Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike brings some big news from outer space. European Space Agency announced this week that they’re signing “a €86 million ($102 million USD) contract with an industrial team led by the Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA to purchase a unique service: the first removal of an item of space debris from orbit” in the year 2025. “With this contract…
Tag: vega
Uncovering the hidden side of storms: France’s Taranis satellite to launch in November
Sprites, elves, jets… few people know that scientists habitually use such other-worldly words to describe transient luminous events or TLEs, light flashes that occur during active storms just a few tens of kilometers over our heads. Few people also know that storms can act as particle accelerators generating very brief bursts of X-rays and gamma rays. But what are the physical…