATV "Jules Verne" has completed a flawless mission six months, disengaging from the International Space Station (ISS) on Sept. 5 to complete the last leg of its journey into space, ending the destroyed in a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere on 29 September.

"Once again, Artemis has been shown to be prepared to respond to the needs of ESA programs, as is the case of continuous service of Envisat data transmission," says Andrea Cotellessa, Head of Project Office Artemis. "We have been entrusted to continue the operations of Artemis providing initial services to the commissioning of the European System Relay Data, and from there continue to provide support services until the end of the operating life of Artemis. "

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Hurricane winds on Venus speeds up to 370 kilometers per hour

infallible eye Venus Express, the European Space Agency (ESA, in English), which monitors the planet Venus the closest in size to the Earth is actually a detective who watches and gets into the atmosphere. Venus is the equivalent of Dante's hell: there is so much carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, the super-greenhouse effect does that lead to melt on its surface.

pressure one would have to stand still there is ninety times greater than Earth's. Now the probe has provided the data to a English researcher, Agustin Sanchez-Lavega, and his team for build a more complete picture and in three dimensions so thick that atmosphere, and especially the terrible winds that occur different heights.

probe devices from a distance of 66,000 kilometers, flows have been analyzed at an altitude of between 45 and 70 kilometers above the south pole of this world. And they have made a three-dimensional map on the circulation of these winds, measuring its speed. How? "We looked at the clouds and how they moved" , English researchers said Agustin Sanchez-Lavega of the University of the Basque Country. "By tracking over a long period of time, we have a better idea of \u200b\u200bthe winds that make the clouds move."

Watcher these winds is called VIRTIS spectrometer. And what he revealed is that the currents move in a extraordinarily rapid and violent. Venus is a stormy world. Especially at sunset. "At a latitude ranging from Ecuador to the 50 or 55 degrees south, the wind speed varies greatly , from 370 miles per hour at an altitude of 210 kilometers to 210 kilometers per hour at altitudes of about 45 to 47 kilometers, " indicated that expert English.

At latitudes higher than 65 degrees, the wind patterns are the characteristic vortex of hurricanes, in which clouds are pushed into a more regular rate , regardless of the height at which they are located. And in the south pole, is a vortex that has a width of 2,000 km, and, in the words of Giuseppe Picioni, one of the principal investigators of VIRTIS is "like you see when you remove the plug from the bathtub home " (assuming that the bath is full of water, of course).

Clouds have acted as informers of the Venusian atmosphere furious are not water vapor, but tiny droplets of sulfuric acid, along with other aerosols. form a very thick, between 45 and 70 miles from height, which is responsible for the high temperatures of Venus on the surface of about 460 degrees Celsius. Sanchez-Lavega published these findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letter Journal.

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"First directly imaged extrasolar planet?

This image may not be historic, if finally the authors show to be right: the big star called 1RXS J160929.1-210524. Of course, no name yet, but is a young star, much like our Sun is about 500 light years away, that is, just around the corner, astronomically speaking, a light year is 9.4 trillion miles, almost nothing.

However, around has an object that is not nothing but a planet , say three astrophysicists at the University of Toronto. A big world, eight times larger than Jupiter, which is separated from the star 330 times the distance that separates us from our sun (150 million miles ... multiplied by that number).

Thanks to a new telescope

"It's the first time we've been able to directly observe a planetary mass object in orbit around a star like our sun," said David Lafrenière, an author, who has sent this paper to the Astrophysical Journal magazine. The image is the result of observations carried out with the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

We are therefore in the beginning of something that can be accepted or rejected. But speculation is tempting. Until now, extrasolar planets had been detected were worlds as large or larger than this object, but with the characteristic brown dwarfs orbiting stars: fairly moribund and little bright, making it easier to detect planetary their subjects. In other cases, orphan planets had been discovered, Sunless accompany them. Diversity

worlds

But this world and its star as a surprise . "This finding is not only a reminder of the diversity of worlds out there that does not wait," said Ray Jayawardhana, one of the authors. "It also tells us that nature has more than one way to produce planetary companions around ordinary stars."

With one exception, these experts can be wrong. Although the data show that the planet is a cold body and a relatively small mass , and that is the same distance from us than what separates us from that star, will take about two years verify whether the world is a prisoner by the gravity of the sun in a stable orbit. "It would be premature now to say that the object is definitely orbiting the star, but the evidence is pretty strong," stated Lafrenière.