This is the goal: To make available for life every place where life is possible. To make inhabitable all worlds as yet uninhabitable, and all life purposeful.
Hermann Oberth
Donald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS (5 April 1935 – 6 February 2018) British theoretical astrophysicist.
He was the first to determine that galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centres, and that such black holes power quasars.[3] Lynden-Bell was President of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985–87)
Received numerous awards for his work, including the inaugural Kavli Prize for Astrophysics.
"Violent Relaxation." Violent relaxation has many applications in dynamical astronomy, affecting the orbits of stars within star clusters and galaxies.
"Gravothermal Catastrophe" a phenomenon in star clusters that is the result of the negative heat capacity of gravitational systems. The catastrophe occurs when the core of a cluster shrinks and heats up, causing it to transfer energy to stars in the cluster's halo, leading the cluster core to collapse.
Authored an influential 1974 paper with James E. Pringle about the evolution of disks around "nebular variables," which were later to become known as T Tauri stars – an early phase in a star's life cycle. The paper predicts the signature of radiation from such disks, which is emitted primarily at infrared wavelengths where it dominates over the emission from the star.
In the 1980s, he was a member of a group of astronomers known as the 'Seven Samurai' who postulated the existence of the Great Attractor, a huge, diffuse region of material around 250 million light-years away that results in the observed motion of our local galaxies.
Donald was married to Ruth Lynden-Bell, a British chemist, emeritus professor of Queen's University Belfast and the University of Cambridge,
Lynden-Bell died at his home in Cambridge on 6 February 2018, at the age of 82
SPACE NEWS
18 April 22:51 Falcon 9 Full Thrust Cape Canaveral SLC-40 SpaceX
TESS Space observatory
In orbit and Operational
Block 4 first-stage booster, serial number B1045.
ESS should discover a large number of exoplanets that are, unlike the Kepler planets, close enough for detailed spectroscopic followup by other observatories
25 April 17:57 Rokot / Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3
Sentinel-3B Low Earth (SSO) Earth observation
The second Sentinel-3 satellite, Copernicus Sentinel-3B, was launched 25th April, joining its identical twin Sentinel-3A in orbit. This pairing of satellites increases coverage and data delivery for the European Union’s Copernicus environment programme.
X37B
The USAF OTV-5 spaceplane mission launched in Sep 2017 located in orbit by hobbyists.
Jim Bridenstine finally confirmed as new NASA Administrator
After a seven and a half month wait, the new head boss of NASA has finally been chosen and it is Trump’s nominee James Bridenstine that narrowly get the vote.
FT report: Britain is exploring plans to launch a satellite navigation system as a rival to the EU’s €10bn Galileo project in an escalating row with Brussels over whether the UK can be trusted with Europe’s most sensitive security information after Brexit
INCREDIBLE COMET FOOTAGE
Twitter user named landru79 has combined Rosetta images taken from about 13km away from the comet. The images from June 1, 2016 are combined into the short video below.
EarthNow plans to use OneWeb's technology to equip each satellite with "an unprecedented amount of onboard processing power, including more CPU cores than all other commercial satellites combined." The satellites will also use machine learning to analyze live imagery, although the company does not reveal exactly what the satellites will be analyzing
Chat with David Baker
Are the Russians using satellites to inspect those from other countries?
Trump Space Policy unfolds
SLS
Program planning for 2 Mobile Launchers 1st major cargo-only flight *might* be Europa Clipper, now set for a Block 1, not a Block 1B Block 1B delayed to mid-2020s Block 1 now likely to fly 4 times, including on EM-2 crew Orion flight. Spying and the military in space in general.
Jamies Space Fact
If you enjoy why not join the BIS the oldest space advocacy organisation in the world.