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Probably the biggest space news in Australia this week is the postponement of the launch of the Gilmour Space rocket, Eris, from their Bowen complex in north Queensland.
Image via Gilmour Space
After a delay from the first attempt, the next planned launch early on the 16th of May was scrubbed due to an equipment failure. The mechanism that opens the rocket's nosecone unexpectedly activated just before the planned launch window. There was no fuel onboard Eris at the time and there were no injuries or damage to the launch pad or the rocket itself. Especially important is the payload including a jar of Vegemite was unharmed. (Although as we all know, it would take more a rocket explosion to cause any problems with that particular Aussie delicacy.)
Gilmour Space CEO, Adam Gilmour, commented that a replacement nosecone will need to be sent to the launch site while a full investigation is carried out as to the cause of the incident.
It's certainly better to have happened when it did and not 15 seconds into the flight. As they say - "space is hard!"
More here.
Astronomers led by Satoya Nakano and Kengo Tachihara from Nagoya University in Japan have discovered groups of Cepheid variable stars that are being pulled apart in different directions in one the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Cepheids are often referred to as "standard candles" because their variations are tightly linked to brightness and can be used to measure their distance.
The SMC captured by Chi Chan and posted to the BINTEL Society Facebook page.
By looking at the movement of these groups of stars, they estimated there's complex movements within the SMC beyond its own gravity. The galaxy seems to be being pulled in one direction by its large neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), in one direction and another, unknown body the opposite direction.
“When we first got this result, we suspected that there might be an error in our method of analysis,” Tachihara said. “However, upon closer examination, the results are indisputable, and we were surprised.”
You can read more about their research here. It's always fascinating to learn about the slow and complex movements of our galactic neighbourhood.
Both the LMC and the SMC will be visible in southern skies tonight, although the glare from the nearly full Moon can make observation tricky.
The LMC and SMC as seen from Sydney around 6.30pm tonight, the 16th of May 2025. Image via Stellarium.
The JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) has scored another first - the observation of water in another star system.
It's long been thought that water is likely to be found at other stars. It is not only found in liquid form here on Earth, but elsewhere in the Solar System as ice, and water
Illustration of water ice around the star HD 181327. Image via NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Now Webb has found water around a young, Sun-like star, HD 181327, which is some 155 light years away.
“Webb unambiguously detected not just water ice, but crystalline water ice, which is also found in locations like Saturn’s rings and icy bodies in our solar system’s Kuiper Belt,” said Chen Xie, the lead author of the new paper and an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Ice in particular is important to the formation of a solar system, influencing things like the way giant planets are formed and then delivering water to the surface of rocky planets.
“The presence of water ice helps facilitate planet formation,” Xie said. “Icy materials may also ultimately be ‘delivered’ to terrestrial planets that may form over a couple hundred million years in systems like this.”
You can read more at the NASA's science news here.
Cheers,
Earl White
BINTEL
17th May 2025
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