Satellite News

Artist impression of Huygens. Image credit: ESAClick to enlarge
When ESA’s Huygens probe landed on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan last year, it continued to transmit data for 71 minutes. The signal relayed through Cassini had a strange fluctuation in power as the angle between the lander and spacecraft changed. Researchers were able to reproduce this power oscillation when they realized that the signal was bouncing off of pebbles on Titan’s surface. They were able calculate that the surface around Huygens is mostly flat, but littered with 5-10 cm (2-4 inch) rocks.

Cassini image of Titan. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSIClick to enlarge
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found new evidence of hydrocarbon lakes in Titan’s northern latitudes. In a new set of images, the dark patches – thought to be liquid methane or ethane – seem to have channels leading in and out, like rivers. Under Cassini’s radar view, they’re completely black, which means they don’t reflect any radar signals back. This leads scientists to believe they’re very smooth, liquid surfaces.

Artist illustration of a quasar. Image credit: CfAClick to enlarge
Some of the brightest objects in the Universe are quasars. A mystery for decades, most astronomers now believe quasars are the bright centres of galaxies with actively feeding supermassive black holes. A team of researchers have found evidence that there might be something very different at the heart of these galaxies to cause quasars. Instead of black holes consuming matter, there could be objects with powerful magnetic fields that act like propellers, churning matter back into the galaxy.

Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC) signed a new capacity deal with German-Saudi company Detasad…

Spacenet Inc. hired Andreas Georghiou as its CEO effective August 1, Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. announced. Georghiou has…

Telenor Satellite Services unveiled its mobile satellite emergency communications response kit designed to allow emergency responders, government agencies…

Rocketplane Kistler and Orbital Sciences Corp. have formed a partnership to compete in NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and develop other…

The Canadian government selected Ramtelecom Inc. to provide a satellite service network that will secure high-speed data and voice services for remote federal…