NASA/JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Damia Buick
The artist’s illustration depicts Envision’s mission to Venus, helping scientists understand why Earth’s most similar-sized neighbor is so different from our world.
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A satellite designed to study Venus from top to bottom and three gravitational wave surfing probes are two of the latest missions planned by the European Space Agency. has been adopted.
The agency had previously selected the mission; Formal recruitment process This means that a contractor is selected so that construction can begin to realize the mission design.
ESA will partner with NASA on both missions, which are scheduled to launch from a European spaceport in French Guiana in the 2030s.
“These pioneering missions will take us to the next level in two very exciting areas of space science and will continue to keep European researchers at the forefront of these fields,” said ESA Director of Science ‘s Carol Mandel said in a statement.
of EnVision Venus probe The research team will study the planet in unprecedented detail, from its inner core to the top of its atmosphere, helping astronomers understand why the hot, toxic world didn’t end up like Earth. is. Compared to Venus, Venus is similar in size and distance from the Sun. Earth, and some researchers believe this planet may have even had an Earth-like climate at one point.
But Earth’s twin is now an inhospitable world, with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead and intense, crushing pressures as a result of a runaway greenhouse effect.
ESA/VR2Planets/Damia Buick
The artist’s impression shows EnVision after the spacecraft arrives in orbit around Venus.
The mission will help scientists learn how the world evolved over time, whether there once was an ocean, how geologically active it is, and why the runaway greenhouse effect began. We hope that these and other important questions about Venus will be answered.
EnVision is scheduled to launch in 2031 and will be the first mission to collect data on how Venus’ atmosphere, surface, and interior interact. The mission is based on ESA’s first spacecraft sent to map Earth’s atmosphere. venus expresswhich orbited Venus from 2005 to 2014.
After its 15-month journey to Venus, EnVision will spend another 15 months orbiting the planet and flying through its atmosphere.
The satellite will have two deployable solar arrays and a suite of instruments that will allow it to observe Venus’ surface and atmosphere, as well as probe beneath Venus’ thick clouds at radar and radio wavelengths.
This is one of several missions being developed to study Venus, including NASA. Da Vinci and veritas The expedition is expected to begin within the next 10 years.
When huge celestial bodies such as black holes collide, ripples called “ripples” spread out. gravitational waves It spreads throughout the universe and reveals information about its history.
Although these waves have been detected by ground-based observatories, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)will be the first space-based observatory to study cosmic phenomena. Ground-based observatories are limited in what they can detect based on size and sensitivity, so they can only receive high-frequency gravitational waves.
But space-based observatories could become much larger, and LISA will be able to detect waves from tiny to gigantic waves. low frequency ones They are ejected by supermassive black holes that merge at the centers of massive galaxies.
ESA
The figure shows the laser triangle configuration for the LISA mission. The LISA mission will use three spacecraft to detect gravitational waves emitted by two black holes.
The LISA mission involves three spacecraft flying 2.5 million kilometers (about 1.6 million miles) apart in a triangular formation. Floating gold cubes inside each spacecraft will be used to detect gravitational waves.
This mission was born from the success of: lisa pathfinderIt was launched by ESA in 2015 to demonstrate the technology the LISA mission would rely on to explore ripples in space.
ESA
The golden cubes inside each spacecraft will help detect gravitational waves on the LISA mission.
The new mission will look for evidence of black hole mergers across the universe, study the formation of thousands of pairs of stars called binary star systems, peer inside dense star clusters in galaxies, and discover how the universe is expanding. Try to measure the speed at which you are moving. LISA will then be used to study the history of the universe by locating the first black holes formed after the Big Bang.
Together, the three spacecraft will fly behind Earth as it orbits the sun, about 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) from Earth. The agency expects the mission to last four years, but it could be extended.