© NASA
© NASA/ESO
Testing a
super rocket
Here you can see the gigantic
liquid-hydrogen tank of NASA’s
next big rocket, the Space
Launch System. But this isn’t the
real deal; this is a structural test
article that’s specifically built as
a ‘try out’ platform, constructed
to the same specifications
to replicate conditions and
behaviours of flight-ready
vehicles. The real tank will
be flown aboard Exploration
Mission-1, which will be the very
first flight of the Space Launch
System and the Orion spacecraft.
Engineers can be seen affixing
pieces to the two parts of the
core stage that, in turn, attach to
the hydrogen tank: the engine
section and intertank.A black hole’s
cosmic fountain
Abell 2597 is one of many galaxy
clusters where astronomers have
witnessed gaseous fountains
shooting from their centres. At
Abell 2597’s heart you can find
a supermassive black hole; it is
here where forces spray most
of the gas away before it has
a chance to hit the ravenous
cosmic behemoth in a cycle that
lasts tens of millions of years.
In order to gain the stunning
burst of colours scientists
used data from the Atacama
Large Millimeter/submillimeter
Array (ALMA), the Multi-Unit
Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE)
on the European Southern
Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large
Telescope (VLT) and NASA’s
Chandra X-ray Observatory – the
result is the first clear evidence
for a simultaneous inward and
outward flow of gas being driven
by a monstrous black hole.LAUNCH PAD
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